The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Libya

This page contains a list of the greatest Libyan Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 37 of which were born in Libya. This makes Libya the birth place of the 73rd most number of Politicians behind Haiti, and Iceland.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Libyan Politicians of all time. This list of famous Libyan Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Libyan Politicians.

1. Muammar Gaddafi (1942 - 2011)

With an HPI of 83.13, Muammar Gaddafi is the most famous Libyan Politician. His biography has been translated into 136 different languages on wikipedia.

Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (c. 1942 – 20 October 2011) was a Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until his assassination by rebel forces in 2011. He came to power through a military coup, first becoming Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the 'Brotherly Leader' of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. Initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Nasserism, Gaddafi later ruled according to his own Third International Theory. Born near Sirte, Italian Libya, to a poor Bedouin Arab family, Gaddafi became an Arab nationalist while at school in Sabha, later enrolling in the Royal Military Academy, Benghazi. Within the military, he founded a revolutionary group known as the Free Officers movement which deposed the Western-backed Senussi monarchy of Idris in a 1969 coup. After taking power, Gaddafi converted Libya into a republic governed by his Revolutionary Command Council. Ruling by decree, he deported Libya's Italian population and ejected its Western military bases. He strengthened ties to Arab nationalist governments—particularly Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt—and unsuccessfully advocated pan-Arab political union. An Islamic modernist, he introduced sharia as the basis for the legal system and promoted Islamic socialism. He nationalized the oil industry and used the increasing state revenues to bolster the military, fund foreign revolutionaries, and implement social programs emphasizing housebuilding, healthcare and education projects. In 1973, he initiated a "Popular Revolution" with the formation of Basic People's Congresses, presented as a system of direct democracy, but retained personal control over major decisions. He outlined his Third International Theory that year in The Green Book. In 1977 Gaddafi transformed Libya into a new socialist state called a Jamahiriya ("state of the masses"). He officially adopted a symbolic role in governance but remained head of both the military and the Revolutionary Committees responsible for policing and suppressing dissent. During the 1970s and 1980s, Libya's unsuccessful border conflicts with Egypt and Chad, support for foreign militants, and alleged responsibility for bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 left it increasingly isolated on the world stage. A particularly hostile relationship developed with Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom, resulting in the 1986 U.S. bombing of Libya and United Nations–imposed economic sanctions. From 1999, Gaddafi shunned pan-Arabism, and encouraged pan-Africanism and rapprochement with Western nations; he was Chairperson of the African Union from 2009 to 2010. Amid the 2011 Arab Spring, protests against widespread corruption and unemployment broke out in eastern Libya. The situation descended into civil war, in which NATO intervened militarily on the side of the anti-Gaddafist National Transitional Council (NTC). Gaddafi's government was overthrown; he retreated to Sirte only to be captured, tortured and killed by NTC militants. A highly divisive figure, Gaddafi dominated Libya's politics for four decades and was the subject of a pervasive cult of personality. He was decorated with various awards and praised for his anti-imperialist stance, support for Arab—and then African—unity, as well as for significant development to the country following the discovery of oil reserves. Conversely, many Libyans strongly opposed Gaddafi's social and economic reforms; he was accused of various human rights violations. He was condemned by many as a dictator whose authoritarian administration systematically violated human rights and financed global terrorism in the region and abroad.

2. Septimius Severus (145 - 211)

With an HPI of 76.21, Septimius Severus is the 2nd most famous Libyan Politician. His biography has been translated into 84 different languages.

Lucius Septimius Severus (Latin: [ˈɫuːkiʊs sɛpˈtɪmiʊs sɛˈweːrʊs]; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus was the final contender to seize power after the death of the emperor Pertinax in 193 during the Year of the Five Emperors. After deposing and killing the incumbent emperor Didius Julianus, Severus fought his rival claimants, the Roman generals Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus. Niger was defeated in 194 at the Battle of Issus in Cilicia. Later that year Severus waged a short punitive campaign beyond the eastern frontier, annexing the Kingdom of Osroene as a new province. Severus defeated Albinus three years later at the Battle of Lugdunum in Gaul. Following the consolidation of his rule over the western provinces, Severus waged another brief, more successful war in the east against the Parthian Empire, sacking their capital Ctesiphon in 197 and expanding the eastern frontier to the Tigris. He then enlarged and fortified the Limes Arabicus in Arabia Petraea. In 202, he campaigned in Africa and Mauretania against the Garamantes, capturing their capital Garama and expanding the Limes Tripolitanus along the southern desert frontier of the empire. With his second wife, Julia Domna, Severus had two sons; the elder, Caracalla, was proclaimed Augustus, or co-emperor, in 198, and the younger, Geta, in 209. Severus travelled to Britain in 208, strengthening Hadrian's Wall and reoccupying the Antonine Wall. In 209 he invaded Caledonia (modern Scotland) with an army of 50,000 men but his ambitions were cut short when he died of an infectious disease in early 211 at Eboracum (modern York). His sons, advised by Julia Domna, succeeded him, thus founding the Severan dynasty. It was the last dynasty of the Roman Empire before the Crisis of the Third Century.

