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The Ottoman Government and the Sanusiyya: A Reappraisal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Michel Le Gall
Michel Le Gall
Affiliation:
Department of History, St. Olaf College Northfield, Minnesota
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Extract

The historiography of the Sanusiyya, if one can apply such a term to the literary crop of roughly a century dealing with this North African tarīqa (pl. turuq, Sufi brotherhood), falls into three distinct categories. The earliest writings appeared in the 1880s, thirty years after the tariqa had taken root in Cyrenaica (then the Ottoman province of Benghazi). The works of French authors such as Charmes, Rinn, Duveyrier, Le Chatelier, and co-authors Depont and Coppolani were all marked by the concerns of the French colonial and protectorate authorities in Algeria and Tunisia. According to Duveyrier, a Saharan explorer of repute and the crudest exponent of this group's views, not only were the Sanusis a band of fanatics given to murdering innocent missionaries and explorers, but they were also in the vanguard of the turuq inspired by the Pan-Islamic rhetoric of the Ottoman sultan and aligned against French colonialism in Muslim North Africa. Only this combination of factors could account for the pervasive and determined resistance to French policies in the region. Along with the Sanusiyya, Duveyrier singled out for attack a North African sheikh and confidant of the Ottoman sultan, Muhammad Zafir al-Madani. Charmes, Rinn, Le Chatelier, and Depont and Coppolani, while less vitriolic in their tone, certainly had the same general approach. The analysis of this “Algerian school” was dismissed at the turn of the century by two eminent Orientalists, Christiaan Snouck Hugronje and Carl Heinrich Becker.3 A generation later, European fears of the turuq diminished in the wake of World War I, as new ideologies and forces came to dominate a transformed Pan-Islamism. This notwithstanding, some of the suppositions of the early French authors were adopted by later scholars and have since been quoted and requoted.

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Articles
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International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , February 1989 , pp. 91 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

NOTES

1 Charmes, Gabriel, La Tripolitaine et la Tunisie (Paris, 1884);Google ScholarDuveyrier, Henri, La confrérie musulmane de Sidi Mohammed Ben 'Ali Es-Senousi et son domaine géographique (Paris, 1886);Google ScholarDepont, Octave and Coppolani, Xavier, Les confréries religieuses musulmanes (Algiers, 1897);Google ScholarLe Chatelier, A., Les confréries musulmanes du Hedjaz (Paris, 1887);Google ScholarRinn, Louis, Marabouts et khouan, étude sur l'Islam en Algérie (Algiers, 1884).Google Scholar

2 For Duveyrier's comments on Muhammad Zafir al-Madani and his followers as Sanusi operatives, see La confrérie, p. 43.

3 Hugronje, Christiaan Snouck, “Eenige arabische strijdschriften besproken,” in Verspreide Geschriften, Vol. III (Bonn, 1923), pp. 149–88. This article was originally published in 1897. For a shorter, modified French version, which appeared originally in 1900, see,Google Scholar “Les confréries religieuses, la Mecque et le panislamisme,” Verspreide, Vol. III, pp. 189–206. Becker, Carl Heinrich, “Panislamismus,” in Islamsiudien, Vol. II (Leipzig, 1932), pp. 231–51. Note especially pp. 247–49. This article was originally published in 1904.Google Scholar

4 Macaluso, Giuseppe, Turchi, Senussi ed Italiani in Libia (Benghazi, 1930).Google Scholar

5 Rossi's, Ettore major work was published posthumously, Storia di Tripoli e della Tripolitania dalla con quista Araba al 1911 (Rome, 1968);Google ScholarDe Agostino, Enrico, La popolazioni della Cirenaica (Benghazi, 1922/1923);Google ScholarGiglio, Carlo, La confraternità senussita (Padua, 1932).Google Scholar

