27 Facts About Senussi

1.

Senussi was concerned with what he saw as both the decline of Islamic thought and spirituality and the weakening of Muslim political integrity.

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2.

From 1902 to 1913, the Senussi fought French colonial expansion in the Sahara and the Kingdom of Italy's colonisation of Libya beginning in 1911.

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3.

In 1923, indigenous rebels associated with the Senussi Order organized the Libyan resistance movement against Italian settlement in Libya.

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4.

Senussi order has been historically closed to Europeans and outsiders, leading reports of their beliefs and practices to vary immensely.

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5.

Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi, the founder of the order and a proponent of Sufism, was born in Algeria near Mostaganem and was named al-Senussi after a venerated Muslim teacher.

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6.

Senussi was a member of the Walad Sidi Abdalla tribe, and was a sharif.

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7.

Senussi studied at the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, then traveled in the Sahara preaching a purifying reform of the faith in Tunisia and Tripoli, gaining many adherents, and then moved to Cairo to study at Al-Azhar University in 1824.

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8.

Al-Senussi was critical of the government of Muhammad Ali Pasha.

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9.

Senussi argued that learned Muslims should not blindly follow the four classical madhhabs but instead engage in ijtihad themselves.

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10.

Senussi left Egypt for Mecca, where he spent 15 years as a student and teacher until 1843.

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11.

Senussi went to Mecca, where he joined Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi, the head of the Qadiriyya, a renowned religious fraternity.

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12.

Senussi returned to Libya in 1843, where in the mountains near Sidi Rafaa' he built the Zawiya Bayda.

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13.

Grand Senussi did not tolerate fanaticism and forbade the use of stimulants as well as voluntary poverty.

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14.

Senussi accepted neither the wholly intuitive ways described by some Sufi mystics nor the rationality of some of the orthodox ulama; rather, he attempted to achieve a middle path.

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15.

The relative austerity of the Senussi message was particularly suited to the character of the Cyrenaican Bedouins, whose way of life had not changed much in the centuries since the Arabs had first accepted the Islamic prophet Mohammad's teachings.

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16.

In 1855 Senussi moved farther from direct Ottoman surveillance to Jaghbub, a small oasis some 30 miles northwest of Siwa.

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17.

Senussi died in 1860, leaving two sons, Mahommed Sherif and Mohammed al-Mahdi, who succeeded him.

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18.

Sayyid Muhammad al-Mahdi bin Sayyid Muhammad as-Senussi was fourteen when his father died, after which he was placed under the care of his father's friends Amran, Reefi and others.

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19.

Senussi had Somali contacts in Berbera and consistently tried to rally Somalis to join their movement alongside their rival Mahdists.

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20.

The new head of the Senussi maintained the friendly relations of his predecessors with the Dud Murra of Wadai Sultan of the Wadai Empire, governing the order as regent for his young cousin, Muhammad Idris II, who signed the 1917 Treaty of Acroma that ceded control of Libya from the Kingdom of Italy and was later recognized by them as Emir of Cyrenaica on October 25,1920.

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21.

Senussi, encouraged by the German and Ottoman Empires, played a minor part in the World War I, during the Senussi uprising, utilising guerrilla warfare against the Italian colonials in Libya and the British in Egypt from November 1915 until February 1917, led by Sayyid Ahmad, and in the Sudan from March to December 1916, led by Ali Dinar, the Sultan of Darfur.

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22.

The Senussi led the resistance and Italians closed Senussi khanqahs, arrested sheikhs, and confiscated mosques and their land.

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23.

Idris of Libya, a grandson of Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi, the Grand Senussi, replaced Ahmed as effective leader of the Order in 1917 and went on to play a key role as the Senussi leader who brought the Libyan tribes together into a unified Libyan nation.

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24.

King Idris' nephew and Crown Prince Hasan as-Senussi, who had been designated Regent when Idris left Libya to seek medical treatment in 1969, became the successor to the leadership of the Senussi order.

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25.

The remaining Senussi tribes were severely restricted in their actions by the revolutionary government, which appointed a supervisor for their properties.

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26.

In 1984, Libya's distinguished Senussi University was closed by Gaddafi's order, although international scholars continued to visit the country until the beginning of the civil war to study the Senussi history and legacy.

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27.

The leadership of the Senussi order passed to his second son, Mohammed el Senussi, whom Hasan had appointed as his successor to the throne of Libya.

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