James Bruce in Libya, 1766

Abstract

It is appropriate that the Society for Libyan Studies should recall the visit of James Bruce of Kinnaird to Libya in 1766. He was the first European to visit the country who possessed both the knowledge and the equipment to undertaken an exploratory expedition with any serious claim to scientific method. But it might seem to a reader of one of Bruce's biographies that the event was of such slight and transitory interest hardly to deserve recognition. Bruce himself allowed it to be overshadowed by his subsequent experiences in Abyssinia which culminated with his visit to the source of the Blue Nile, the final goal of his great journey. A recent bibliography of Libya and a recent standard work on the country omit all reference to his name. Surely this is unjustified. Many years were to pass before other Europeans were to undertaken comparable journeys in Libya.