THE SENUSSIS
ANY story of the Libyan Desert would not be complete without some
consideration of the Senussis, the most important influence in that
region. The subject is a complicated one. Justice might be done to
it if an entire volume were available, but within the limits of a
chapter only the important points of Senussi history can be touched.
The Senussis are not a race nor a country nor a political entity nor
a religion. They have, however, some of the characteristics of all
four. In fact they are almost exclusively Bedouins; they inhabit,
for the most part, the Libyan Desert; they exert a controlling
influence over considerable areas of that region and are recognized
by the governments of surrounding territory as a real power in the
affairs of northeastern Africa; and they are Moslems. Perhaps the best
short description of the Senussis would be as a religious order whose
leadership is hereditary and which exerts a predominating influence
in the lives of the people of the Libyan Desert.
The history of the brotherhood may be roughly divided into four
periods. In each it took its color from the personality of the
leader. These were respectively Sayed Ibn Ali El Senussi, the founder;
Sayed El Mahdi, his son; Sayed Ahmed, the nephew of the latter; and
Sayed Idris, the son of El Mahdi, the present head of the brotherhood.
Sayed Mohammed Ibn Ali El Senussi, known as the Grand Senussi, was
born in Algeria in the year 1202 after the Hegira, which corresponds
to 1787 in the Christian calendar. He was a descendant of the Prophet
Mohammed and had received an unusually scholarly education in the
Kairwan University, in Fez, and at Mecca, where he became the pupil
of the famous theologian Sidi Ahmed Ibn Idris El Fazi. He developed
an inclination to asceticism and a conviction that what his religion
needed was a return to a pure form of Islam as exemplified in the
teachings of the Prophet.
At the age of fifty-one he was compelled to leave Mecca by the
opposition of the older _sheikhs_, who challenged his orthodoxy. He
returned through Egypt to Cyrenaica and began to establish centers
for teaching his doctrines among the Bedouins.
At this point an explanation of the meaning of three Arabic words
will elucidate the text. They are _zawia_, _ikhwan_, and _wakil_.
A _zawia_ is a building of three rooms, its size depending on
the importance of the place in which it is situated. One room is a
school-room in which the Bedouin children are taught by the _ikhwan_;
the second serves as the guest-house in which travelers receive the
usual three days’ hospitality of Bedouin custom; in the third the
_ikhwan_ lives. The _zawia_ is generally built near a well where
travelers naturally stop. Attached to the _zawia_ is often a bit
of land which is cultivated by the _ikhwan_. The _ikhwan_ are the
active members of the brotherhood, who teach its principles and
precepts. _Ikhwan_ in Arabic is really a plural form, which means
“brothers.” But the singular of the word is never used, _ikhwan_
having come to be used for one or more. A _wakil_ is the personal
representative or deputy of the head of the Senussis.
The Grand Senussi found the Moslems of Cyrenaica fallen into heresies
and in danger of rapid degeneration, not only from a religious but
from a moral point of view. Some small examples may serve to illustrate
this point.
At Jebel Akhdar, in the north of Cyrenaica, certain influential Bedouin
chiefs had established a sort of Kaaba, an imitation of the true one
at Mecca to which every believer who could possibly do so should make
his pilgrimage. These founders of a false Kaaba tried to establish
the theory that a pilgrimage thither was a worthy substitute for the
_haj_, the authentic pilgrimage to the central shrine of Islam.
[Illustration: ZERWALI
Head man of the explorer’s caravan]
The keeping of the month of Ramadan as a time of abstinence and
religious contemplation is an important tenet of the Moslem faith. The
Bedouins used to go before the beginning of Ramadan to a certain
valley called Wadi Zaza, noted for the multiple echo given back by
its walls. In chorus they would shout a question, “Wadi Zaza, Wadi
Zaza, shall we keep Ramadan or no?” The echo of course threw back
the last word of the question, “No—no—no!” Those who had
appealed thus to the oracle would then go home justified in their
own minds in their desire to forego the keeping of the fast.
There were also prevalent among the Bedouins remnants of old barbaric
customs—such as the killing of female children “to save them from
the evils which life might bring”—which stood between them and
their development into worthy exponents of Islam.
