Sanusi

Sanusi or Senussi, Islamic Sufi brotherhood (Sufism) in northern Africa, founded in 1837 by the Algerian religious leader Muhammad ibn-Ali al-Sanusi. It was dedicated to a return to the purity and simplicity of the original Islamic faith, in opposition to the prevalent reform tendencies. Developing secular power, the Sanusi, strong in Libya, fought on the side of the Turks in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912. They also fought with the Central Powers in World War I. In 1950 Emir Sayid Idris al-Sanusi, who was the head of the government of the province of Cyrenaica and the temporal and spiritual leader of the Sanusi, became the first Libyan king-designate Idris I. In September 1969 Idris was deposed when the royal government was overthrown in a military coup d'état and a republic established under the name Libyan Arab Republic.