Libu

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title: "Libu" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ancient-peoples-of-africa", "berber-peoples-and-tribes", "sea-peoples", "wars-involving-ancient-egypt", "ancient-libya", "countries-in-ancient-africa", "egypt–libya-relations", "ancient-libyans"] description: "Ancient Libyan tribe of Berber origin" topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libu" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Ancient Libyan tribe of Berber origin ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox hieroglyphs"]

Field	Value
name	r:Z1-b-w-T14-A1:Z2
name transcription	rbw
::

|name=r:Z1-b-w-T14-A1:Z2 |name transcription=rbw}} ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/From_right_to_left_an_Egyptian,_an_Assyrian,_a_Nubian,_and_Libyans.jpg" caption="Heinrich von Minutoli]] (1820)"] ::

The Libu (; also transcribed Rebu, Libo, or Lebu) were an Ancient Libyan tribe of Berber origin, from which the name Libya derives.

Early history

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Ramesses_III_faience_tile_-_Libyan_chief.jpg" caption="1184}} to 1153 BC)."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Egypte_louvre_131_statuette.jpg" caption="Vanquished Libyan. Bronze inlaid with gold and silver, reign of Rameses II (19th Dynasty) 1279–1213 BCE. (Louvre Museum, Paris)"] ::

Their tribal origin in Ancient Libya is first attested in Egyptian language texts from the New Kingdom, especially from the Ramesside Period. The earliest occurrence is in a Ramesses II inscription. There were no vowels in the Egyptian script. The name Libu is written as rbw in Egyptian hieroglyphs. In the Great Karnak Inscription, the pharaoh Merneptah describes the Libu as men with pale complexion, tattooed, and with dark hair and eyes.

Hostilities between Egypt and Libya broke out in regnal year 5 (1208 BCE), but the coalition of Libu and Sea Peoples led by the chief of the Libu Meryey was defeated. Libu appears as an ethnic name on the Merneptah Stele, also known as the Israel Stele.

Ramesses III defeated the Libyans in the 5th year of his reign, but six years later the Libyans joined the Meshwesh and invaded the western Delta and were defeated once again.

This name Libu was taken over by the Greeks of Cyrenaica, who co-existed with them. Geographically, the name of this tribe was adopted by the Greeks for "Cyrenaica" as well as for northwestern Africa in general.

In the neo-Punic inscriptions, Libu was written as Lby for the masculine noun, and Lbt for the feminine noun of Libyan. The name supposedly was used as an ethnic name in those inscriptions.

Great Chiefs of the Libu

In the western Nile Delta, Libyan groups such as the Libu established some local chiefdoms under leaders titled Great Chiefs during the 24th Dynasty but these formations were short-lived. During the 24th Dynasty, political authority had shifted to the prominent lineage of Libyan-descended rulers from the Great Ma tribe (short for Meshwesh), the Great Ma rulers governed as kings from Sais. The dynasty culminated with Tefnakht, who originally held the titles Great Chief of the West and Great Chief of the Ma, and who was of the Great Ma origin (or possibly Egyptianized) rather than Libu, before assuming royal status. Later, Tefnakht adopted full pharaonic titulary, thereby founding the 24th Dynasty.

They dated their monuments under the sovereign authority of the Great Ma rulers, following the regnal years of the pharaohs of the 22nd Dynasty of Ma origin. ::data[format=table]

Name	Image	Attested in regnal year...	Corresponding absolute datation	Notes
Inamunnifnebu	[[File:Stele Inamunnifnebu Moscow.jpg	center	100px]]	Year 31 of Shoshenq III
Niumateped	[[File:Stele Shoshenq V Y8 Spiegelberg.png	center	100px]]	first=Karl
Tjerpahati	[[File:Stele 67.119 Brooklyn.jpg	center	100px]]	Year 7 of Shoshenq V
Year 15 of Shoshenq V	760 BCE
753 BCE	Also known in literature as Tjerper or Titaru, son of Didi
Ker	[[File:Stele Shoshenq V Y19 Müller.jpg	center	100px]]	Year 19 of Shoshenq V
Rudamun		Year 30 of Shoshenq V	738 BCE	-
Ankhhor		Year 37 of Shoshenq V
Year ? of Shoshenq V	731 BCE
? BCE	Struggled against Tefnakht and was likely defeated by him
Tefnakht		[[File:Tefnakht Athens stela (T. Efthimiadis) det.jpg	center	100px]]
Year 38 of Shoshenq V	732 BCE
730 BCE	-
::

References

References

1. Zimmermann, K.. (2008). "Lebou/Libou". Edisud.
2. Clark, Desmond J. (ed.) (1982) "Egypt and Libia" ''The Cambridge History of Africa: From the earliest times to c. 500 BC'' volume I, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, p. 919, {{ISBN. 0-521-22215-X
3. Breasted, James H. (1906) ''[[Ancient Records of Egypt]]'', Part Three, Chicago, §§572ff.
4. Manassa, Colleen. (2003). "The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the 13th Century B.C.". Yale Egyptological Seminar.
5. ''[...] The vile chief of the Libu who fled under cover of night alone without a feather on his head, his feet unshod, his wives seized before his very eyes, the meal for his food taken away, and without water in the water-skin to keep him alive; the faces of his brothers are savage to kill him, his captains fighting one against the other, their camps burnt and made into ashes [...]'' ''After'' Gardiner, Alan Henderson (1964) ''Egypt of the Pharaohs: an introduction'' Oxford University Press, London, p. 273, {{ISBN. 0-19-500267-9
6. J. H. Breasted, ''Ancient Records of Egypt'', Part Four, Chicago 1906, §§83ff. Afterward, the name appeared repeatedly in other [[Pharaoh. pharaonic records]].
7. Fage, J. D. (ed.) (1978) "The Libyans" ''The Cambridge History of Africa: From c. 500 BC to AD 1050'' volume II, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, p. 141, {{ISBN. 0-521-21592-7
8. "Libya". Online Etymology Dictionary.
9. Thomas C. Oden. (2011). "Early Libyan Christianity: Uncovering a North African Tradition". InterVarsity Press.
10. [http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/?p=14464 O'Connor, David. "Egyptians and Libyans in the New Kingdom" ''Expedition Magazine'' 29.3. Penn Museum, 1987]
11. P.R. Del Francia, "Di una statuetta dedicata ad Amon-Ra dal grande capo dei Ma Tefnakht nel Museo Egizio di Firenze", S. Russo (ed.) Atti del V Convegno Nazionale di Egittologia e Papirologia, Firenze, 10-12 dicembre 1999, Firenze, 2000, p. 94
12. Kitchen, Kenneth A.. (1996). "The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC)". Aris & Phillips Limited.
13. Berlandini, Jocelyne. (1978). "Une stèle de donation du dynaste libyen Roudamon". BIFAO.
14. Jansen-Winkeln, Karl. (2014). "Die "Großfürsten der Libu" im westlichen Delta in der späten 22. Dynastie". Journal of Egyptian History.

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