Ahmad al-Sharif

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Sayyid Ahmed al-Sharif al-Senussi

Ahmed asch-Sharif as-Senussi , full name Sayyid Ahmed asch-Sharif ibn Muhammad asch-Sharif ibn Muhammad ibn Ali as Senussi , (* 1873 in al-Jaghbub ; † March 10, 1933 in Medina ) was from 1902 until his resignation 1916 the leader of the Libyan order of Sanussiya .

origin

Ahmed ash-Sharif was born in 1873 in al-Jaghbub and was the grandson of the founder of the Brotherhood, Mohammed es-Senussi , who the Order 1843 in the Cyrenaica had moved. In 1895 he accompanied his father Muhammad al-Sharif and his uncle Muhammad al-Mahdi , the then leader of the order, in the relocation of the order center from al-Jaghbub to Kufra , where his father died in 1896.

Muhammad al-Mahdi had established a religious state from al-Jaghbub, which dominated the entire Libyan desert and large parts of the Eastern Sahara. The order played a major role in the cultivation and Islamization of the Sahel . Of great economic importance for the Order 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 Wadai were brought to the Mediterranean, while in return mainly older European firearms were negotiated to the south.

Fight against France in Chad

When French colonial troops advanced to Kanem in 1900 , the order saw its religious, economic and political interests there threatened. Ahmed al-Sharif was entrusted by his uncle to lead the order's troops in the fight against the invaders. 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. Ahmed al-Sharif continued the fight against the French in what is now Chad in the following years. When the French attacked the Wadai empire in April 1909 , in which the order had previously been very influential, it suffered a serious defeat in the battle for Wadai .

Fight against Italy in Cyrenaica

Between 1915 and 1919 the Senussi had pushed the Italians back to five coastal towns (black)

When Italian colonial troops occupied the Libyan coast in October 1911, he interrupted the fight in Wadai and pooled his forces against the Italians. The threat posed by Italian colonial policy was so great for the order that it ended the rivalry with the Ottoman Empire without hesitation and supported it in the Italo-Turkish War . The Italians suffered a severe setback in the first major battle in Sidi Kraiyem near Darnah . Even after the Ottoman Empire ceded Libya to Italy in the Peace of Ouchy in November 1912 , Ahamad al-Sharif and his brotherhood continued the fight.

He now used his high spiritual reputation to call for jihad against the foreign invaders, not only in Libya, but in the entire Muslim world. Due to the great influence of the Sanussiya Order in the Kyrenaica, it was easy for him to unite the local tribes in the fight against the Italians. In the following years many more successes against the Italian colonial troops followed, so that in 1915 they only had five bases on the coast under their control (Tripoli and Homs in the west and Benghasi, Baida and Derna in the east).

Battle against England in Egypt

During the First World War , in November 1915, Ahmad al-Sharif was encouraged by the Ottoman Empire to invade Egypt in addition to the fight against Italy. The German Reich also supported the order with arms deliveries. For this purpose, German submarines operated between the ports of the Central Powers and the Libyan coast from November 1915 to October 1918 . In fact, the Sanussiya cavalry units initially succeeded in driving the British troops out of Sollum and forcing them to retreat to Mersa Matruh . In February 1916 the occupation of Siwa and all other oases of the Egyptian western desert, in which the order had already been influential (including Dachla , Bahariyya , Farafra , Charga ), succeeded. When the British troops launched a counter-offensive in February 1916, the lightly armed cavalry units of the Sanussiya were hopelessly inferior. On March 14th, Sollum was recaptured by the British, and in October 1916 the order was also pushed back from the Egyptian oases.

The defeat prompted Ahmed al-Sharif to resign from the leadership of the Order and this year's 26-its to pass cousin Mohammad Idris, who later as Idris I King of Libya was. In August 1918 the remaining troops of the order were surrounded in their last base in Misrata . Ahmed al-Sharif was left to flee on a German submarine that landed there.

He went into exile first in Austria-Hungary and later in the Ottoman Empire. Ahmed al-Sharif died in Medina on March 10, 1933.

literature

  • Kalifa Tillisi, “Mu'jam Ma'arik Al Jihad fi Libia1911-1931”, Dar Ath Thaqafa, Beirut, Lebanon, 1973.
  • Mohammed Fouad Shukri, “As Senussiya Deen wa Daula”, Markaz ad Dirasat al Libiya, Oxford, 2005.
  • War Monthly Magazine, "The Sanussi 1915-17"
  • Mustafa Ali Houwaidi, “Al Haraka al Wataniya fi Shark Libia Khilal al Harb al Alamiya al Oula”, Markaz Jihad al Libiyeen Did al Ghazu al Itali, Tripoli, 1988.
  • Russell McGuirk: The Sanusi's Little War, The Amazing Story of a Forgotten Conflict in the Western Desert, 1915-1917 . Arabian Publishing, London 2007, OCLC 156803398 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfram Oehms: The Sanusiyya and the Transsahara slave trade of the 19th and 20th centuries, p. 3 u. 13
  2. ↑ Claudia Anna Gazzini: Jihad in Exile: Ahmad al-Sharif as-Sanusi 1918-1933 ( Memento from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.0 MB), pp. 19-25
  3. ^ Hans Werner Neulen: Feldgrau in Jerusalem . 2nd edition, Munich: Universitas, 2002, p. 100 ff. ISBN 3-8004-1437-6
  4. ↑ McGuirk, pp. 262f
personal data
SURNAME Ahmad al-Sharif
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Senussi, Ahmed asch-Sharif as-; Senussi, Sayyid Ahmed asch-Sharif ibn Muhammad asch-Sharif ibn Muhammad ibn Ali as
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Leader of the Libyan Sanussiya Order
DATE OF BIRTH 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH al-Jaghbub
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1933
Place of death Medina