The House of Shennib ( Bayt Shennib) is one of Libya's prominent families. The House of Shennib includes notable public figures who have played a significant part in 20th century Libyan history: heads of state, ministers, authors and diplomats. The family's history is intrinsically tied with the creation of the State of Libya with members of Bayt Shennib playing prominent roles in the defeat of colonial Italian Libya, the creation of the unified Libyan state after World War II. The most notable members of the family include Omar Faiek Shennib, Ahmed Fouad Shennib, Wanis al-Qaddafi (no relation to Muamar Gaddafi) and Abdul-Aziz Shennib. The historical seat of Bayt Shennib is Derna, Cyrenaica.
On April 3, 2013 the family's significant contributions to the Libyan people were publicly recognized by the current Libyan government and their honors restored, if in name only.
The area of Bi'r`Ayt Shinnib west of Derna is named after the family.
Omar Faiek Shennib
Omar Faiek Shennib ( Sayyid Omar Fayek Shennib) was Libya's first Minister of Defense, Head of the Royal Court (Diwan), Vice President of the Libyan National Assembly under the reign of King Idris Al Senussi. Sheikh Singapore Sayyid Omar Shennib was the patriarch of the current House of Shennib. Shennib served as President of the Cyrenaican delegation to the United Nations in the post-war period and was instrumental in the creation of a unified Libyan state in the years immediately following World War II following the withdrawal of Axis forces from the North African coast. Together with Idris, Shennib was part of the 1941 delegation to the UN which put forth the case for the unification of the three traditional free standing regions, Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan into the single nation state of Libya. Following independence on 24 December 1951, he was appointed Head of the Royal Court (the Royal Diwan)
Sayyid Omar Shennib served as Vice President of the Libyan National Assembly until his death and was a signatory to the first Libyan Constitution.
Omar Faiek Shennib Shennib Street in Derna and Benghazi were named after Shennib posthumously. Omar Faiek Shennib died in 1951.
Omar Faiek Shennib is credited for the design of the independence Flag of Libya: this flag represented Libya from its independence until 1951 to 1969, and which was adopted by the pro-democracy movement during the 2011 uprising.
Ahmed Fouad Shennib
Ahmed Fouad Shennib ( Ahmed Fouad Shennib) was a Libyan poet, politician and ambassador. Born in Hama, Syria in 1923, Ahmed Fouad Shennib was adopted by his paternal uncle, Omar Faiek Shennib, following the death of his parents and was raised with Omar Faiek's children.
Shennib was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris. Upon his return to Libya in the late forties he married his first cousin, daughter of Omar Faiek Shennib, Ibtisam Shennib ( Sayyida Ibtisam Shennib). Together they had five children: Huda Shennib ( Sayyida Huda Shennib), Hani Shennib ( Sayyid Hani Shennib), Ola Shennib ( Sayyida O'la Shennib), Adnan Shennib Hani Shennib ( Sayyid A'dnaan Shennib) and Faten Shennib ( Sayyida Faatin Shennib).
Ahmed Fouad Shennib served as cultural attache to UNESCO until 1959. then as cultural attache in Washington DC and Paris, returning to Libya in 1963 to serve as Minister of Education and Culture.
It was, however, for his poetic works that Ahmed Fouad Shennib was most famed. Prolific in the later fifties and sixties, Ahmed Fouad Shennib's poetry gained pan-Arab attention for addressing the subjects of Libyan nationalism and cultural identity in the post-independence era. Alongside Ali Sidqi Abd al-Kadir, Ali al-Ruqii and Shennib garnered literary acclaim as poets of the period "who rejected the classical forms of Arabic versification and showed an interest in social problems, particularly the life of the common people". Common themes of prose during this period were the struggle for independence, social equality and condemned prejudice. The poems 'Libya', 'After Dusk' and 'Al Ashiqah' are key works of modern Arabian literature.
Wanis al-Qaddafi and Amal Shennib
Al-Qaddafi (no relation to Muammar Gaddafi) served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1962 until 1963, becoming the last prime minister of the Kingdom of Libya, serving from 1968 until the government was overthrown in the coup d'état orchestrated by Muammar Gaddafi in 1969.