Amazigh, Awjilah

The Awjila Berbers are the Amazigh people of the Awjila oasis in the eastern Libyan Sahara who still speak Awjili (Awjilah, auj), an Eastern Berber language. Awjili is one of the most unusual Berber languages, archaic in some features and unique in others (a phonemic accent, schwa in open syllables, Proto-Berber *β kept as v); its nearest relative was the extinct language of Sokna in Jufra. The people call themselves Awajla (Awjilis) and the language Jlan n Awilen. The oasis is among the longest-documented places in Libya: Herodotus (5th century BC) wrote that the Nasamones left their herds on the coast each summer to harvest Awjila's dates, and Pomponius Mela (1st century AD) that the Augilae held the spirits of their ancestors to be gods. The Awajla are one tribe divided into four lineages named after places in the oasis (Zaqaqna, Sabkh, Hati and Sarahna); a local genealogy links them to the Arabian Juhayna, as many Libyan Amazigh families were given Arab pedigrees. The language has been receding for generations through marriage with Arabic-speaking neighbours and the Qadhafi regime's ban on Amazigh languages; only people of middle age and older speak it fully, and the younger Awjilis who speak only Arabic are a separate source group, the Wadshili.

Awjila is an oasis of date gardens watered from deep wells, divided into three farming areas (Mazouz in the north, Swani in the centre and Blad in the south) and quarters such as Sabakh, Shawashna and Abu Ataf. Its dates are known for their quality, and families also grow tomatoes, vegetables and cereals. The Atiq (old) mosque, built of mud brick and limestone in the 12th century with 21 conical domes and a forest of low pillars, is thought to be the oldest in Libya; it is pictured on the 20-dinar note, lost a dome in 2017 through neglect, and was put on UNESCO's tentative World Heritage list in 2026. Families are patrilineal and the tribe's lineages organise marriage and local politics; under Qadhafi children could not be registered with Amazigh names. After 2011 some Awjilis started Facebook groups to write the language (Ašal=ənnax, 'our village', from February 2012, about 1,200 posts in Awjili) and to assert an Amazigh identity ('You are Awjili, therefore you are Amazigh'), but posting faded after 2014.

The Awjilis are Sunni Muslims of the Maliki school, like other eastern Libyans. The tomb of Abdullah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Sarh, a Companion of the Prophet who led the 7th-century campaigns, and the shrine of the local saint Sidi Salih are visited, and older Awjilis keep the popular Islam of the oases (the evil eye, jinn, the blessing of saints). Ancient writers recorded ancestor veneration and dream divination on tombs at Awjila, and Procopius in the 6th century still described pagan shrines there; Augila was also a Christian bishopric in late antiquity. How much of this lingers in present practice has not been studied. Eastern Libya's religious life is now shaped by Salafi preachers backed by the authorities in Benghazi.

No Scripture, audio recording or JESUS Film exists in Awjili, and with only older speakers left, Libyan Arabic is the practical language for any resource: Scripture portions and the JESUS Film exist in Libyan Arabic and the complete Bible in Standard Arabic. No Christian outreach to Awjila is known. Libya forbids proselytising and Libyans who leave Islam face arrest and family violence.