Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica , historic region, E Libya, bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Benghazi , Al Marj, Darnah, and Tobruk are the chief cities. The Greeks colonized N Cyrenaica in the 7th cent. BC, founding numerous settlements. In the mid-1st cent. BC, Cyrenaica became a Roman province. In AD 115-16 there was a large-scale but unsuccessful revolt of Jewish settlers. When Rome was divided (4th cent.) into the Eastern and Western empires, Cyrenaica came under the Byzantines, who, however, exercised little control over the region. In 642 Arab armies conquered Cyrenaica and many Arabs settled in the region from the 9th to 11th cent. The Ottoman Turks captured the area in the mid-16th cent. The Sanusi Muslim brotherhood was founded (1843) in Cyrenaica and gained many adherents there. For the history of Cyrenaica after the Ottoman conquest, see Libya .

Cyrenaica (Barqah), Libya Pentopolis, Cyrene, An ancient region in North Africa, and in 1951–63 a province of Libya. Settled as early as 640 bc by the Greeks, it was first known as Pentopolis, an allusion to the five cities they established; Cyrene was one of them. The Ptolemies of Egypt took control of the region in c.320 bc and in 67 bc Cyrenaica, together with Crete, became a Roman province. It fell to the Arabs in 642 and to the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century. Cyrenaica was ceded to Italy in 1912 and became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1939. In 1951 it joined the Kingdom of Libya. The region (and the ancient city—now a village, Shahhāt) is said to be named after Cyrene, a nymph in Greek mythology, and thus meant ‘of Cyrene’.