In such circumstances what the founder of the Senussi brotherhood
had to give, in his teaching and preaching of a return to the pure
tenets of Islam, met a poignant need.
Sayed Ibn Ali El Senussi founded his first _zawia_ on African soil
at Siwa, which is in Egypt close to the western frontier. From that
point he moved westward into Cyrenaica, establishing _zawias_ at Jalo
and Aujila. He traveled westward through Tripoli and Tunis, gradually
spreading his teachings among the Bedouins. His reputation as a saintly
man and a scholar had preceded him, and he was much sought after by
the Bedouin chiefs, who vied with one another to give him hospitality.
On his return to Cyrenaica in the year 1843 he established at Jebel
Akhdar near Derna a large _zawia_ called El Zawia El Beda, the White
Zawia. Until this time he had no headquarters but led the life of a
wandering teacher. He settled down at El Zawia El Beda and received
visits from the leading Bedouin dignitaries of Cyrenaica.
The Grand Senussi preached a pure form of Islam and strict adherence
to the laws of God and his Prophet Mohammed.
His teachings may perhaps be best illustrated by a passage from a
letter to the people of Wajanga, in Wadai, the original of which I
saw at Kufra and translated. The passage reads as follows:
We wish to ask you in the name of Islam to obey God and His Prophet. In
his dear Book he says, praise be to him, “O ye, who are believers,
obey God and obey the Prophet!” He also says, “He who obeys the
Prophet has also obeyed God.” He also says, “He who obeys God
and His Prophet has won a great victory.” He also says, “Those
who obey God and the Prophet, they are with the prophets whom God
has rewarded.”
We wish to ask you to obey what God and His Prophet have ordered;
making the five prayers every day, keeping the month of Ramadan, giving
tithes, making the _haj_ to the sacred home of God [the pilgrimage to
Mecca], and avoiding what God has forbidden—telling lies, slandering
people behind their backs, taking unlawfully other people’s money,
drinking wine, killing men unlawfully, bearing false witness, and
the other crimes before God.
In following these you will gain everlasting good and endless benefits
which can never be taken from you.
The principal concern of the founder of the Senussis was with the
religious aspect of life. He did not set out to be a political leader
or to grasp temporal power. He counseled austerity of life with the
same enthusiasm with which he practised it. He taught no special
theological doctrines and demanded acceptance of no particular
dogmas. He cared much more for what his followers did than for any
technicalities of belief. His only addition to the Moslem ritual was
a single prayer, which he wrote and which the Senussis use, called the
_hezb_. It is not opposed to anything taught by the older theologians,
nor does it add anything to what is found in the Koran. It is simply
expressed in different language. In the letter to the people of
Wajanga, which I have quoted, another passage described his mission,
which God had laid upon him, as that of “reminding the negligent,
teaching the ignorant, and guiding him who has gone astray.”
He forbade all kinds of luxurious living to those who allied
themselves with his brotherhood. The possession of gold and jewels
was prohibited—except for the adornment of women—and the use of
tobacco and coffee. He imposed no ritual and only demanded a return
to the simplest form of Islam as it was found in the teaching of
the Prophet. He was intolerant of any intercourse, not only with
Christians and Jews, but with that part of the Moslem world which,
in his conviction, had digressed from the original meaning of Islam.
In the year 1856 Sayed Ibn Ali founded at Jaghbub the _zawia_ which
eventually developed into the center of education and learning of
the Senussi brotherhood. His choice of Jaghbub was not haphazard or
accidental but a demonstration of his wisdom and practical sagacity. He
conceived it to be of the first importance to reconcile the different
tribes of the desert to each other and to bring peace among them. One
more quotation from his letter illustrates this point:
We intend to make peace between you and the Arabs [the people of
Wajanga to whom this letter is addressed are of the black race]
who invade your territory and take your sons as slaves and your
money. In so doing we shall be carrying out the injunction of God,
who has said, “If two parties of believers come into conflict,
make peace between them.” Also we shall be following his direction,
“Fear God, make peace among those about you, and obey God and his
Prophet if you are believers.”
[Illustration: SIWA
One of the most historic oases of northern Africa. It was noted for
its temple of Amon even before the time of Herodotus, and Alexander the
Great came here to consult the oracle. In the middle distance, slightly
to the right, is the covered market-place. Lofty structures indicate
that Siwa was at one time a point of defense from desert tribes.]