3. Simon of Cyrene (-100 - 100)

With an HPI of 69.74, Simon of Cyrene is the 3rd most famous Libyan Politician. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Simon of Cyrene (Hebrew: שמעון‎, Standard Hebrew Šimʿon, Tiberian Hebrew Šimʿôn; Greek: Σίμων Κυρηναῖος, Simōn Kyrēnaios) was the man compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus of Nazareth as Jesus was taken to his crucifixion, according to all three Synoptic Gospels:And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. He was also the father of the disciples Rufus and Alexander. Simon is not mentioned in the Gospel of John.

4. Idris of Libya (1889 - 1983)

With an HPI of 68.77, Idris of Libya is the 4th most famous Libyan Politician. His biography has been translated into 52 different languages.

Idris (Arabic: إدريس, romanized: Idrīs, Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi; 13 March 1890 – 25 May 1983) was King of Libya from 24 December 1951 until his ouster in the 1 September 1969 coup d'état. He ruled over the United Kingdom of Libya from 1951 to 1963, after which the country became known as simply the Kingdom of Libya. Idris had served as Emir of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania from the 1920s until 1951. He was the chief of the Muslim Senussi Order. Idris was born into the Senussi Order. When his cousin Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi abdicated as leader of the Order, Idris took his position. The Senussi campaign was taking place, with the British and Italians fighting the Order. Idris put an end to the hostilities and, through the Modus vivendi of Acroma, abandoned Ottoman protection. Between 1919 and 1920, Italy recognized Senussi control over most of Cyrenaica in exchange for the recognition of Italian sovereignty by Idris. Idris then led his Order in an unsuccessful attempt to conquer the eastern part of the Tripolitanian Republic. Following the Second World War, the United Nations General Assembly called for Libya to be granted independence. It established the United Kingdom of Libya through the unification of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan, appointing Idris to rule it as king. Wielding significant political influence in the impoverished country, Idris banned political parties and, in 1963, replaced Libya's federal system with a unitary state. He established links to the Western powers, allowing the United Kingdom and United States to open military bases in the country in return for economic aid. After oil was discovered in Libya in 1959, he oversaw the emergence of a growing oil industry that rapidly aided economic growth. Idris's regime was weakened by growing Arab nationalist and Arab socialist sentiment in Libya as well as rising frustration at the country's high levels of corruption and close links with Western nations. While in Turkey for medical treatment, Idris was deposed in a 1969 coup d'état by army officers led by Muammar Gaddafi.

5. Abdul Ati al-Obeidi (1939 - 2023)

With an HPI of 57.94, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi is the 5th most famous Libyan Politician. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Abdul Ati al-Obeidi ( ; Arabic: عبد العاطي العبيدي, romanized: ʿAbd al-ʿĀṭī al-ʿUbayyidī; 10 October 1939 – 16 September 2023) was a Libyan politician and diplomat. He held various top posts in Libya under Muammar Gaddafi; he was Prime Minister from 1977 to 1979 and General Secretary of General People's Congress from 1979 to 1981. He was one of three main negotiators in Libya's decision to denounce and drop their nuclear weapons program. In 2011, amidst the First Libyan Civil War between Gaddafi loyalists and anti-Gaddafi rebels, he was appointed Foreign Minister after the defection of Moussa Koussa. In fact, he had accompanied Koussa to Djerba, Tunisia before returning to Libya while Koussa defected and went to London. On 3 April 2011 (a week after Koussa's defection), Obeidi flew to Greece to present a peace proposal to his counterpart Dimitrios Droutsas. On 31 August 2011, he was detained west of Tripoli by rebel forces. In June 2013, a court found him not guilty of a charge of mismanagement. Abdul Ati al-Obeidi died of a heart attack in Tripoli on 16 September 2023, at the age of 83.

6. Fayez al-Sarraj (b. 1960)

With an HPI of 57.87, Fayez al-Sarraj is the 6th most famous Libyan Politician. His biography has been translated into 45 different languages.

Fayez Mustafa al-Sarraj (Arabic: فائز السراج or فايز السراج; born 20 February 1960) is a Libyan politician who served as the Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya and Head of Government of the Government of National Accord from 2016 to 2021, which was formed on 17 December 2015 under the Libyan Political Agreement. He has been a member of the Parliament of Tripoli.

