num_pages: 310
description: The Sanusiya was one of the most influential Islamic movements in North Africa and the Sahara in the nineteenth Century. Its basis was laid by Maghrebi scholar Muhammad b. Ali al-Sanusi (1787-1859). From a background of studies in Sufism and Islamic law, he traveled and studied throughout the Islamic world before settling in Libya to found a new Sufi brotherhood dedicated to the development and spread of Islam among the Saharan Beduins. But the brotherhood's success in organizing the desert peoples eventually transformed it from scholarly and spiritual pursuits into a protector of Saharan trade and defender of Islam. Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge focuses on the intellectual tradition that formed al-Sanusi, and also presents his writings and an overview of the Sanusiya order in the mid-nineteenth century.
language: English
title: Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge: Muhammad B. Ali al-Sanusi and his Brotherhood
titlecomplete: Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge: Muhammad B. Ali al-Sanusi and his Brotherhood (Series in Islam and Society in Africa)
ratings_count: 3
publisher: Northwestern University Press