Jaghbub was a strategic point for his purpose. It stood midway between
tribes on the east and on the west who had been in constantly recurring
conflict. With his headquarters there the Grand Senussi could bring
his influence to bear on the warring rivals and carry out the command
of the Prophet to “make peace among those about you.” From a
practical standpoint Jaghbub was an unpromising place in which to
set up such a center of educational and religious activity as the
Grand Senussi had in contemplation. It is not much of an oasis, if
indeed it can be called an oasis at all. Date-trees are scarce there,
the water is brackish, and the soil very difficult to cultivate. Its
strategic importance, however, was clear, and without hesitation he
selected it as the site of his headquarters. The raids made upon each
other by the tribes to the east and the west were brought to an end
through his influence. He settled many old feuds not only between
those tribes but among the other tribes in Cyrenaica.
Sayed Ibn Ali lived for six years after establishing himself at Jaghbub
and extended his influence far and wide. The Zwaya tribe, who had been
known as the brigands of Cyrenaica, “fearing neither God nor man,”
invited him to come to Kufra, the chief community of their people,
and establish a _zawia_ there. They agreed to give up raiding and
thieving and attacking other tribes and offered him one third of all
their property in Kufra if he would come to them. He could not go in
person but sent a famous _ikhwan_, Sidi Omar Bu Hawa, who established
the first Senussi _zawia_ at Jof in Kufra, and began the dissemination
of the teachings of the Grand Senussi among the Zwayas. Sayed Ibn
Ali also commissioned _ikhwan_ to go into many other parts of the
Libyan Desert, and before his death all the Bedouins on the western
frontier of Egypt and all over Cyrenaica had become his disciples.
He died in the year 1859, and was buried in the tomb over which rises
the _kubba_ of Jaghbub.
The Grand Senussi was succeeded by his son Sidi Mohammed El Mahdi,
who was sixteen years old when his father died. In spite of his
youth his succession as head of the order was strengthened by two
circumstances. It was remembered that on one occasion, at the end of
an interview with his father, El Mahdi was about to leave the room,
when the Grand Senussi rose and performed for him the menial service
of arranging his slippers, which had been taken off on entering. The
founder of the order then addressed those present in these words:
“Witness, O ye men here present, how Ibn Ali El Senussi arranges
the slippers of his son, El Mahdi.” It was realized that he meant
to indicate that the son not only would succeed the father but would
surpass him in holiness and sanctity.
Then too there was an ancient prophecy that the Mahdi who would
reconquer the world for Islam would attain his majority on the first
day of Moharram in the year 1300 after the Hegira, having been born
of parents named Mohammed and Fatma and having spent several years in
seclusion. Each part of this prophecy was fulfilled in the person of
El Mahdi. The choice as successor to the Grand Senussi fell upon him.
When Sayed El Mahdi reached his majority there were thirty-eight
_zawias_ in Cyrenaica and eighteen in Tripolitania. Others were
scattered over other parts of North Africa; and there were nearly a
score in Egypt. It has been estimated that between a million and a
half and three million people owed spiritual allegiance to the head
of the brotherhood when El Mahdi became its active head. He was the
most illustrious of the Senussi family.
He saw from the first that there was more scope for the influence
of the brotherhood in the direction of Kufra and the regions to
the southward than in the north. In the year 1894 he removed his
headquarters from Jaghbub to Kufra. Before his departure he freed
all his slaves, and some of them and their children are still to be
found living at Jaghbub.
His going to Kufra marked the beginning of an important era in the
history of the Senussis and also in the development of trade between
the Sudan and the Mediterranean coast by way of Kufra. The difficult
and waterless trek between Buttafal Well near Jalo and Zieghen
Well just north of Kufra became in El Mahdi’s time a beaten route
continually frequented by trade caravans and by travelers going to
visit the center of the Senussi brotherhood. “A man could walk for
half a day from one end of the caravan to the other,” a Bedouin
told me.
The route from Kufra south to Wadai was also a hard and dangerous
journey in those days, and El Mahdi caused the two wells of Bishra
and Sara to be dug on the road from Kufra to Tekro.
