Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi

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Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi
Founder of the Senussi dynasty
Successor Prince Muhammad
Born1787
Mostaganem, Flag of the Ottoman Empire.svg Ottoman Algeria
Died1859
Jaghbub, Libya, Flag of the Ottoman Empire.svg Ottoman Tripolitania
House Senussi
FatherSayyid Ali as-Senussi
Religion Islam

Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi in full Sīdī Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Sanūsī al-Mujāhirī al-Ḥasanī al-Idrīsī, (1787–1859) was an Arab Muslim theologian and leader who founded of the Senussi mystical order in 1837. His militant mystical movement proved very significant and helped Libya to win its freedom from Italy on 10 February 1947. Omar Mukhtar was one of the most significant leader of Senussi military campaign launched by Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi. Al-Sanūsī’s grandson Idrīs I ruled as king of Libya from 1951 to 1969. [1]

Senussi

The Senussi or Sanusi are a Muslim political-religious tariqa and clan in colonial Libya and the Sudan region founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Senussi, the Algerian Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi. Senussi was concerned with what he saw as both the decline of Islamic thought and spirituality and the weakening of Muslim political integrity.

Libya Country in north Africa

Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad to the south, Niger to the southwest, Algeria to the west, and Tunisia to the northwest. The sovereign state is made of three historical regions: Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres (700,000 sq mi), Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa, and is the 16th largest country in the world. Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in western Libya and contains over one million of Libya's six million people. The second-largest city is Benghazi, which is located in eastern Libya.

Omar Mukhtar Libyan resistance leader

ʿOmar al-Mukhṭār Muḥammad bin Farḥāṭ al-Manifī, called The Lion of the Desert, known among the colonial Italians as Matari of the Mnifa, was the leader of native resistance in Cyrenaica, currently Eastern Libya under the Senussids, against the Italian colonization of Libya. A teacher-turned-general, Omar was also a prominent figure of the Senussi movement, and he is considered the national hero of Libya and a symbol of resistance in the Arab and Islamic worlds. Beginning in 1911, he organised and, for nearly twenty years, led the Libyan resistance movement against the colonial Italians during the Pacification of Libya. After many attempts, the Italian Armed Forces managed to capture Al-Mukhtar near Solonta and hanged him in 1931.

Contents

Life

Al-Senussi was born in al-Wasita near Mostaganem, Algeria, [2] and was named al-Senussi after a venerated Muslim teacher. He was a member of the Walad Sidi Abdalla tribe, and was a sharif tracing his descent from Fatimah, the daughter of Mohammed.[ citation needed ] He took his last name from one of his teachers, who hailed from the Beni Snous Berbers of the Tlemcen region. He studied at a madrassa in Fez, Morocco and was instructed in religious orders in Morocco, then traveled in the Sahara preaching a purifying reform of the faith in Tunisia and Tripoli, gaining many adherents, and thence moved to Cairo to study at Al-Azhar University.[ citation needed ]

Mostaganem city in Mostaganem Province, Algeria

Mostaganem is a port city in and capital of Mostaganem province, in the northwest of Algeria. The city, founded in the 11th century lies on the Gulf of Arzew, Mediterranean Sea and is 72 km ENE of Oran. It has 245,330 inhabitants as of the 2014 census.

Algeria country in North Africa

Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. The capital and most populous city is Algiers, located in the far north of the country on the Mediterranean coast. With an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), Algeria is the tenth-largest country in the world, the world's largest Arab country, and the largest in Africa. Algeria is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia, to the east by Libya, to the west by Morocco, to the southwest by the Western Saharan territory, Mauritania, and Mali, to the southeast by Niger, and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. The country is a semi-presidential republic consisting of 48 provinces and 1,541 communes (counties). It has the highest human development index of all non-island African countries.

Sharif is a traditional Arabic title. The origin of the word is an adjective meaning "noble", "highborn". The feminine singular is sharifa(h) or shareefa(h). The masculine plural is Ashraf.

