The leaders of the Sanusi movement encourage…

The leaders of the Sanusi movement encourage the Bedouin to render to the Grand Sanusi a reverence that verges on veneration of him as a saint, an act forbidden in orthodox Islam.

In fact, the tribesmen regard him as a marabout and, indeed, this is the indispensable basis of their attachment to him.

In no other way could an outsider like Muhammad ibn Ali have won their allegiance.

The Sanusi order ultimately permits its leaders to transform their baraka as holy men into a potent political force capable of holding together a national movement.