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Libya
The Sanusis
The Sanusi movement was a religious revival adapted to desert
life. Its zawaayaa could be found in Tripolitania and
Fezzan, but Sanusi influence was strongest in Cyrenaica. Rescuing
the region from unrest and anarchy, the Sanusi movement gave the
Cyrenaican tribal people a religious attachment and feelings of
unity and purpose.
The Sanusis formed a nucleus of resistance to the Italian colonial
regime (see Italian Colonialism , ch. 1). As the nationalism fostered
by unified resistance to the Italians gained adherents, however,
the religious fervor of devotion to the movement began to wane,
particularly after the Italians destroyed Sanusi religious and
educational centers during the 1930s. Nonetheless, King Idris,
the monarch of independent Libya, was the grandson of the founder
of the Sanusi movement, and his status as a Sanusi gave him the
unique ability to command respect from the disparate parts of
his kingdom.
Despite its momentary political prominence, the Sanusi movement
never regained its strength as a religious force after its zawaya
were destroyed by the Italians. A promised restoration never fully
took place, and the Idris regime used the Sanusi heritage as a
means of legitimizing political authority rather than of providing
religious leadership.
After unseating Idris in 1969, the revolutionary government placed
restrictions on the operation of the remaining zawaya,
appointed a supervisor for Sanusi properties, and merged the Sanusi-sponsored
Islamic University with the University of Libya. The movement
was virtually banned, but in the 1980s occasional evidence of
Sanusi activity was nonetheless reported.
Data as of 1987
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