in full Sīdī Muḥammad ibn ʽAlī al-Sanūsī al-Mujāhirī al-Ḥasanī al-Idrīsī
born с 1787, Tursh, near Mostaganem, North Africa
died Sept. 7, 1859, Jaghbūb, Cyrenaica
North African Muslim theologian.
He received his religious training in Fès, Mor., which was under strong French influence at the time. He became convinced that the Islamic community needed to revitalize itself in order to shake off foreign domination. Using tactics he had developed preaching among Bedouin in the Hejaz, he organized tribes in Cyrenaica to resist Italian domination, founding a militant mystical movement, the Sanūsiyyah (1837), which helped Libya win its independence in the 20th century. Libya's first king, Idrīs I , was his grandson.