6 In addition to Evans-Pritchard's, E. E. work [The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (Oxford, 1949)]Google Scholar see: Ziadeh, Nicola, Sanūsīyah: A Study of a Revivalist Movement in Islam (Leiden, 1958);Google ScholarKlopfer, Helmut, Aspekte der Bewegung des Muhammad Ben 'Ali as-Sanusi (Cairo, 1967);Google Scholaral-Dajjani, Ahmad Sidqi, al-Haraka al-sanusiyya (Beirut, 1968);Google ScholarMartin, B. G., Muslim Brotherhoods in Nineteenth-Century Africa (Cambridge, 1976);Google ScholarAnderson, Lisa S., State and Social Transformation in Tunisia and Libya 1830–1980 (Princeton, 1986). Ziadeh's widely consulted work was reprinted for the second time in 1983 with a short appendix on the life of Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Sanusi, which corrects some of the factual errors of early chronology. Still, on several points of fact and interpretation elsewhere the book is very out of date. Anderson's is a good comparative study of Libyan and Tunisian politics, but it has little to say about the nineteenth-century Sanusiyya specifically.Google Scholar

7 Martin, Brotherhoods, pp. 122–24; Anderson, , “Nineteenth-Century Reform in Ottoman Libya,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 16, 3 (1984), 331.Google Scholar

8 Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi, pp. 90–103; Martin, Brotherhoods, pp. 114, 220; Anderson, “Reform,” pp. 331–32, and The State, pp. 92–93. Evans-Pritchard's evaluation (The Sanusi, pp. 97–98) that it was Sanusi assistance which enabled the Ottomans to collect taxes from the bedouin would seem totally erroneous if viewed against the tax campaigns of the 1880s and 1890s (see pp. 99–100).

9 Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi, p. 91; Ziadeh, Sanūsīyah, p. 61; Dajjani, al-Haraka, pp. 105–6; Anderson, “Reform,” p. 132, and The State, p. 73. (For the presumed contents of the original ferman or fermans and the questionable authenticity of later copies and references, see pp. 96–98.)

10 Başakanlik Arşivi (BA)/Yildiz Esas Evraki (YEE) 18/1871/93/39, undated memorandum of Ahmed Cevdet Paşa. Given his references to the French press coverage of a revolt in Algeria, it would seem that Cevdet wrote this piece during the uprisings of the Awlad Sidi Sheikh led by Abu 'Amaman 1881.

11 BA/YEE/18/553/603/93/38, undated memorandum on the Sanusiyya. This information, in particular the reference to the slaves in the arms workshop, is probably drawn from Duveyrier's description of Sanusi headquarters in Jaghbub. See La confrérie, pp. 57–58.

12 al-Ashhab, Muhammad al-Tayyib, al-Mahdi al-Sanusi (Tripoli, 1952), p. 53. Cf. Dajjani, al-Haraka, p. 208.Google Scholar

13 For a review of the existing sources on Zafir al-Madani's life, see de Jong, Fred, “Madaniyya,” EI2 (Leiden, 1958).Google Scholar A standard biography is included in Mujahid, Zaki Muhammad, al-A'lam al-sharqiyya fi al-mi'at al-rabi'a 'asharat al-hijriyya, Vol. III (Cairo, 1955), pp. 125–26.Google ScholarCf. Trimingham, Spencer J., The Sufi Orders in Islam (Oxford, 1972), pp. 113, 115, 126.Google Scholar

14 In an exchange between the vali (governor) of Tripoli and the French consul, the vali (Ahmed Rasim Paşa) remarked that Sheikh Zafir was the “sworn enemy” of Muhammad al-Mahdi. Ministère des Affaires Etrangéres (MAEF)/Corres. pol./Turquie/Tripoli de Barbarie (Ancienne Série)/27, Destrées to Ribot, Tripoli, 20 May 1890.

15 On their rivalry, see Manneh, B. Abu, “Sultan Abdulhamid II and Shaikh Abuihuda al-Sayyadi,” Middle Eastern Studies, 15, I (1979), 131–53. In time, Sheikh Muhammad Zafir was to be eclipsed by Abu al-Huda, despite the fact that he enjoyed the support of the powerful aide-dc-camp, Ibrahim Derviş Paşa. See, India Office L/P&SL/3/294,CrossRefGoogle Scholar E. Baring to Salisbury, Cairo, 13 March 1889; Foreign Office (FO) 195/1764, Alvarez to Ford, Benghazi, 19 December 1892.

