trade. The Ayyubid emir Qaraqush marched into the Maghreb and according to al-Maqrizi had taken control of Cyrenaica on orders of Saladin who wanted to use the province as an agricultural base. The Mamluks were seemingly unable to exert any significant control and had to ally with the resident Bedouins to accept their suzerainty indirectly while paying taxes. The Ottoman Empire later claimed suzerainty of Cyrenaica based on the Mamluk claim of suzerainty through alliance with the tribes. Cyrenaica was subsumed into Ottoman Libya. In 1879, Cyrenaica became a wilayah of the Ottoman Empire. In 1888, it became a mutasarrıfiyya under a mutasarrıf and was further divided into five qadaas. The wali of Ottoman Tripolitania, however, looked after the military and judicial affairs. The bureaucratic setup was similar to the one in Tripoli. The mutasarrıfate existed until the Italian invasion. Italian colonial rule The Italians occupied Cyrenaica during the Italo-Turkish War in 1911 and declared it an Italian protectorate on 15 October 1912. Three days later, the Ottoman Empire officially ceded the province to the Kingdom of Italy. On 17 May 1919, Cyrenaica was established as an Italian colony, and, on 25 October 1920, the Italian government recognized Sheikh Sidi Idriss as the leader of the Senussi, who was granted the princely rank of Emir until 1929. In that year, Italy withdrew recognition of him and the Senussi. On 1 January 1934, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, and Fezzan were united as the Italian colony of Libya. The Italian fascists constructed the Marble Arch as a form of an imperial triumphal arch at the border between Cyrenaica and Tripolitani near the coast. There was heavy fighting in Cyrenaica during World War II on the part of the Allies against the Italian Army and the Nazi German Afrika Korps. In late 1942, Allied forces liberated Cyrenaica from Axis occupation and the United Kingdom administered most of Libya through 1951, when the Kingdom of Libya was established and granted independence. Emirate of Cyrenaica In 1949, Idris as-Senussi, with British backing, proclaimed Cyrenaica an independent emirate, called the Emirate of Cyrenaica. This emirate became part of the Kingdom of Libya when it was established, and an independent kingdom on 24 December 1951, with Idris as-Senussi becoming King Idris I. Gaddafi's Arab republic Since 1 September 1969, when the Senussi dynasty was overthrown by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Cyrenaica occasionally experienced nationalist activity against Gaddafi's military dictatorship, including