Journey in the Grand Sahara of Africa and Through Time

The years between 1890 and 1905 were the height of imperialism as West European powers conquered much of Africa. Italy, which had been able to get a very small share in the West European scramble for Africa, had its eye on Tripoli and Benghazi. Planning to capture all of Africa and very busy with Morocco in those days, France also regarded Tripoli and Benghazi as being free for the taking.

The Ottoman Sultan, Abdulhamid II, was looking for an ally and found it in his own lands. There was a very brave order, fond of its independence, based in the south of Benghazi and in the middle of the green Kufra Oasis; its name was the Senusi Movement.

Journey in the Grand Sahara of Africa and Through Time takes you to October 1895 to accompany Azmzâde Sadık el-Müeyyed on a mission for Sultan Abdulhamid II to go before Sayed Mohamed Al Mahdi Al Senusi, the leader of the most influential religious movement in North Africa at the time known as the Ikhwan or Brotherhood.

Fast forward more than a century and their descendants tie the past to the present against the background of an ongoing struggle for the future of Libya by regional and global powers. Gıyasiddin Gökkent, Sadık Pasha's son, explains The Foreign Policy of Sultan Abdulhamid. Orhan Osmansoy looks at the centuries old affinity between Turkey and Libya in his article titled A Resurrected Alliance. Ala Fakhri Al Senusi provides his Vision for the Future of Libya. Gıyas Müeyyed Gökkent traces the beginning of the Ottoman presence in North Africa as a counterbalance to West European powers and provides an overview of the prospects for Libya after a decade long civil conflict. Iklil Azmzâde looks at the roots of Sadık Pasha in his piece on the Azmzâde dynasty.

Describing one of three missions to Africa by Sadık Pasha to counter the scramble for Africa by West European states, this volume, originally published as a travel book, has been supplemented with Sadık Pasha's subsequent report to the sultan and is a companion to The Ethiopia Book of Travels.