Libyan Desert

Desert landscape in southern Libya

The Libyan Desert, also known as Great Sand Sea or Western Desert, is an African desert that is located in the northern and eastern part of the Sahara Desert and occupies southwestern Egypt, eastern Libya, and northwestern Sudan. Covering an area of approximately 1,100,000 square kilometers it extends approximately 1,100 km from east to west, and 1,000 km from north to south, in about the shape of a rectangle.

This desert is primarily sand and boulder plain and is inhabited by the Senussis. The dominant wildlife are sand vipers and scorpions.

Ridges and deep depressions (basins) exist in several parts of the desert, and no rivers or streams drain into or out of the area. The desert's Jilf al Kabir Plateau has an altitude of about 2,000 meters, an exception to the uninterrupted territory of basement rocks covered by layers of horizontally bedded sediments, forming a massive plain or low plateau.

There are eight important depressions in the Libyan Desert, and all are considered oases except the smallest, Qattara, because its waters are salty. Limited agricultural production, the presence of some natural resources, and permanent settlements are found in the other seven depressions, all of which have fresh water provided by the Nile River or by local groundwater.

The Siwa Oasis, close to the Libyan border and west of Qattara, is isolated from the rest of Egypt but has sustained life since ancient times.

The other major oases include Dakhla and Kharga in Egypt, and Jaghbub in Libya, which, along with Siwah, form a topographic chain of basins extending from the Al Fayyum Oasis (sometimes called the Fayyum Depression) which lies sixty kilometers southwest of Cairo, south to the Bahariya, Farafra and Dakhla oases before reaching the country's largest oasis, Kharga Oasis. A brackish lake, Lake Karun, at the northern reaches of Al Fayyum Oasis, drained into the Nile in ancient times. For centuries sweetwater artesian wells in the Fayyum Oasis have permitted extensive cultivation in an irrigated area that extends over 2,100 square kilometers.

Key geographic feaures

The Qattara Depression

The Qattara Depression, which contains the second lowest point in Africa, is approximately 15,000 km². (about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island), and is largely below sea level (its lowest point is 133 meters below sea level). The sparsely inhabited Qattara Depression is covered by badlands, salt marshes and salt lakes.

The Gilf Kebir

The Gilf Kebir plateau rises about 300 meters (1,000 ft) above the general plain, and lies entirely in Egypt. It roughly equals Switzerland in size and is similar in structure to the other sandstone plateaus of the central Sahara. Its southeastern part is well defined on all sides, with sheer cliffs and deep, narrows wadis. The northeast part, separated from the other half by a broad valley called the "Gap" is more broken, and supports three large wadis with vegetation.

The Sand Seas

The three sand seas, which contain dunes up to 110 meters in height and which cover approximately one quarter of the region include:

Egyptian Sand Sea
Kalansho Sand Sea
Ribiana Sand Sea

Modern exploration

Sahara was traversed by mostly Muslims traders and natives to the Sahara with pilgrims. It has received lots of writings from the likes of Ibn Battuta.

The first modern explorer to the Sahara was the German Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs. In his daring expeditions in 1865 he received much resistance from the natives of the Saharan oases and kingdoms he visited. Because of the resistance to all European explorers at the time specially by Senussis Ikhwan, Rohlfs managed to come back with several important findings and a first map of the Libyan Desert. Unfortunately it contained inaccuracies in the mapping and intentions of the natives.

It was not before the 1924, when Ahmed Hassanein has ventured into a 3500km expedition on foot in which he single-handedly set the first accurate maps and discovered the legendary oasis of Jebel Uweinat. He wrote important accounts on the Senussis explaining their lifestyle and ethics to the civilized world in his important book The Lost Oases.

Senussis

The Senussi (or Sanussi) refers to a Muslim political-religious order in Libya and Sudan founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Senussi, Sayyid Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi (1791–1859). Senussi was concerned with both the decline of Islamic thought and spirituality and the weakening of Muslim political integrity. He was influenced by the Wahhabi Movement, to which he added teachings from various Sufi orders. From 1902 to 1913 the Senussi fought French expansion in the Sahara, and the Italian colonization of Libya beginning in 1911. The Grand Senussi's grandson became King Idris I of Libya in 1951. In 1969, King Idris I was overthrown by a military coup led by Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi. A third of the population in Libya continue to be affiliated with the Senussi movement.

Beginnings 1787-1860

The Senussi order has been historically closed to Europeans and outsiders, leading reports of their beliefs and practices to vary immensely. Though it is possible to gain some insight from the lives of the Senussi sheikhs, further details are difficult to attain.

