Sanusi


Sanusi

or

Senussi

(both: səno͞o`sĭ), Arabic Sanusiyya, a political-religious organization in Libya and Sudan founded in Mecca in 1837 by Muhammad bin Ali al-Sanusi (1791–1859), known as the Grand Sanusi. Sanusi was concerned with both the perceived decline of Islamic thought and the weakening of the Islamic world. His call for political activism was influenced by the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, to which he eclectically added some Sufi teachings from several different Sufi orders. The Sanusi unsuccessfully fought (1902–13) French expansion in the Sahara, and in 1911 the Italian invasion of Libya forced them to concentrate there. During World War I they attacked British-occupied Egypt. A grandson of the Grand Sanusi became King Idris IIdris I,
1890–1983, king of Libya (1951–69). A grandson of the founder of the Sanusi Muslim sect, he became leader of the group in 1917. He was acknowledged (1920) by the Italians as emir of Cyrenaica but had to flee to Egypt in 1922 after quarreling with the Italian
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 of Libya in 1951. In 1969, the king was overthrown by a coup led by Colonel Muammar al-QaddafiQaddafi, Muammar al-
, 1942–2011, Libyan army officer and dictator. He graduated from the Univ. of Libya in 1963 and became an army officer in 1965. In 1969 he formed, along with a group of fellow officers, a secret revolutionary committee and led (1969) a successful coup
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. A third of the population in Libya, and fewer in Sudan, are still affiliated with the Sanusi organization.

Bibliography

See E. E. Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (1949, repr. 1963); N. A. Ziadeh, Sanusiyah (1958, repr. 1983).