Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi (Arabic: محمد بن علي السنوسي; in full Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Sanūsī al-Mujāhirī al-Ḥasanī al-Idrīsī) (1787–1859) was an Algerian Muslim theologian and leader who founded the Senussi mystical order in 1837. His militant mystical movement proved very significant and helped Libya to win its freedom from Italy on 10 February 1947. Omar Mukhtar was one of the most significant leaders of the Senussi military campaign launched by Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi. Al-Sanūsī's grandson Idrīs I ruled as king of Libya from 1951 to 1969.[1]
Al-Senussi was born in al-Wasita near Mostaganem, Algeria,[2] and was named al-Senussi after a venerated Muslim teacher. He was an Algerian Walad Sidi Abdallah tribesman who claimed descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[3][4][5] The family takes its name from a religious Sheikh named Sanussi who lived in Tlemcen during the 13th century.
Unable to cross Algeria because of the French occupation, the beginning, the centre of Imam Mohammed Ali El Senussi's call was Jebel Akhdar and he built a mosque in Bayda of Cyrenaica and named it after himself, then he moved to Jaghbub in Cyrenaica from where the mosques spread to the remaining cities of Barqa and Tripoli.[6]