Omar Mukhtar

Born in Cyrenaica in 1858, Omar Mukhtar was an imam and teacher within the Senussi movement before the Italian invasion transformed him into a military leader. Starting in 1911, he organized native forces against Italian colonization across two wars, while also fighting French forces in Chad and the British in Egypt. For twenty years his resistance pinned down a modern colonial army. In 1931, wounded in battle near Slonta, he was captured by Libyan troops serving Italy. They offered terms; he refused them. He was hanged on 16 September 1931, at seventy-three, and became Libya's national hero —…