Zawiyat al-Bayda' (Beida) Al-Jabal al-Akhdar Libya

The Grand Sanusi, disturbed by division and dissension within Islam, believes that only a return to the purity of early Islam and its insistence on austerity in faith and morals can restore the religion to its rightful glory.

On the basis of his perception of the state and needs of Islam, the Grand Sanusi had organized a religious order, founding its first lodge (zawiya; pi., zawaayaa) near Mecca in 1837.

Disagreement with the Turkish authorities, however, had forced his return to North Africa.

He had originally intended to return to Algeria, but the expansion of the French occupation there determined that he settle in Cyrenaica, where the loose hold exercised by Turkish authorities permits an atmosphere more congenial to his teaching.

The tribesmen of the interior are particularly receptive to his ideas, and in 1843 he founds the first Cyrenaican lodge at Al Bayda.

The Grand Sanusi does not tolerate fanaticism.

He forbids the use of stimulants as well as the practice of voluntary poverty.

Lodge members are to eat and dress within the limits of religious law and, instead of depending on alms, are required to earn their living through work.

No aids to contemplation, such as the processions, gyrations, and mutilations employed by Sufi dervishes, are permitted

The Grand Sanusi accept neither the wholly intuitive ways described by the Sufi mystics nor the rationality of the orthodox ulama; rather, he attempts to adapt from both.

The Bedouin had shown no interest in the ecstatic practices of the Sufis that are gaining adherents in the towns, but they are attracted in great numbers to the Sanusis.

The relative austerity of the Sanusi message is especially suited to the character of the Cyrenaican Bedouin, whose way of life has not changed markedly in the centuries since the Arabs had first accepted the Prophet's teachings.

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.

To the single lodge founded at Al Bayda in 1843 is eventually added a network of lodges throughout Cyrenaica that binds together the tribal system of the region.

The lodge fills an important place in the lives of the tribesmen.

Besides its obvious function as a religious center and conduit of baraka to the tribe, it is also a school, caravansary, social and commercial center, court of law, and haven for the poor.

It provides a place of high culture and safety in the desert wilderness.