Senusiyya

The Senusiyya, Senussi or Sanusi (السنوسية) are a Muslim political-religious Sufi order and clan in colonial Libya and the Sudan region founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Sanussi (السنوسي الكبير as-Sanūssiyy al-Kabīr), the Algerian Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sanusi. Sanusi was concerned with what he saw as both the decline of Islamic thought and spirituality and the weakening of Muslim political integrity. The movement promoted strict adherence to Qur'an and Sunnah without partisanship to the traditional legal schools of thought. It also sought a reformation of Sufism, condemning various practices such as seeking help from the dead, sacrificing for them and other rituals which they considered to be superstitions and innovations. From 1902 to 1913, the Sanussi fought French colonial expansion in the Sahara and the Kingdom of Italy's colonisation of Libya beginning in 1911. In World War I, they fought the Senussi campaign against the British in Egypt and Sudan. In 1923, indigenous rebels associated with the Sanussi order organized the Libyan resistance movement against Italian settlement in Libya. During World War II, the Sanussis provided vital support to the British Eighth Army in North Africa against Nazi and Fascist Italian forces. The Grand Sanussi's grandson became King Idris of Libya in 1951. In 1969, a military coup led by Muammar Gaddafi overthrew him. The movement remained active in spite of sustained persecution by Gaddafi's government. The Sanusi spirit and legacy continue to be prominent in today's Libya, mostly in the east of the country. The Senussi order has been historically closed to Europeans and outsiders, leading reports of their beliefs and practices to vary immensely. Though it is possible to gain some insight from the lives of the Senussi sheikhs further details are difficult to obtain. Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi (1787–1859), 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.