326 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



1855 ; thence he sent ekhwan to buUd the zawia at Jaghabub. 

 Doubtless this was a precautionary measure in accordance with 

 his habitual policy of avoiding any open conflict with existing gov- 

 ernments, for Turkey was growing nervous with regard to the 

 Senussi power in North Africa. At first she had supported the 

 order, according it important privileges such as grants of land 

 and exemption of the zawias from taxation. Sidi Ben Ali, how- 

 ever, was not to be won over from his condemnation of Turkish 

 unorthodoxy and in 1852 he had excommunicated the Sultan. It 

 was therefore obviously necessary for him to remove his headquar- 

 ters from the territory nominally under Ottoman jurisdiction. 

 He went to Jaghabub in 1856 and, according to Duveyrier, he 

 made the small and iminteresting oasis into an important centre 

 of political and mercantile activity. A deputation of Zouias head- 

 ed by Abdel Kerim Helayig, Jaballa and Agil visited him there 

 offering the allegiance of the tribe. Sidi Ben Ali must have real- 

 ised the strategical importance of Kufara as a base of propa- 

 ganda from the Sudan to Lake Chad, for he instantly despatched 

 four ekhwan to disseminate his doctrines throughout the four 

 oases. The letter written at this time to Wajanga, of which the 

 interpretation is given in Appendix D, page 338, is typical of 

 his missionary methods. 



It is probable that Sidi Ben Ali contemplated a further with- 

 drawal from the zone of Turkish activity for he caused two zawias 

 to be built near Ghadames, but his death in 1859 occurred sudden- 

 ly at Jaghabub. 



His two sons Mohammed el Mahdi and Mohammed es Sherif 

 were aged 16 and 14 respectively, so most of the ekhwan were in 

 favour of electing Sidi Abed el Ali Ibn Ahmed Ibn Idris el Fasi as 

 their head. A decision was finally made in favour of Mohammed 

 el Mahdi because it was remembered that Sidi Ben Ali had once 

 bidden liis eldest son resume his shoes upon entering a mosque, 

 himself handing the boy the slippers he had put off, which menial 

 act was interpreted to mean that he had already chosen him as his 

 successor. 



An ancient prophecy foretold that the Mahdi who would re- 

 conquer the world for Islam would attain his majority on the first 

 day of Moharram in 1300 Hegire, having been bom of parents 

 named Mohammed and Fatma, and having spent several years in 

 seclusion. 



On November 12, 1882, after a minority spent in the charge 