Unable to cross Algeria because of the French occupation, the beginning, the centre of Imam Mohammed Ali El Senussi’s call was Jebel Akhdar and he built a mosque in Bayda of Cyrenaica and named it after himself, then he moved to Jaghbub in Cyrenaica from where the mosques spread to the remaining cities of Barqa and Tripoli. [3]

Jebel Akhdar, Libya mountains in Libya

The Jebel Akhdar is a heavily forested, fertile upland area in northeastern Libya. It is located in the modern shabiyahs or districts of Derna, Jabal al Akhdar, and Marj.

Cyrenaica Place

Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya. Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it formed part of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica, later divided into Libya Pentapolis and Libya Sicca. During the Islamic period, the area came to be known as Barqa, after the city of Barca.

Jaghbub, Libya Place in Cyrenaica, Libya

Jaghbub is a remote desert village in the Al Jaghbub Oasis in the eastern Libyan Desert. It is actually closer to the Egyptian town of Siwa than to any Libyan town of note. And like Siwa, its population is Berber. The oasis is located in Butnan District and is the administrative seat of the Jaghbub Basic People's Congress. Supported by reservoirs of underground water and date production, the town is best known for its hard-won self-sufficiency. Idris of Libya was born in Jaghbub on 12 March 1890.

He built a great mosque and a university, which was shut down on the orders of Muammar al-Gaddafi in 1984; at the same time, the graves and remains of the Senussi family were desecrated.[ citation needed ] After the death of Muhammad as-Sanussi his son Sayyid Muhammad al-Mahdi bin Sayyid Muhammad as-Senussi (1859–1902) became the new leader of the Senussi order, and moved it south from Jaghbub to Kufra. [2] His grandson through Muhammad became King Idris, the only King of Libya.[ citation needed ]

Kufra Place in Cyrenaica, Libya

Kufra is a basin and oasis group in the Kufra District of southeastern Cyrenaica in Libya. At the end of nineteenth century Kufra became the center and holy place of the Senussi order. It also played a minor role in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Muhammad
ibn Ali
as-Senussi
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Muhammad
as-Sharif
as-Senussi
 
 
 Muhammad al-Mahdi
bin Muhammad
as-Senussi
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ahmed
as-Sharif
as-Senussi
 
 
 
Muhammad
al-Abid
as-Senussi
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Muhammad
ar-Reda
 
 King Idris I
of Libya
 
 Queen Fatimah
as-Sharif
 
az-Zubayr
bin Ahmad
as-Sharif
 
Abdullah bin
Muhammad al-
Abid as-Senussi
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hasan
as-Senussi
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ahmed
as-Senussi
(member
of NTC)
 
 Idris bin
Abdullah
as-Senussi
(claimant)
 
 
 
Mohammed
as-Senussi

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Abu Abd Allah Mohammed al-Tayyib ibn Abd al-Majid ibn Abd as-Salam Ibn Kiran al-Fasi (1172/1758-1227/1812) was a Moroccan, religious scholar from Fes. He also played an active political role.

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Muhammad Al Mahdi bin Sayyid Muhammad es Senussi, also Sayyid Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi Ali al-Sanusi, (1844–1902), was the supreme leader of the Senussi Order between 1859 and his death in 1902 in Libya.

Prince Idris bin Abdullah al-Senussi is a member of the Libyan Royal family and a leader of the Sanussiyyah movement. While Libya’s royal family was under house arrest after Gaddafi overthrew their rule, Prince Idris al-Senussi began working on leading the royal family and uniting Libya, as this role was passed onto him by his late father.

The Movement for the Return of Constitutional Legitimacy in Libya is a movement gaining momentum throughout Libya to advocate for the reinstatement of the 1951 Constitution and the restoration of the historic Senussi monarchy.

References

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Notes

  1. ↑ "Al-Sanūsī | Islamic religious leader". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2018-08-10.
  2. 1 2 Shillington, Kevin (2005) "Libya: Muhammad Al-Sanusi (c.1787–1859) and the Sanusiyya" Encyclopedia of African History Fitzroy Dearborn, New York, p. 830-831, ISBN   1-57958-245-1
  3. ↑ The Senussi Family Archived 2012-12-26 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved 1 October 2011.
Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi
Senussi dynasty
Born: 1787
Religious titles
Preceded by
None		 Chief of the Senussi order
1843-1859		Succeeded by
Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi
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