Omar Al-Mukhtar

He was seventy-three years old when they hanged him. Omar al-Mukhtar was an imam and a teacher before he was anything else. When Italy came for Libya, he spent nearly twenty years leading the Senussi resistance in Cyrenaica, a few hundred men on horseback against an army with tanks and aircraft. He was captured in September 1931 and executed at Suluq that same month. The Italians made twenty thousand people watch. They wanted the hanging to be the end of the story. It became the beginning of one. The back print is Mukhtar in the saddle, rifle raised, drawn in archival engraving line — the image as it survives in memory rather than in any photograph. Above it his name in thuluth. Below it his dates, in Arabic numerals, because he never wrote them any other way. The front carries only the line, small, at the chest: "I will live longer than my hangman." Nine words that turned out to be true. • 100% carded cotton • Fabric weight: 7.1 oz. /yd. ² (240 g/m²) • Garment-dyed, pre-shrunk fabric • Boxy, oversized fit • Dropped shoulders • Wide neck ribbing • Tear-away label • Blank product sourced from China This product is made especially for you as soon as you place an order, which is why it takes us a bit longer to deliver it to you. Making products on demand instead of in bulk helps reduce overproduction, so thank you for making thoughtful purchasing decisions!