Muhammad Umar al-Mukhtar was born in 1921 in the
al-Awailiya region, near
Marj in
eastern Libya, the son of Umar and his wife
Naisa al-Jilani. Muhammad was raised almost exclusively by his mother and some of his maternal relatives from the
Al-Manfah tribe, one of the largest tribes in eastern Libya, because his father was fighting at the head of the
Libyan resistance. Muhammad received his education at Al-Shatby School in the coastal city of
Alexandria. He left Libya with his mother for
Egypt in 1927, at the request of his father, who wanted to devote himself to fighting the
Italian occupation forces. Muhammad lived in Egypt for 18 years, in the city of
Hammam and he moved between the cities of
Sidi Barani,
Matruh, Alexandria and others. Muhammad was married twice. The first with his cousin, Azza al-Fayumi in 1942. They had no children and she died in the early 1960s. After the death of his first wife, he remarried in 1964 with Fatima al-Gharyani, with whom he had several children. However, they all died young, leaving Muhammad as the only descendant of Umar al-Mukhtar until his death. With the
1969 revolution, the new leader
Mu'ammar al-Gaddafi tried to appropriate the figure and struggle of Umar al-Mukhtar, claiming himself as a successor to his legacy and even gave his first public speech in front of his sanctuary on September 16. For this very reason, al-Gaddafi attempted to approach Muhammad al-Mukhtar as a way to find legitimacy through the public approval of his son. Al-Gaddafi was seen accompanied by Muhammad in public several times, including at a tribute ceremony for Umar al-Mukhtar in 1984 attended by
Hafez al-Assad,
Yasser Arafat and
Chadli Bendjedid. Muhammad also accompanied the Libyan leader during his historic visit to
Rome in June 2009. During the meeting, al-Gaddafi, who was wearing a picture of the capture of Umar al-Mukhtar on his chest, made
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi apologize to Muhammad for the murder of his father and for the Italian colonization of Libya. Muhammad Umar al-Mukhtar died on 12 July 2018 at his home in the al-Hadayek district of
Benghazi at the age of 97 according to
Anadolu Agency. == References ==