Muhammad al-Mahdī as-Sanūsī

Muhammad Al Mahdi bin Sayyid Muhammad es Senussi

Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Mahdī as-Sanūsī , also es Senussi ( Arabic محمد بن محمد المهدي السنوسي, DMG Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Mahdī as-Sanūsī , * 1844 in al-Bayda ; † June 1, 1902 in al-Kufra ) was the leader of the Libyan Sanussiya order from 1859 until his death .

origin

Muhammad al-Mahdi was the son of the founder of the order, Muhammad as-Sanussi . He was born in al-Bayda in Cyrenaica in northeast Libya , where his father had founded a religiously oriented, strongly prosperous religious state since 1843. In 1856 the Senussi were forced by the Ottoman governor of Cyrenaica to leave their previous center in al-Bayda and relocate to the oasis of al-Jaghbub, 500 km southeast .

The religious state in al-Jaghbub (1859–1895)

Muhammad al-Mahdi took over the leadership of the Sanussiya order after the death of his father in 1859. He had al-Jaghbub expanded into the new religious and political center of the Brotherhood, and in the following years an Islamic university, a ruler's palace and numerous mosques were built. Muhammad al-Mahdi's fifth wife Aisha bint Ahmad al-Syrte gave birth to his son Sidi Muhammad Idris al-Mahdi al-Senussi here in 1890, who later became King of Libya as Idris I.

In Jaghbub, the order was freed from the competing Ottoman administration and was able to use this considerably to expand its religious and political influence. Muhammad al-Mahdi benefited from the fact that he was venerated by many of his followers as the return of the Mahdi , even if he probably did not actively propagate this himself. When he was asked in 1883 by Muhammad Ahmad , who had proclaimed himself a Mahdi in Sudan, to join the Mahdi uprising there, he refused.

In 1895, Muhammad al-Mahdi had the center of the order relocated again, as he feared new hostilities from the Ottoman governor. In addition, the move to the south should bring it closer to the mission areas there.

The religious state in Kufra (1895–1902)

In the Kufra oases, which are isolated in the eastern Sahara , the new religious and political center of the brotherhood was born. Muhammad al-Mahdi had the al-Tag fort built above the oasis , which includes a zaouia and a mosque.

From Kufra they controlled almost the entire Libyan desert and large parts of the Eastern Sahara. During this time the Sanussiya was of great importance for the cultivation and Islamization of the Southeast Sahara and the adjacent Sahel zone. In these areas in particular, numerous new religious branches emerged that functioned as regional centers of religious and economic development. B. in Wadai and Darfur but also to Kanem and Lake Chad . The number of branches grew from 121 in 1884 to over 150 at the beginning of the 20th century.

Kufra became the most important trade center in the region for the caravan trade. Of great importance was the control of the important caravan route from Benghazi via Kufra to Wadai , which was the only significant Trans-Saharan route completely outside the control of the European powers. In this way, therefore, mainly slaves from the Sahel zone were brought to the Mediterranean, while in return mainly older European firearms could be negotiated to the south.

When French colonial troops advanced to Kanem in 1900 , the order saw its religious, economic and political interests there threatened. Muhammad al-Mahdi therefore commissioned his nephew Ahmad al-Sharif to lead the order's troops there. Among other things, Umar al-Muchtar , the later leader of the Libyan resistance movement against the Italian colonial troops, fought in his ranks there.

When Mohammad al-Mahdi died on June 1, 1902, he appointed Ahmad al-Sharif as his successor, since his son Mohammad Idris was only 12 years old at that time.

The tomb of Muhammad Al Mahdi is in al-Tag and is venerated as a sacred place of the Sanussiya.

literature

• Luigi Vittorio Bertarelli: Guida d'Italia. Possedimenti e Colonie. Isole Egee, Tripolitania, Cirenaica, Eritrea, Somalia (= Guida d'Italia del Touring Club Italiano. Pubblicazione Semestrale. No. 16). Touring Club Italiano, Milan 1929.
• Knuth S. Vikør: Sufi and scholar on the desert edge. Muḥammad b. ʿ Alī al-Sanūsī and his Brotherhood . Northwestern University Press, Evanston IL 1995, ISBN 0-8101-1226-4 .
• Claudia Anna Gazzini: Jihad in Exile. Ahmad al-Sharif as-Sanusi 1918–1933. Princeton NJ 2004 (Princeton NJ, University, Master's Thesis, 2004), online .
• Wolfram Oehms: The Sanusiyya and the Transsahara slave trade of the 19th and 20th centuries. Hamburg 2005 (PDF; 576 kB).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Claudia Anna Gazzini: Jihad in Exile. Ahmad al-Sharif as-Sanusi 1918–1933. P. 17 f.
2. ↑ Snussi In: Brockhaus Encyclopedia. 14th edition. Leipzig 1908.
3. ^ Claudia Anna Gazzini: Jihad in Exile. Ahmad al-Sharif as-Sanusi 1918–1933. P. 17.
4. ↑ tungsten Oehms: The Sanusiyya and the trans-Saharan slave trade of the 19th and 20th centuries. P. 3 and 13.