During my work, I noticed the historians' silence on the history of Ibn al-Senussi, some stages of its early development and the confusion of some in determining the dates of his travels. So I was keen to try to clarify the timeline of his history, and I benefited greatly in this attempt and in clarifying points other than the account of King Idris I of Libya, where he was kind enough to answer my questions and provided me with a collection of his grandfather's unpublished books.

In the historical archives in Tripoli, I found a number of letters from the governors and other documents that provided me with a lot of information about the relationship of the Senussi movement with the Sublime State. I also reviewed a large number of letters from Ibn al-Senussi and al-Mahdi to the Zawiyas.

After the initial preparation, I decided to limit the research to the emergence and growth of the Senussi movement during the nineteenth century AD. This means studying the history of Ibn al-Senussi and the emergence of the movement at his hands, then studying the history of al-Mahdi and the movement in its early stages. This is because the movement, in my opinion, reached its peak during the time of al-Mahdi, and after his death, a new page began concerning its confrontation with the invading colonial powers. Ibn al-Senussi was born in 1787 AD, and his son al-Mahdi died in 1859 AD.

This research falls between these two dates.

This research is divided into six chapters. The first chapter deals with the general Islamic world at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its purpose is to give a brief overview of the state of the Islamic world and Muslims, clarifying their situation and explaining the motives for reform among their reformers. The second chapter is about the history of Ibn al-Senussi and the emergence of the Senussi movement. As its title suggests, it deals with the life of Ibn al-Senussi, the events he went through, the factors that influenced his personality, then the emergence of the movement and its progress at his hands.

The discussion of Ibn al-Senussi continues in the third chapter, where it deals with his reformist ideas and his proselytizing personality. The fourth chapter is about the history of al-Mahdi and the growth of the movement. I decided to make my study of the history of the movement through my study of the history of his leader.