![]() The Ottomans had used this chaos to regroup in the Tripolitanian city of Misrata, where Prince Osman Fuad commanded the western wing of the Libyan resistance. Despite the best attempts of the Italians to save face, they suffered the worst colonial defeat since the Ethiopian disaster and by mid-1917 the only remnants of their presence were a couple fortified cities on the coastline where they desperately held on thanks to walls and machine gun nests. By 1917, the situation in North Africa had devolved into a complicated mess. Many of his old companions decided to follow him, seeing Idris as a traitor who betrayed the old values of the Senussi for his own good. This deeply enraged Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi, who decided to combat his cousin by all available means. He abandoned the Central Powers and opened negotiations with the Entente, promising to fight for Britain and Italy under the condition that he would be affirmed as Emir of Cyrenaica. Many hoped that Idris would bring new power into the conflict, but instead, he chose an entirely different approach: diplomacy. Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi decided to step down as leader of the order after this disgrace and was replaced by his cousin Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi. German newspaper report about the Senussi war efforts in Egypt, 1915Īfter initial success against the Italian colonial forces, the Senussi Order suffered a heavy defeat against Anglo-Egyptian forces near Sallum, Egypt in 1916. Of these three, the by far the most Ottoman affiliated and urban area was Tripolitania, which the reforms executed during the 19th and early 20th century had integrated into the Ottoman centre and actively participated in its central parliament. The three regions of Libya: Cyrenaica, Fezzan and Tripolitania, each had a completely different social and economic structures which for the most part worked in a vacuum. Libyan nationalism was completely absent, with only a strong regionalism present. Nonetheless, there was really no another option. ![]() Libyans themselves tended not to share the same animus wasn't shared and because of its status as a border region of the Empire, the actual cooperation between state and local authorities was troubled. ![]() For figures like Enver Pasha this wasn’t even a discutable subject and it would only take time before Tripolitania would return to the full authority of the Porte. When the Young Turks made it their policy to support the Senussis at all costs during the Weltkrieg, they envisioned a return of Libya to the crown after the war. Senussi warriors mobilize against the Entente, 1914 When the Weltkrieg began, Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi decided to support their old Turkish overlords, hoping to get finally rid of the Italian intruders. When the Italian army invaded Tripolitania in 1911, the Senussis fought side by side with the Ottomans, and even continued the struggle via guerilla warfare once Italy had annexed all of Libya, wishing to become free from European influence. Italo-Turkish War and Weltkrieg (1911-1919) The Ottomans, originally very angry about their influential rivals in the desert, eventually accepted the Senussi dominance in their Libyan possessions and used them as a measure to stabilize their own rule over the region. By the end of the century, Senussi influence stretched from the bustling cities on the Mediterranean to the Wadai Sultanate near Lake Chad, from the deserts of Fezzan to the oasis of Siwa in Egypt. With the help of monasteries, mosques and the cultivation of oases, the order managed to win the support of the rural population and was able to hugely expand its influence, over time even becoming more popular than the Ottoman administrations in Tripoli and Benghazi, despite holding no single official title and entirely riding on popular support. Originally from Hejaz, heavily influenced by fundamentalist and Sufi ideas, the Senussis settled in the vast and untamed deserts of the Ottoman Eyalet of Tripolitania in the mid-19th century, hoping to propagate and spread their faith in that pristine environment. 1.3 Post-Weltkrieg developments (1919- )Īpproximate Influence of the Senussi Order shortly before the Weltkriegįounded by the great Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi in 1843, the Senussi Order has become a synonym for the region of Cyrenaica in which it holds sway.
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