Baida

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BAIDA

City and administrative district (baladiyya) of Cyrenaica, Libya.

Baida (also called Zawiya al-Baidu) was the site of the first Sanusi zawiya (Islamic lodge) in Libya in 1843. In the 1960s it was developed as Libya's new administrative capital. The project was abandoned after the 1969 revolution, because of its impracticality, remoteness, and close association with the Sanusi monarchy (although much of the infrastructure, parliament house, and government buildings had been completed). The population of Baida in 2002 was 130,900.

see also sanusi order.

John L. Wright