Qadhadhfa
The Qadhadhfa (also al-Qaddafa, Gaddadfa, Qaddadfa, Gaddafa; Arabic: القذاذفـة) is one of the branches of the Houara tribe, an Arabized Berber tribe, living in the Sirte District in present-day northwestern Libya. They are traditionally counted amongst the country's Ashraf tribes, and during the Gaddafi regime were regarded as being one of the greatest and most powerful tribes in the whole country. They are now mostly centered at Qasr Abu Hadi, Sirte.
History
The tribe has supported the idea of Arab unity as an Arab tribe in Libya itself. They are notable for their role in the 1969 coup d'état that deposed King Idris of Libya and as the tribe of his successor Muammar Gaddafi. The tribe has proven to be an influential player in Libya's ongoing civil war. It is known for its active presence in Sirte. Their dominance of the region caused Sirte to grow and become comparable to Tripoli and Benghazi in terms of national power. Qadhadhfa influence caused Sirte and Sabha to become completely loyal to Gaddafi during his rule of the country.
The Qadhadhfa fought for and supported the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Green Resistance throughout the Second Libyan Civil War and the Libyan Crisis.[1] After Gaddafi's death in October 2011, leading members of the Qadhadhfa demanded the return of his body by Misratan fighters for burial by relatives in Sirte.[2]
References
- Michael Rubin, Syrian Pilots Shot Down in Libya?, 6 March 2011.
- "Gaddafi tribe demands body". New Zimbabwe. 22 October 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
- Current biography yearbook, Volume 53, H.W. Wilson Company, 1992, p. 457.
- Jean-François Bayart, Global subjects: a political critique of globalization, Polity, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7456-3668-9, p. 56.
- Dirk J. Vandewalle, Libya since 1969: Qadhafi's revolution revisited, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, ISBN 978-0-230-60765-1, p. 73.