The Sanusi of Cyrenaica [Hardcover]

Edward E. Evans-Pritchard (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: ACLS History E-Book Project (January 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597400424
• ISBN-13: 978-1597400428
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,172,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exellent study of a little known Sufi order, July 4, 2007

By 

Gogol (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (Hardcover)

An exellent study of the Sanusi Sufi order. An order that spread from the desert of Libya to Chad, that united with the Mahdi of Sudan, that fought Italian fascist under the leadership of the great Omar al-Mukhtar (he of the film Lion of the desert thought the film mentions nothing of his Sufism) fought along side the Ottomans in the 1st world war and united the Turks in the war of independance (Something Ataturk was keen to keep quiet, he would never have gotten the support he needed were it not for the Sanusis and other Sheikhs)

An exellent book, it covers not only the political and social history of the order but also their beliefs and practices and most important of all, what happened to this order which was once one of the most important in North Africa.

Oh just a word, no idea why Amazon has this book linked to fundamentalism, it has nothing to do with the subject.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great classic of Middle Eastern anthropology, October 7, 2008

By 

P. C. Salzman (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (Hardcover)

I have assigned The Sanusi of Cyrenaica to my students for many years, and probably have read it myself a dozen times. Each time I am impressed and delighted. It is so instructive, in my view, that I discussed it at some length in my book, Understanding Culture : An Introduction to Anthropological Theory

E. E. Evans-Pritchard was one of the finest social anthropologists of the twentieth century. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford University, a well deserved distinction. His other books, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande, The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People, and Nuer Religion are all considered classics.

In The Sanusi of Cyrenaica, E-P describes the Sanusi sufi order (rather orthodox in nature), the Bedouin population, and the Turkish rulers, the relations between these three, and then recounts the Italian invasions and the two Italo-Cyrenaican wars, including the consequences for all concerned. This magisterial analysis combines social anthropology and history in portraying macro-level change.

E-P knew the region from the work he did there on behalf of the British government during WWII. He was under no illusions about any of the parties, but gives each their due, flattering or unflattering.

In spite of the broad geographical and temporal focus of this work, the reader gets a good sense of real life in a difficult region at a dangerous time. To my mind, there is no better introduction to the Middle East and North Africa, for all of its diversity, than The Sanusi of Cyrenaica.