Idris of Libya
Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi (Arabic: إدريس, romanized: Idrīs; 13 March 1890 – 25 May 1983)[1] was a Libyan political and religious leader who was King of Libya from 24 December 1951 until his ouster in the 1 September 1969 coup d'état. He ruled over the United Kingdom of Libya from 1951 to 1963, after which the country became known as simply the Kingdom of Libya. Idris had served as Emir of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania from the 1920s until 1951.[2] He was the chief of the Senussi Muslim order.
Idris
24 December 1951 – 1 September 1969
13 March 1890
Jaghbub, Tripolitania Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
25 May 1983 (aged 93)
Cairo, Egypt
- Aisha bint Muhammad as-Sharif al-Sanussi
- (m. 1896/97; died 1905/07)
Aisha bint Muqarrib al-Barasa
Idris was born into the Senussi Order. When his cousin Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi abdicated as leader of the Order, Idris took his position. The Senussi campaign was taking place, with the British and Italians fighting the Order. Idris put an end to the hostilities and, through the Modus vivendi of Acroma, abandoned Ottoman protection. Between 1919 and 1920, Italy recognized Senussi control over most of Cyrenaica in exchange for the recognition of Italian sovereignty by Idris. Idris then led his Order in an unsuccessful attempt to conquer the eastern part of the Tripolitanian Republic.
Following the Second World War, the United Nations General Assembly called for Libya to be granted independence. It established the United Kingdom of Libya through the unification of Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan, appointing Idris to rule it as king. Wielding significant political influence in the impoverished country, he banned political parties and, in 1963, replaced Libya's federal system with a unitary state. He established links to the Western powers, allowing the United Kingdom and United States to open military bases in the country in return for economic aid. After oil was discovered in Libya in 1959, he oversaw the emergence of a growing oil industry that rapidly aided economic growth. Idris's regime was weakened by growing Arab nationalist and Arab socialist sentiment in Libya as well as rising frustration at the country's high levels of corruption and close links with Western nations. While in Turkey for medical treatment, Idris was deposed in a 1969 coup d'état by army officers led by Muammar Gaddafi.
Early life[edit]
Idris was born at Al-Jaghbub, the headquarters of the Senussi movement, on 12 March 1889 (although some sources give the year as 1890), a son of Sayyid Muhammad al-Mahdi bin Sayyid Muhammad al-Senussi and his third wife Aisha bint Muqarrib al-Barasa. He was a grandson of Sayyid Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi, the founder of the Senussi Muslim Sufi Order and the Senussi tribe in North Africa. Idris's family claimed descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his daughter, Fatimah.[3] The Senussi were a revivalist Sunni Islamic sect who were based largely in Cyrenaica, a region in present-day eastern Libya.[4] The Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II sent his aide-de-camp Azmzade Sadik El Mueyyed to Jaghbub in 1886 and to Kufra in 1895 to cultivate positive relations with the Senussi and to counter the West European scramble for Africa.[5] By the end of the nineteenth century the Senussi Order had established a government in Cyrenaica, unifying its tribes, controlling its pilgrimage and trade routes, and collecting taxes.[6]
In 1916, Idris became chief of the Senussi order, following the abdication of his cousin Sayyid Ahmed Sharif es Senussi. He was recognized by the British under the new title "emir" of the territory of Cyrenaica, a position also confirmed by the Italians in 1920. He was also installed as Emir of Tripolitania on 28 July 1922.[7]
Overthrow and exile[edit]
On 1 September 1969, while King Idris was in Turkey for medical treatment, he was deposed in a coup d'état by a group of Libyan Army officers under the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi. The monarchy was abolished and a republic proclaimed.[63] The coup pre-empted King Idris's intended abdication and the succession of his heir the following day. From Turkey, he and the Queen traveled to Kamena Vourla, Greece, by ship and went into exile in Egypt. After the 1969 coup, King Idris was put on trial in absentia in the Libyan People's Court and sentenced to death in November 1971.
Muammar Gaddafi's regime portrayed King Idris's administration as having been weak, inept, corrupt, anachronistic, and lacking in nationalist credentials, a presentation of it that would come to be widely adopted.[64]
In 1983, at the age of 93, King Idris died in a hospital in the district of Dokki in Cairo.[65] He was buried at Al-Baqi' Cemetery, Medina, Saudi Arabia.
Legacy[edit]
According to Vandewalle, King Idris's monarchy "started Libya on the road of political exclusion of its citizens, and of a profound de-politicization" that still characterised the country in the first years of the 21st century.[66] He informed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and an early academic researcher that he had not truly wanted to rule over a unified Libya.[41]
Muammar Gaddafi's policies with regard to the oil industry would also be technocratic and bore many similarities with those of King Idris.[67]
Although the King died in exile and most Libyans were born after his reign, during the Libyan Civil War, many demonstrators opposing Gaddafi carried portraits of the King, especially in Cyrenaica. The tricolour flag used during the era of the monarchy was frequently used as a symbol of the revolution and was re-adopted by the National Transitional Council as the official flag of Libya.[68]
Idris was grand master of the following Libyan orders:
He was a recipient of the following non-Libyan honours:
