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Murzuk or Murzuq ((アラビア語:مرزق)) is an oasis town and the capital of the Murzuq District in the Fezzan region of southwest Libya.〔Robinson, Harry (1960) "Murzuq" ''The Mediterranean Lands'' University Tutorial Press, London, p. 414 〕 It lies on the northern edge of the Murzuq Desert, an extremely arid region of ergs or great sand dunes which is part of the greater Sahara Desert. ==History== Murzuk developed around an oasis which served as a stop on the north-south trade route across the Sahara Desert. By 1300, the area was ruled by the Kanem Empire. According to Helmuth Kanter, a Moroccan tribe overran the area in 1310 and established Murzuk as the capital of their sultanate. The fortress, now in ruins, was built around this time.〔 By 1400, the city was ruled by the Bornu Empire and the legacy of Kanem-Bornu sovereignty is still evident, as some streets have names in the Kanembu and Kanuri languages. In the later half of the 15th century, the area became a tributary of the Hafsid dynasty in Tunis. Early in the 16th century, Muhammad al-Fasi established the Awlad Muhammad dynasty of Murzuq, which would hold power in the city until 1812. Al-Fasi is traditionally held to be a Moroccan sharif, but according to John Ralph Willis, oral tradition indicates that he was a pilgrim from Saqiyat al-Hamra in Mauritania. According to this tradition, he was the leader of a caravan who, on arriving at the fortress of Murzuk, was asked to take control of the city by local Fezzani rulers. The reason suggested for this is an intensification of Tuareg or Berber raids, or that he was attracted by slave trade. According to tradition, he built a castle in Murzuk, which has been identified possibly as the ruined "Qal'at Awlad Muhammad". The establishment of his dynasty reinvigorated pilgrim traffic and the slave trade, and soon, Murzuk became an important part of a slaving network which extended into present-day Chad and Central African Republic. By the late 16th century it had gained more importance than Ghat and Ghadames. Under Ottoman rule (1578 - 1912) Murzuk was at times the capital of Fezzan, and enjoyed a long period of prosperity. The town had a major fort, and was termed the "Paris of the Sahara".〔The term "Paris of the Sahara" is more usually applied to Marrakesh.〕 The Ottoman army usually maintained a garrison there,〔Abun-Nasr, Jamil M. (1987) ''A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period'' Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, p. 315, ISBN 0-521-33767-4〕 but local control remained in the hands of the Sultan of Fezzan.〔Hornemann, Friedrich (1802) ''The journal of Frederick Horneman's travels from Cairo to Mourzouk: the capital of the kingdom of Fezzan in Africa in the years 1797-8'' Darf, London, ; republished under various titles including ''Missions to the Niger''〕 In the early nineteenth century, Murzuk served as the jumping off point for multiple British expeditions in search of Lake Chad and the legendary Timbuktu. The 1822 Denham, Oudney and Clapperton expedition traveled from Tripoli to Murzuk, where they attempted to obtain protection and supplies for their journey south. The town was considered unhealthy by many British explorers and led to illness for many, killing some and forcing others back to Tripoli. According to James Richardson: "Feb 26th (1846). I must now consider myself recovered from indisposition. At first, people talked so much about Mourzuk fever that I thought I must have it as a matter of course ... Three-fourths of the Europeans who come here invariably have the fever. I speak of the Turks. It attacks them principally in the beginning of the hot, and cold, weather, or in May and November. ... Mourzuk is emphatically called, like many places of Africa, ''Blad Elhemah'', country of fever." The town declined in importance as modern transportation replaced traditional trade routes in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The Ottomans ceded Fezzan, along with the rest of their Libyan territories, to the Italians in 1912, following the Italo-Turkish War. Murzuk became part of colonial Italian Libya, although the town was not actually occupied by the Italians until 1914. On 11 January 1941, during the Second World War, Murzuk and its small Italian airbase were the target of raid by about 70 men of the British Long Range Desert Group, along with a handful of Free French soldiers from Chad. The small Italian garrison, holed up in the old Ottoman fort, managed to hold off the attackers, although the planes and facilities at the nearby airbase were destroyed.〔Lloyd-Owen, David: ''The Long Range Desert Group 1940-1945: Providence Their Guide''; Pen and Sword, 2009〕 In 1960 Murzuk had a population of 7,000 residents.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Murzuk」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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