The Nafusa Mountains

The region

The Nafusa is an escarpment running east to west above the Jefara plain, with hilltop villages, cave and underground dwellings, terraced olive cultivation and fortified collective granaries known as qasr. The granaries at Nalut and Kabaw, honeycombs of small vaulted storage cells stacked several storeys high, are among the most striking vernacular structures in North Africa.

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The Nafusa was a major centre of Ibadi scholarship in the early Islamic centuries, producing a substantial literature and maintaining links with Ibadi communities on Djerba, in the Mzab and in Oman. Under Ottoman and then Italian rule the region retained a distinct character, and it was involved in the resistance to Italian colonisation from 1911.

Human Rights Watch’s 2011 report recorded state restrictions on Amazigh-language schooling, media and official names under Gaddafi. Minority Rights Group’s account of 2013 subsequently documented new minority-language media and cultural festivals after his fall. These dated reports establish a major change in public expression; they are not a statement of Libya’s current legal or security situation. ²³

Cultural landscape

Olive oil production, communal granaries and Ibadi religious institutions define the region. Since 2011 the public celebration of Yennayer and the open use of Tifinagh signage have become visible markers of a cultural life that was previously suppressed.

Small mosques and a wider scholarly network

Prevost’s architectural research places the Nafusa within an Ibadi network also connecting Djerba and the Mzab. Her comparison identifies shared features such as outdoor prayer areas and multiple prayer niches, alongside pronounced regional differences. Nafusa and Djerba include small, sometimes partly underground mosques; their forms should not be inferred from the tall, austere minarets commonly associated with the Mzab. ¹

Architecture thus helps show both connection and local adaptation. An Ibadi affiliation is not a guarantee of identical buildings, and a building’s present appearance is not enough to establish its original date or every stage of its use. This profile concerns the mountain region. The coastal community of Zuwara and the oasis community of Ghadames have separate language histories and should not be absorbed into one Nafusi entry.