Muhammad as-Sanussi

This article describes the founder of the Sanussiya. Other personalities with the name Muhammad as-Sanussi are listed on the Sanussi disambiguation page .

Muhammad as-Sanussi , fully Mohammed ben Ali el-Senussi ( Arabic محمد بن علي السنوسي, DMG Muḥammad b. ʿAlī as-Sanūsī ; * 1787 in al-Wasita, Algeria ; † 1859 in al-Jaghbub , Libya ) was the founder of the Sanusiya order.

Muhammad ibn Ali as-Sanussi was born in 1787 in al-Wasita near Mostaganem in what is now Algeria. He was named as-Sanussi after a local Koran scholar. As a sheikh from the tribe of Walad Sidi Abdalla , he believed that he could trace his descent to Fatima , the daughter of the prophet Mohammed .

As-Sanussi first studied at a Koran school in Fez , Morocco . He then traveled through North Africa as an itinerant preacher, where he managed to find numerous followers for his ideas for a renewal of Islam. He continued his studies at al-Azhar University in Cairo , but then set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca .

In Mecca in 1837 he founded the Sanusiya Order, which later became known in Europe as the Senussi Brotherhood . The Sufi order emerged as a religious reform movement for the renewal of Islam. This purpose served not only the intensive study of scriptures, but also meditation and various ecstasy techniques based on the model of the dervishes . In contrast to these, the Sanusi strive for the unio mystica not with God, but with the spirit of the prophet Mohammed. The founder of the order himself was said to be able to enter into direct communication with the prophet at any time. That is why the Sanusi consider his interpretations of the Koran and Sunna to be binding.

In 1843 as-Sennussi moved the center of his order to northeast Libya. The local Cyrenaica was at that time a remote and backward province of the Ottoman Empire with relatively little political control. As-Sennussi therefore seemed particularly well suited to following the example of the Sufi mystic Sayyid Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi , who had been running a small economically, legally and militarily self-sufficient community in the southwest of the Arabian Peninsula since 1835.

The first religious establishment was established in al-Bayda in Jabal Achdar . In addition to prayer and mystical immersion, the friars also practiced weapons technology and agriculture there. They were supposed to earn their own living and for this purpose they practiced agriculture, trade and handicrafts. Similar to the Christian religious orders, the Sanusi branches also had their own schools.

Due to the diligence and tight organization of the friars, the community developed very successfully in the following years. From the mother convent in al-Bayda, 80 more religious houses have now been built, mainly in Cyrenaica, but also in other regions of Libya. The prosperous religious state soon provoked reactions from the Ottoman administration. After attacks by the Ottoman governors in Libya, as-Sennussi had to move the center of the brotherhood from al-Bayda in 1856 to the oasis of al-Jaghbub, about 500 km southeast, where he died in 1859. His son Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi (1859-1902) took over the leadership of the brotherhood.

Muhammad as-Sanussi was originally buried in the great mosque of al-Jaghbub. Since the grave remained a place of pilgrimage for the Islamic Orthodox opposition even after the Sanusiya Order was banned as part of Gaddafi's Islamization campaign in the Libyan People's Republic , his remains were reburied in an unknown location at the end of the 1970s.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://libyen.com/Religion/Die-islamische-Ordensgemeinschaft-der-Senussi
2. ↑ Mohamed Eljahmi: Libya and the US: Qadhafi Unrepentant. In: The Middle East Quarterly. Middle East Forum , 2006, pp. 11-20 , accessed on May 18, 2011 (English, Vol. 13 No. 1). 
3. ^ Willeitner, Joachim: Libya. DuMont Art Travel Guide, 2011, p. 323

literature

• Libya: Muhammad Al-Sanusi (c. 1787-1859) and the Sanusiyya. In: Kevin Shillington (Ed.): Encyclopedia of African History. Volume 2: H-O. Fitzroy Dearborn, New York NY 2005, ISBN 1-57958-454-3 , pp. 830-831.

Web links

http://libyen.com/Religion/Die-islamische-Ordensgemeinschaft-der-Senussi

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Head of the Sanussiya Order 1843–1859	Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Sanussi