16 On the Madaniyya as a revival of the Shadhiliyya, see Jong, De, “Madaniyya”; Snouck Hugronje, “Les confréries religieuses,” pp. 194–95. A Pan-Islamic sympathizer but critic of Sultan Abdülhamid, Ahmed Hilmi, accused the sultan of using the Shadhiliyya as a ‘shield’ against the Sanusiyya, so as to deprive it of the recognition it deserved.Google Scholar See Şahbenderzade, Ahmed Hilmi, Senüsiler onüçüncü asrin en büyük mütefekkir Islamisi Seyyid Mehmed es-Senüsi (Istanbul, 1325 A.H.), p. 70.Google Scholar

17 BA/YEE/18/553/603/93/38, undated memorandum on the Sanusiyya.

18 BA/YEE/30/64/51/78. This is presumably a copy of the ferman discussed above, p. 92. For the contents of the ferman and for possible alterations introduced into later copies, see pp. 96–98.

19 Hilmi, Ahmed, Senüsiler, pp. 38–39.Google Scholar

20 For events preceding this mission, see: BA/YEE/30/2241/51/78, Muhammad al-Mahdi to the vali, Musa Kazim Paşa, 28 Rebiülevvel 1303/4 January 1886. For Sheikh 'Abd al-Rahim's stipend, BA/Irade/Dahiliyye/77805, baş kâgib (sultan's chief secretary) to grand vizier, 12 Receb 1303/17 April 1886. For the reimbursement of his travel expenses, BA/Bab-I Ali Evrak Odasi (BEO)/Dahiliye/Gelen Defteri/55, entry 1127, 7 Safer 1304/4 October 1886. For a stormy meeting with Sheikh Muhammad Zafir, MAEF/Corres. Pol./Turquie/Tripoli de Barbaric (AS)/25, Destrées to Freycinet, Tripoli, 16 April 1886.

21 el-Müeyyed, Sadik, Afrika Sahara-I kebirinde seyahat (Istanbul, 1314 A.H.), pp. I, 6, 8, 70; MAEF/Corres. Pol./Turquie/Tripoli de Barbaric (AS)/25, Destrées to Flourens, Tripoli, 27 October, 2 Novemebr, 1887. Cf., Archivi Storici del Ministro Degli Affari Esteri (ASMAE)/Moscati VI/Turchia/ 1480 (238), Grande to minister of foreign affairs, Tripoli 27 October, 14 November 1887. The mission took place in 1887, not 1891 as recorded by Ziadeh, Sanūsīyah, p. 63, and repeated by Martin, Brotherhoods, p. 220 note 88.Google Scholar

22 For the contents of these exchanges as reported to the British consul, see: FO 101/79, Cameron “Memorandum on Senousi and Jarabub, 13 May 1889, and Fremeaux to Salisbury, Benghazi 5 December 1889.

23 For the close relations between the British vice-consul and al-'Isawi, see FO 101/79, Cameron to Salisbury, Benghazi, 21 July 1889. For British efforts to open a channel of communication with the Sanusis from Cairo, see: India Office L/P&S/3/294, Baring to Salisbury, Cairo, 24 April 1887; India Office L/P&S/3/296, Wingate's report on a spy mission to Jaghbub, Cairo, 2 June 1889; FO 633/5, letter no. 358, Baring to Cameron, Cairo, 4 June 1889.

24 FO 101/81, Alvarez to White, Benghazi, 26 April 1891. Cf. MAEF/Corres. Pol./Turquie/ Tripoli de Barbarie (AS)/31, Ricard to minister of foreign affairs, Benghazi, 10 May 1891.

