Omar Mukhtar and the Senussi movement

Abstract

Talking about the history of Libya, and especially about Cyrenaica in the nineteenth century, specifically in the second half of this century, means talking about the Senussi movement, with all its weight and spread in the public milieu in the regions of Libya, Sudan, Central Africa and other Arab regions. The Senussi movement began with the beginning of stability and its founder, Muhammad bin Ali al-Senussi, who roamed large areas of the Arab world until he finally settled in Libya and was able to open the first corner in the history of the Senussi movement in 1843. From this date to the beginning of the twentieth century, the Senussi movement was able to consolidate its existence. The religious and political movement in the interior regions of Cyrenaica was able to include most of the residents of Cyrenaica who became loyal soldiers of the Senussi movement in its religious side and in their drive to work to spread Islam in the regions of Central Africa, and thus they had a major role in the Islamic missionary movement in the nineteenth century .The Senussi movement in its beginnings was a religious movement that was able to play its role to purify Islam from the heresies that entered it as a result of the sheer ignorance that prevailed over the Libyan Arab people under the Ottoman domination in this region as well as in other Arab regions of the Ottoman Empire. The Senussi movement was able to gently move the Arab people a profound qualitative leap in the field of thinking and behavior through its wide spread and its ability to build many angles that were centers of religious and cultural radiation. The school of Muhammad Ibn Ali Al-Senussi was the greatest school of human Islam in Africa.