Sufi and Scholar of the Desert Edge

The Sanusiya was one of the most influential Islamic movements in North Africa and the Sahara in the nineteenth century. It organised the Beduin of the desert and desert fringes into a Sufi movement that combined religious piety with trade. Later, it played a key role in the resistance to French and Italian colonialism. The basis of the movement was laid by the Maghrebi scholar Muhammad b. Ali al-Sanusi (1787-1859), who saw his task as being to advance the growth and spread of Islamic learning, in particular the study of Law and the prophetic tradition. This study of al-Sanusi focuses on the scholarly tradition of which he was part, and the heritage of his numerous books and the organisation of the Sufi order in North Africa. The book discusses his role in the Sufi network of Ahmad Ibn ldris and of the scholarly milieu of the Qarawiyin in Fez, giving an overview of the Sanusiya order in the mid-nineteenth century. It also presents al-Sanusi's writings.