Some suggest that, given his Sharia studies, Abdel-Jalil might be an Islamic fundamentalist. If so, however, all judges in Islamic countries must be fundamentalists, because all of them are educated both in civil law and the Sharia. But how he deals with the Islamic fundamentalists in Benghazi, Al-Bayda, Delna and other areas who claim that their contribution to the victory requires them to have a powerful say in the new order will go a long way toward determining Libya's future.

Abdel-Jalil does not give the impression that he wants to become Libya's first post-Gadhafi president. But if Abdel-Jalil is a man of ideals, Mahmoud Jibril, chairman of the NTC's executive board, is a man of action. Born in Benghazi in 1952, he obtained masters and doctoral degrees at the University of Pittsburgh after graduating from Cairo University. He also has served as a management consultant in Arab countries, and for a time was involved in asset management for Sheikha Mozah, the politically active wife of the Emir of Qatar. In Gadhafi's regime, he headed the National Council and the National Economic Development Board.

The biggest hit that the NTC's provisional government has taken since its establishment was the assassination of the rebel military commander Major General Abdul Fatah Younis. The circumstances behind his killing remain unclear, but his death caused a reshuffle in the NTC, with finance and oil minister Ali Tarhouni and foreign minister Ali al-Issawi ousted.

Al-Issawi's removal may have been tied to reports that he issued the instructions for the arrest of Younis shortly before the assassination. The killing had spurred fear that tribal warfare would break out, as Younis was part of the powerful Obaida tribe, which lives around Benghazi. The provisional government, by preventing a violent outbreak of internecine tribal violence, showed that it might be able to keep a lid on the types of animosity that savaged Iraq. Maintaining the cooperation of the dominant tribes in each region will be essential to building a stable post-Gadhafi Libya.

Although the NTC is not fully unified, Abdel-Jalil and Jibril are playing their respective roles in an effort to solidify domestic organization and secure international support. Other players include the son of Omar Mukhtar, the hero who led the resistance movement against Italy long ago. But none of the ancestral claims to power appear capable of sublimating the will of the people to elect their future leader democratically.

Gadhafi ousted King Idris 42 years ago without bloodshed. Until the stunning rebel advance into Tripoli, he had seemed intent on enacting a kind of desert Gotterdammerung, with his regime going down in flames.

That no longer seems likely, and the NTC will now need to begin actually governing the country. The trials that it has endured thus far have probably left it in a better position to lead a successful democratic transition than most observers realize.