Also called The Lion of the Desert, ʿUmar al-Mukhtār Muḥammad bin Farḥāt al-Manifī was a Libyan revolutionary and Imam who led the native resistance in Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya) under the Senussids, against the Italian colonization of Libya. A teacher-turned-general, Omar was a prominent figure of the Senussi movement and is considered the national hero of Libya and a symbol of resistance in the Arab and Islamic worlds. Beginning in 1911, he organised and led the Libyan resistance movement against the Italian colonial empire during the First and Second Italo-Senussi Wars.