Libu

The Libu (, R'bw, Ribou, Labu) were an ancient Libyan tribe, from which the name Libya derives. They were closely related to the Berbers and Ancient Egyptians.

Their occupation of ancient Libya is first attested in ancient Egyptian texts from the New Kingdom, especially from the Ramesside Period. The earliest occurrence is in a Ramesses II inscription. There were no vowels in the Egyptian script. The name Libu is written as LBW or RBW in Egyptian hieroglyphs. In the Great Karnak Inscription Merneptah describes how hostilities between Egypt and Libya broke out and how the Libyans were defeated. Ramesses III defeated the Libyans in the 5th year of his reign, but six years later the Libyans joined the Meshwesh and invaded the western Delta and were defeated again. Libu appears as an ethnic name on the Merneptah Stele, also known as the Israel Stele. Afterward, the name appeared repeatedly in other pharaonic records.