Zawila

Zawila is an oasis settlement in eastern Fezzan, where routes from Tripoli and the central Sahara meet those leading towards Egypt. Its history reaches back to the Garamantian period, and it later became an important medieval town and a seat of regional rulers. Around 1500 the rise of the Awlad Muhammad shifted the capital of Fezzan to Murzuq. Zawila declined in size, but families claiming sharif descent retained standing there under Ottoman rule. Its old mosques and tombs recall the oasis’s former importance.