Sayyid Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi (1787-1860), the founder of the order, was born near Mostaganem, Algeria, and was named al-Senussi after a venerated Muslim teacher. He was a member of the Walad Sidi Abdalla tribe, and was a sharif tracing his descent from Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed. He studied at a madrassa in Fez, then traveled in the Sahara preaching a purifying reform of the faith in Tunisia and Tripoli, gaining many adherents, and thence moved to Cairo to study at Al-Azhar University. The pious scholar was forceful in his criticism of the Egyptian ulema for what he perceived as their timid compliance with the Ottoman authorities and their spiritual conservatism. He also argued that learned Muslims should not blindly follow the four classical schools of Islamic law but instead engage in ijtihad themselves. Not surprisingly, he was opposed by the ulema as unorthodox and they issued a fatwa against him. Senussi went to Mecca, where he joined Ahmad Ibn Idris Al-Fasi, the head of the Khadirites, a religious fraternity of Moroccan origin. On the death of Al-Fasi, Senussi became head of one of the two branches into which the Khadirites divided, and in 1835 he founded his first monastery, or zawia, at Abu Kobeis near Mecca. While in Arabia, Senussi's connections with the Wahhabi movement caused him to be looked upon with suspicion by the ulema of Mecca and the Ottoman authorities. Finding the opposition in Mecca too powerful Senussi settled in Cyrenaica, Libya, in 1843, where in the mountains near Derna he built the Zawia Baida ("White Monastery"). There he was supported by the local tribes and the Sultan of Wadai and his connections extended across the Maghreb.

The Grand Senussi did not tolerate fanaticism and forbade the use of stimulants as well as voluntary poverty. Lodge members were to eat and dress within the limits of Islamic law and, instead of depending on charity, were required to earn their living through work. No aids to contemplation, such as the processions, gyrations, and mutilations employed by Sufi dervishes, were permitted. He accepted neither the wholly intuitive ways described by Sufi mystics nor the rationality of the orthodox ulema; rather, he attempted to achieve a middle path. The Bedouin tribes had shown no interest in the ecstatic practices of the Sufis that were gaining adherents in the towns, but they were attracted in great numbers to the Senussis. The relative austerity of the Senussi message was particularly suited to the character of the Cyrenaican Bedouins, whose way of life had not changed much in the centuries since the Arabs had first accepted the Prophet Mohammad's teachings.

In 1855 Senussi moved farther from direct Ottoman surveillance to Al-Jaghbub, a small oasis some 30 miles northwest of Siwa. He died in 1860, leaving two sons, Mahommed Sherif (1844-1895) and Mohammed al-Mahdi, to whom was passed the succession.

Developments since 1860

Sayyid Muhammad al-Mahdi bin Sayyid Muhammad as-Senussi (1845-1902) was fourteen when his father died, after which he was placed under the care of his father's friends.

The successors to the Sultan of Wadai, Sultan Ali (1858-1874) and the Sultan Yusef (1874 - 1898) continued to support the Senussi. Under al-Mahdi the zawias of the order extended to Fez, Damascus, Constantinople, and India. In the Hejaz members of the order were numerous. In most of these countries the Senussites wielded no more political power than other Muslim fraternities, but in the eastern Sahara and central Sudan things were different. Mohammed al-Mahdi had the authority of a sovereign in a vast but almost empty desert. The string of oases leading from Siwa to Kufra, and Borku were cultivated by the Senussites and trade with Tripoli and Benghazi was encouraged.

Although named Al Mahdi by his father, Mohammed never claimed to be the Mahdi (the Promised One), although he was regarded as such by some of his followers. When Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself al-Mahdi al-Muntazar or 'the Expected Saviour' in 1881 Mohammed al-Mahdi decided to have nothing to do with him. Although Muhammad Ahmed wrote twice asking him to become one of his four great khalifs, he received no reply. In 1890 Mahdists advancing from Darfur were stopped on the frontier of Wadai, the sultan Yusef proving firm in his adherence to the Senussi teachings.

Mohammed al-Mahdi's growing fame made the Ottoman regime uneasy and drew unwelcome attention. In most of Tripoli and Benghazi his authority was greater than that of the Ottoman governors. In 1889 the sheik was visited at Al-Jaghbub by the pasha of Benghazi, accompanied by Ottoman troops. This event showed the sheik the possibility of danger and led him to move his headquarters to Jof in the oases of Kufra in 1894, a place sufficiently remote to secure him from a sudden attack.

By this time a new danger to Senussi territories had arisen from the colonial French, who were advancing from the Congo toward the western and southern borders of Wadai. The Senussi kept them from advancing north of Chad.

In 1902 Mohammed al-Mahdi died and was succeeded by his nephew Ahmed-el Sherif, but his adherents in the deserts bordering Egypt maintained for years that he was not dead. The new head of the Senussites maintained the friendly relations of his predecessors with Wadai, governing the order as regent for his young cousin, Mohammed Idris (King Idris I of Libya), who was named Emir of Cyrenaica by the British in 1917. The Senussi, encouraged by the Turks, played a minor part in the World War I, fighting a guerrilla war against the British and Italians in Libya and Egypt.

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