The founder of the Sanusi religious order,…

The founder of the Sanusi religious order, Muhammad ibn Ali as Sanusi (1787-1859), had possessed both the popular appeal of a marabout and the prestige of a religious scholar.

Early in his spiritual formation, he had come under the influence of the Sufis, a school of mystics who had inspired an Islamic revival in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and had incorporated their asceticism into his own religious practices.

Born near Oran in Algeria, he had traveled widely, studying and teaching at some of the outstanding  Islamic centers of learning of his day, and his reputation as a scholar and holy man had spread throughout North Africa.

In 1830 he had beeen honored as the Grand Sanusi (as Sanusi al Kabir) by the tribes and towns of Tripolitania and Fezzan while passing through on his way to Mecca.