25 Baş kâtib to Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Sanusi, 2 Rebiülahir 1313/22 September 1895, quoted in part in Shukri, Fu'ad, al-Sanusiyya, din wa dawla (Cairo, 1948), p. 87. A readable facsimilie of the letter is found on p. 419. Cf. Ziadeh's translation, Sanūsīyah, p. 64. In fact, there were no European missionaries in the parts of “the Sudan” which were of concern to the Sanusiyya. French missionaries did not arrive in Chad until 1935.Google Scholar See, Malval, Jean, Essai de chronologie tchadienne (1707–1940) (Paris, 1974), p. 117.Google Scholar

26 BA/Irade/Dahiliye/1313 Rebiülahir no. 15, sultan's irade note by the baş kâtib, 7 Rebiülahir1313/8 October 1895. BA/YEE/14/451/126/9, Sadik Bey's report to the Palace, 2 Kanun-i Sani1311/14 December 1895. Cf. FO 101/85, Alvarez to Salisbury, Benghazi, 14 Novemebr and 9 December 1895; MAEF/Corres. Pol./Turquie/Tripoli de Barbarie (AS)/31, Destrées to Berthelot, Tripoli, 13 Novemebr 1895; Archivi Storici del Ministero Dell'Africa Italiana (ASMAI)/103/1–7, Prat to Motta, Benghazi, 10 October and 22 Novemebr 1895; ASMAI/102/1–I, Prat to Motta, Benghazi, 15 December 1895 and Motta to Italian Ambassador in Constantinople, Tripoli, 28 December 1895.

27 For the origin of the Ottoman plan to occupy Kufra, see FO 101/80, Alvarez to White, Benghazi, 6 December 1890. For the first steps towards its occupation, BA/Irade/Dahiliye/1310, Safer no. 19, grand vezier to sultan, 14 Safer 1310/5 September 1892, and minute of the Council of State, 19 Şevval 1309/ 16 May 1892. For the irade ordering the departure of troops to Kufra, BA/Irade/ Dahiliye/ 1312, Safer no. 56, August 1894.

28 See pp. 99–100.

29 For the text of the protest by the foreign minister, Mehmed Said Paşa, see Hertslet, Edward ed., The Map of Africa by Treaty, Vol. 2, 2nd rev. ed. (London, 1909), pp. 470–71.Google Scholar

30 ibid., pp. 738–39.

31 Sadik el-Müeyyed likened Rabih to the great Tamerlane, Seyahat, p. 112. The best available study of the importance of Rabih for the history of Chad and the caravan economy linked to Tripolitania is Hallam, W. K. R., The Life and Times of Rabih Fadl Allah (Devon, 1977).Google Scholar

32 Relations with the Tuareg were marred by the attack of the Azger Tuareg tribes on Ghat in 1886. The governor, however, made an effort to repair the damage by appointing a noted merchant of Tripoli, Mansur b. Qaddara, as mutasarrif of Fezzan. See BA/YEE/30/2366/55/78, Ahmed Rasim Paşa to Mansur Paşa, 19 Cemaziyelahir 1304/1324 March 1888. Ottoman-Bornu relations had been relatively consistent until Rabih routed the army of Bornu in 1890. For example, see the exchange of letters between the governor of Tripoli and Sheikh Hamish in BA/YEE/30/332/51/78, Ahmed Rasim to baş kâtib, 5 Şaban 1303/9 May 1886, enclosure Sheikh Hamish's letter; al-Dajjani, Ahmad Sidqi, ed., Waiha'iq 1a'rikh Libiya al-hadith: al-watha'iq al-'uthmaniyya, 1881–1911 (Beirut, 1974), p. 50, document no. 27, 6 Şaban 1303/10 May 1886. The ruler of Bilma, Mai Adam, who had previously mediated with Rabih on behalf of Tripolitanian merchants, came to Tripoli in 1897 and proposed to the governor the establishment of an Ottoman garrison in Kawar, his capital. See MAEF/ Corres. Pol./Turquie/ Tripoli de Barbarie/ (Nouvelle Serie)/92,Google Scholar Lacau to Hanotaux, Tripoli, 8 October 1897; BA/Meclis-i Vükela Mazbatalari/97, 17 Zilhicce 1316/30 April 1899.