Under the rule of the Zwaya tribe of Bedouins, who had conquered
Kufra from the black Tebus, that group of oases was the chief
center of brigandage in the Libyan Desert. The Zwayas are a warlike
tribe, and in the days before the coming of the Senussis they were
a law unto themselves and a menace to all those who passed through
their territory. Each caravan going through Kufra north or south was
either pillaged or, if lucky, was compelled to pay a route tax to the
Zwayas. These masters of Kufra were induced by El Mahdi to give up
this exacting of tribute. He realized the importance of developing
the trade of the oases and of the routes across the Libyan Desert
from the north to the south. He strove to make desert travel safe,
and in his day, Bu Matari, a Zwaya chieftain, told me at Kufra,
a woman might travel from Barka (Cyrenaica) to Wadai unmolested.
[Illustration: _Left_
_Right_
PANORAMA OF JAGHBUB]
El Mahdi also extended the circle of influence of the Senussis in
many directions. _Ikhwan_ were sent out to establish _zawias_ from
Morocco as far east as Persia. But his greatest work was in the desert,
among the Bedouins and the black tribes south of Kufra. He made the
Senussis not only a spiritual power in those regions, and a powerful
influence for peace and amity among the tribes, but a strong mercantile
organization under whose stimulus trade developed and flourished. In
the last years of his life he undertook to extend the influence of
the brotherhood to the southward in person. He had gone to Geru south
of Kufra when his death came suddenly in the year 1900.
The sons of El Mahdi were then minors, and his nephew Sayed Ahmed was
made the head of the brotherhood. He was the guardian of Sayed Idris,
who, as the eldest son of El Mahdi, was his legitimate successor.
The new head of the Senussis made an abrupt departure from the policies
of his predecessors. He sought to combine temporal and spiritual
power. When the Italians took over Cyrenaica and Tripoli from the
Turks, Sayed Ahmed attempted to unite his spiritual power as head of
the brotherhood with the remnants of temporal and military power left
by the Turks. Then the Great War broke out, and he allowed himself to
be persuaded by Turkish and German emissaries to attack the western
frontier of Egypt. The effort was a complete failure, and Sayed Ahmed
was compelled to go to Constantinople in a German submarine.
The third of the Senussi leaders saw things differently from the
Grand Senussi and his son. They had realized that a spiritual leader
cannot be beaten on his own ground, whereas if he takes the field in
quest of temporal supremacy it requires only a few military reverses
to destroy his prestige. The power of Sayed Ibn Ali El Senussi and
Sayed El Mahdi lay in themselves and in the spiritual influence that
radiated from them. Sayed Ahmed surrendered this influence to rely
upon arms, ammunition, and circumstances. When these failed, there
was nothing left.
From the hands of Sayed Ahmed the Senussi leadership fell to the
lineal successor, Sayed Idris. He derives a considerable part of
the prestige which he undoubtedly possesses from the fact that
he is the son of El Mahdi. But even without that advantage his own
personal qualities would be an adequate foundation for success in the
important position to which he has been called. He combines gentleness
of disposition with firmness of character to a high degree. He has
the loyal allegiance and support not only of the Senussi _ikhwan_
but of the people of the Libyan Desert.
In 1917 an agreement was entered into by the Italian Government with
Sayed Idris, as head of the Senussi brotherhood, by which his right
to administer the affairs of the oases of Jalo, Aujila, Jedabia,
and Kufra was expressly recognized. This agreement was again ratified
two years later at Regima. Unfortunately in 1923 a misunderstanding
between the parties to this agreement caused it to lapse. It is to be
hoped, however, that a new arrangement will be entered into between
Sayed Idris and the Italian authorities which will restore to these
oases of the Libyan Desert their peace and prosperity.
There can be no question that the influence of the Senussi brotherhood
upon the lives of the people of that region is good. The _ikhwan_ of
the Senussis are not only the teachers of the people, both in the field
of religion and of general knowledge, but judges and intermediaries
both between man and man and between tribe and tribe. The letter
to the people of Wajanga already quoted clearly illustrates how the
Grand Senussi laid down this office of peace-making as the duty of
the Senussi brothers. It was developed and made even more important
by his great son, El Mahdi.
The importance of these aspects of the Senussi rule in maintaining
the tranquillity and well-being of the people of the Libyan Desert
can scarcely be overestimated.