7. Pedubast I (-900 - -793)

With an HPI of 57.46, Pedubast I is the 7th most famous Libyan Politician. His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Pedubastis I or Pedubast I was an Upper Egyptian Pharaoh of ancient Egypt during the 9th century BC.

8. Baghdadi Mahmudi (b. 1945)

With an HPI of 56.81, Baghdadi Mahmudi is the 8th most famous Libyan Politician. His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Baghdadi Ali Mahmudi (Arabic: البغدادي علي المحمودي) (born 1945) is a Libyan politician who was Secretary of the General People's Committee (prime minister) of Libya from 5 March 2006 to as late as 1 September 2011, when he acknowledged the collapse of the GPCO and the ascendance of the National Transitional Council as a result of the Libyan Civil War. He has a medical degree, specialising in obstetrics and gynecology, and had served as Deputy Prime Minister to Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem since 2003 at the time he was appointed to replace him. He was a part of Gaddafi's inner circle at least prior to his escape in mid-2011. He was arrested in Tunisia for illegal border entry and jailed for six months, although this was later overruled on appeal, however a Tunisian court decided to extradite Mahmoudi to Libya under a request from Libya's Transitional Council. Mahmudi was released from prison on 20 July 2019.

9. Ptolemy Apion (-101 - -96)

With an HPI of 56.28, Ptolemy Apion is the 9th most famous Libyan Politician. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Ptolemy Apion or simply known as Apion (Ancient Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Ἀπίων; between 150 BC and 145 BC – 96 BC) was the last Greek King of Cyrenaica who separated it from the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, and in his last will bequeathed his country to Rome. He was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

10. Gaius Fulvius Plautianus (150 - 205)

With an HPI of 56.19, Gaius Fulvius Plautianus is the 10th most famous Libyan Politician. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Gaius or Lucius Fulvius Plautianus (c. 150 – 22 January 205) was a member of the Roman gens Fulvia. As head of the Praetorian Guard, he was very influential in the administration of state affairs, and clashed with Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius Severus. Plautianus was originally from Leptis Magna, southeast of Carthage (modern Libya, North Africa). He was a maternal cousin and long-time friend of the Emperor Septimius Severus. Plautianus' father was another Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, born c. 130, whose sister, Fulvia Pia (c. 125 - after 198), was married to Severus' father Publius Septimius Geta. Plautianus was praefectus vigilum (commander of the Vigiles in Rome) from 193 to 197. Plautianus was appointed prefect of the Praetorian Guard in 197. Due to their friendship, Severus rewarded Plautianus with various honors, including a consular insignia, a seat in the Roman Senate and the Consulship of 203. During his consulship, Plautianus' image was minted on coins along with Severus' second son, Publius Septimius Geta. He assisted Severus in administering the empire and became very wealthy and powerful. Severus made him his second in command. He was at odds with Julia Domna, the wife of the emperor, presumably for influence. In 202, Plautianus married his daughter, Publia Fulvia Plautilla, to Caracalla (Severus’ first son and co-emperor) in Rome. Plautianus had those who opposed him assassinated or executed. He became so powerful that Caracalla and his mother, Julia Domna, began to be concerned for successions. Aware of her reservations, Plautianus sought to disrepute, dishonor and disempower Julia. He had her servants and friends arrested and tortured in hopes of extracting some damaging testimony against her. He was unsuccessful in his efforts. The aforementioned marriage between Caracalla and Plautilla was not a happy one - In fact, Caracalla loathed both her and her father, threatening to kill them after becoming sole emperor. When Plautianus discovered this, he plotted to overthrow Severus' family. When Plautianus was accused of treachery against the imperial family, Septimius Severus summoned him to the palace. Because he had written a note confirming his plans at the request of the Tribune, Saturninus, he was not able to shake these accusations and was found guilty. During the meeting on 22 January 205, Caracalla's men killed him. After his death, Plautianus’ property was confiscated, his name was erased from public monuments, and his son of the same name, his daughter and his granddaughter were exiled to Sicily. They were all strangled on Caracalla's orders in early 212.

People

Pantheon has 44 people classified as Libyan politicians born between 900 BC and 2000. Of these 44, 22 (50.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Libyan politicians include Fayez al-Sarraj, Baghdadi Mahmudi, and Mustafa Abdul Jalil. The most famous deceased Libyan politicians include Muammar Gaddafi, Septimius Severus, and Simon of Cyrene. As of April 2024, 6 new Libyan politicians have been added to Pantheon including Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, and Mohamed al-Menfi.