33 For the French accords with the sultans of Dar al-Kuti and Baguirmi, see Archives Nationales, Section Outre-Mer (ANSOM) Afrique III/27, Gentil to le commissaire du Congo français, 25 December 1897; Malval, Essai de chronologie, pp. 34–35; Cordell, Dennis D., “The Savanna Belt ofNorth-Central Africa” in Birmingham, David and Martin, Phyllis M., eds., History of Central Africa, Vol. 1 (New York, 1983), p. 73. For the Anglo–French accord of 1899,Google ScholarHertslet, , The Map of Africa by Treaty, Vol. 2, pp. 796–97. For the Ottoman draft protests of the accord, BA/YEE/35/231/ 100/102, a file containing embassy correspondence.Google Scholar

34 Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi, p. 91. Cf. Ziadeh, Sanūsīyah, p. 61; Dajjani, al-Haraka, pp. 105–6; Anderson, “Reform,” p. 332 and The State, p. 73.

35 Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi, pp. 93–98.

36 Dajjani, al-Haraka, pp. 105–6. Dajjani gives the text of the decree from 1287/1870 in an appendix, pp. 302–3.

37 BA/YEE/30/64/51/78, copy of ferman, 9 Temmuz 1310/21 July 1894. Date of the original document given as 15 Rebiülahir 1277/31 October 1860.

38 MAEF/Corres. Pol./Turquie/Tripoli de Barbaric (NS)/96, Vernazza to Boppe, Benghazi, 13 June and 17 Novemebr 1895. On new tax measures introduced that year in Benghazi, see FO 101/96, Alvarez to Lansdowne, Westminster, 4 October 1905.

39 BA/Meclis-i Vükela Mazbatalari/112, 8 Zilkade 1323/4 January 1906.

40 For an overview of 19th-century Ottoman land and tax reforms, see Shaw, Stanford, “The Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Tax Reforms and Revenue System,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 6, 4 (1975), 421–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For the land code of 1858, see Sir Young, George, ed., Corps de droit ottoman (Oxford, 1906), especially Vol. VI, pp. 44, 80. Both make clear the conditions for the establishment of waqf, and the rules governing the confiscation of lands given illegally as waqf. For a definition of state-created waqf, which entailed the transfer of state property with the sultan's permission,Google Scholar see Efendi, Ömer Hilmi, Ehkam-i evkaf (Istanbul, 1307 A.H.), p. 59 ff. For a general Hanafi position on waqf,Google Scholar see al-'Abbasi, Sheikh Muhammad, al-Fatawa al-mahdiyya fi alwaqa'i' al-misriyya, Vol. 2 (Cairo, 1301 A.H.), pp. 634–52.Google Scholar

41 ASMAI 102/1–1, Prat to Motta, Benghazi, 22 Novemebr 1895.

42 al-Wansharisi, Ahmad b. Yahya, al-Mi'yar al-mu'rib wa al-jami' al-mughrib, Vol. 2, ed. Hajji, Muhammad (Rabat, 1981), p. 219.Google Scholar

43 ibid., Vol. VI, p. 133.

44 The practice grew up because large parts of North Africa were not conquered through either of the two shar'i categories (şulhan, lit, by surrender, and 'unwatan, lit. by force) which dictate the type of taxation to be applied. See ibid., Vol. VI, p. 134. I am indebted to Professor Hossein Modarressi of Princeton University for providing this and the previous references from al-Wansharisi and for discussing with me the legal background of this dispute between the Ottomans and the Sanusis. Similar complications arose in Tunisia after the French occupation. See Valensi, Lucette, Fellahs tunisiens: l'économie rurale et la vie des campagnes aux 18e et 19e siècles (Paris, 1977), pp. 91–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 A 1931 Italian estimate put Sanusi waqf holdings at 200,000 hectares, or 495,000 acres, a substantial figure. See Evans-Pritchard, The Sanusi, p. 77. Cf. the detailed study of the Sanusi holdings in the 1920s by Valenzi, Fernando, ‘La Senussia in Cirenaica ed il suo Patrimonio,’ Revista delle Colonie Italiane, 6, 4 (1932), 425–38.Google Scholar

46 For the decline of the slave trade in Benghazi and Tripoli, see Toledano, Ehud R., The Ottoman Slave Trade and its Suppression (Princeton, 1982), pp. 224–48.Google Scholar

