The Ouled Slimane (also spelled Oulad Souleymane or Awlad Suleiman) are an Arab people and tribe originating from the Fezzan region of modern-day Libya.
Between the Tibesti Mountains and Lake Chad, they raided caravans belonging to the Tuareg, Kanem, and Daza, and allied with the Qadiwa and Toubou people.
The Ouled Slimane still living in Fezzan were brutally massacred and expelled by the Italians during the Pacification, leading to an exodus to the French colonies of Niger and Chad.
[2] After Gaddafi's rise, the Libyan leader encouraged the Ouled Slimane to return to their former home in Fezzan, becoming one of the pillars of the regime in its first decades at the local level.
However, this would change in the last decades of Gaddafi's government, causing a growing rivalry between the Ouled Slimane and the Gaddafa, the tribe to which the Libyan leader belonged.