Film-maker: Ashraf Mashharawi

The map of modern Libya was not fully drawn until the mid-20th century. The land was fought over by the Ottomans, Italians and the British. King Idris ruled from 1951 until Muammar Gaddafi seized power in a coup in 1969. We look at the rise of Idris, who succeeded his father as leader of the Senussi people, and explore his early years. His journey to Mecca to perform Hajj at the time of World War I helped shaped his understanding of the political world around him. On his pilgrimage, he met the Khedive of Egypt, the Ottoman Wali in the Levant; and Sharif Hussein in the Hijaz. On his way home to Cyrenaica, he also met British military leaders in Egypt.