47 For his appointment to Benghazi, see BA/Irade/Dahiliye/68519, grand vezier to sultan, 13 Receb 1299/30 June 1882. On Reşid Paşa's service in the Hijaz, see Paşa, Ahmed Cevdet, Tezakir, Vol. 1, ed. Baysun, Cavid (Ankara, 1963), pp. 106–10.Google Scholar

48 FO 101/72, Wood to Granville, Benghazi, 1 May 1883; FO 101/74, Wood to Granville, Benghazi, 28 June 1884.

49 FO 101/72, Wood to Granville, Benghazi, 25 March, 17 April, 1 May 1883. As a gesture of reconciliation, the governor arranged the distribution of the traditional honorary burnuses: BA/ Irade/Şuray-I Devlet/3780, minister of the interior to the grand vizier, 26 Şaban 1300/2 July 1883 and enclosures.

50 MAEF/Corres. Pol./Turquie/Tripoli de Barbaric (AS)/26, Destrées to Goblet, Tripoli, 21 July 1888; BA/Irade/ Dahiliye/ 86603, grand vizier to sultan, 2 Safer 1306/8 October 1888, and serasker to grand vezier, 26 Zilkade 1305/4 August 1888; FO 195/1653, Cameron to White, Benghazi 11 April, 27 June 1889; FO 101/79, Cameron to Salisbury, 4 September 1889; BA/Irade/Dahiliye/93031, minister of finance to grand vizier, 16 Zilhicce 1307/3 July 1890, and grand vizier to sultan, 7 Zilhicce 1307/25 July 1890.

51 Of particular importance is the exchange between Zuwaya tribesmen and Ottoman troops near Jalu in August 1895, three months before the mission of Sadik el-Müeyyed to Kufra. See ASMAI 103/1–7, Prat to Motta, Benghazi, 29 September; 4, 5 October 1895.

52 FO 101/82, Alvarez to Ford, Benghazi, 8, 19 September, 8 October 1892; FO 195/1764, Alvarez to Ford, Benghazi, 25 September 1892; FO 195/1800, Alvarez to Ford, Benghazi, 19 04 1893; MAEF/Corres. Pol./Turquie/Tripoli de Barbaric (AS)/31, Ricard to minister of foreign aifairs, Benghazi, 19 05 1891, 6 Novemebr, 6 December 1892. For the Ottoman relief measures, see BA/Irade/Meclis-i Mahsus/5505, minister of interior to grand vezier, 7 Cemaziyelevvel 1309/4 1892 and the irade, 5 Receb 1309/402 1892; BA/Irade/Dahiliye/ 1310, Rebiülevvel no. 2, minute of the Provincial Administrative Council of Benghazi, 10 Safer 1310/3 September 1892; BA/İrade/ Dahiliye/ 1310, Cemaziye'ahir no. 49, minute of the Meclis-i Mahsus, 19 Cemaziye'lahir 1310/9 January 1893; BA/İrade/Dahiliye/1310, Şaban no. 15, grand vezier to sultan, 4 Ramazan1310/13 March 1893 and enclosures.

53 FO 101/80, Alvarez to White, Benghazi, 6 December 1890.

54 BA/İrade/Dahiliye/ 1310, Safer no. 19, minute of the Council of State, 19 Şevval 1309/16 May 1892. The wells were completed in 1893, but were quickly filled in by sand. See FO 101/84, Alvarez to Rosebery, Benghazi, 4 April 1894.

55 ASMAI 103/1–7, Prat to Motta, Benghazi, 23 August 1895.

56 BA/YEE/30/64/51/78, mutasarrif of Benghazi, Tahir Paşa, to sultan's aide-de-camp, Derviş Paşa, 21 Zilkade 1312/15 May 1895. For the letter of September 1895, see BA/YEE/30/64/51/78, letter from the muqaddam of the Sanusi lodge in Benghazi to the sultan's aide-de-camp, Derviş Paşa.

57 BA/YEE/14/451/126/9, report of Sadik el-Mueyyed, 2 Kanun-i Sani 1311/14 December 1895, pp. 8–11.

58 Theobald, A. B., Au Dinar. the Lass Sultan of Darfur. 1898–1916 (London, 1965), pp. 60–61.Google Scholar