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Libyan Secrets: Sufism, Esoterism and the State In LIBYAN SECRETS: SUFISM, ESOTERISM AND THE STATE IN THE JAMAHIRIYA Igor Cherstich School of Oriental and African Studies PhD – Social Anthropology Word count: 95.398 This thesis is dedicated to all my Libyan friends in Tripolitania and in Cyrenaica, to the memory of Fr. Alan Fudge (who told me to ‘do what I was doing’), and to the late Domenico Fossataro, who knew that the only true secret of the Libyan people is hospitality. ﺍﻝﻕﺍﻑﻝﺓ ﺕﺱﻱﺭ ﺕﻥﺏﺡﻭﺍﻝﻙﻻﺏ ﺕﻥﺏﺡﻭ ﺍﻝﻕﺍﻑﻝﺓ ﺕﺱﻱﺭ I owe the greatest amount of gratitude, first and foremost, to my Libyan friends for their immense generosity. I wish to thank all the members and associates of the Issawy order in Tripoli, Beni Walid, Misurata, and Zlitan, and in particular Shaykh Ramadan for his guidance, help and invaluable friendship. In many ways Ramadan has been my guide not only in the intricate universe of the Tripolitan Issawiya but also in the even more intricate universe of Libyan society. On one occasion he defended me because I was “his guest”. I will never forget that. I also wish to thank his family (and Ramadan’s muridin and muhibbin), particularly Ramadan’s father, Ali for the affection, the food and the conversations. My gratitude goes also to Shaykh Abdallah Banun for his patience in listening to my questions and for his hospitality. Shaykh Abdallah has taken time off from his work in order to help me with my work, and I feel absolutely privileged for that. Many thanks also to the Banun family and to the muridin, muhibbin and friends of the Zawiya Kabyra for their kindness and friendship. A special thanks also to Shaykh Mohammed al Massaudi and to his muridin, for their help and patience, to Shaykh Saleh for treating me like a true friend, to Shaykh Ahmed (for his wisdom and honesty), and, of course, to Shaykh Ahmeda - the kindest person I have met in the whole of Libya. The list of shuyukh, muridin, muhibbin and associates of different Sufi orders that have helped me in my research is endless. I hope my friends will forgive me if I do not include all their names. I wish to thank all those informers who put themselves under risk in order to answer my questions and explain their point of view to me. Four people have greatly helped me in my research, Abdul Hadi, my brothers Mohammed and Abdusalam, and of course my dear friend Ali. All of them told me that they did not want their full names to appear in my thesis. Now that the regime has come to an end I am not sure I am still bound to my promise…but just in case… without the help of these four friends I would have simply got lost in Tripoli. They (and their families) took great care of me, they fed me, entertained me, consoled me, accompanied me, defended me and helped me. Abdul Hadi, in particular, has taught me a great deal about Sufism as well as about life in general, but knowing him he would not like me to say too much. To him my eternal gratitude. My dear friend Ahmed and his family have also acted as my Libyan family on more than one occasion, and I am in great debt with them. The list of friends in Tripoli is endless. Thank you to Mansur for the occasion help in the translations and the friendship, to my friend Martin Quirke for reminding me that every once in a while an anthropologist needs a holiday. My gratitude goes also to the Franciscans of Tripoli, to the Institute of Italian Culture in Tripoli, and of course to the mighty gufara’ of the Islamic Museum at Sidhi Khalifa, thank you for the entertainment, the coffee, and the lectures on Libyan-hood. Thankfully I was fortunate enough to have friends both in the East and in the West. I wish to thank the large crew of asdqa’ in the East, people I have known for more than ten years and who have understood and encouraged my transition from archaeology to anthropology. My true brother M. for his patience and friendship (sorry about the troubles I cause you ya akhy..); the late Abdul Qadir for his hospitality; my dear friend Ali who gave me food, love and much appreciated guitar playing sessions; Abdul Kerim, the true Sufi, for his friendship, endurance and spiritual guidance (I will never forget what you told me ya akhy); Ustad Said, the cleverest man I have met in my entire life, for his incredible generosity, hospitality and for the ‘stufa’, and his children. Thank you also to my good brother Fatallah, his kind family, the always entertaining Khaled (and his family). My gratitude goes also to my dear friend Usama in Benghazi. I wish to thank Al Baydha University for their invaluable help with the visa, and in particular my friends and mentors: Dr. Aza Bugandhura and Dr. Saleh el Aqab. Without the help of these two exceptionally kind individuals I would have never completed my research. I am sure they have gone through great trouble in order to make sure that my presence in Libya was safe, I wish one day to be able to re-pay my debt. I also wish to thank the University of Benghazi, in particular Dr. Ahmed Buzaian, Dr. Amal Obeidi and Dr. Mohammed atTbouli, and the Department of Antiquities in Shahat, Zlitan and Tripoli for making sure that I had a roof over my head. The staff of the Department of Antiquities in Tripoli and all the friends in the Red Castle deserve a special mention for letting me stay in Villa Volpi, my Tripolitan home. The personnel of the Central Auqaf in Tripoli have also provided invaluable help, in particular Shaykh Khalifa (tu sei Dante amico mio!) and Shaykh Ali, and so did the personnel in the Central Archives in Tripoli, particularly the director Dr. Mohammed Jerari. A special thanks to Khalid and all the staff of the British Council in Tripoli, and to the attendants of the shrine of Sidhi Abdussalam el Asmar in Zlitan. A big Grazie to my family, my father Milenco, my mother Carla, and my siblings Luca, Francesco, Chiara, Daniela, Davide and Marta for providing much appreciated consolation during the years of doctoral hardship. My gratitude goes also to miss Antonietta Etta Poggiali, for the support and the financial help, and of course to my girlfriend Elena Consiglio for being close to me, particularly during the painful end. La verita’: senza di te sarei miseramente perito. I wish to thank my supervisor Gabriele Vom Bruck, for her guidance, support, wisdom and patience. Gabriele has been a friend as much as a mentor, and without her help I would have never been able to write this thesis. I thank also my second supervisor Magnus Marsden for his advises and his help, and my examiners Hastings Donnan and Madawi al Rasheed for their precious and invaluable advices. My future work on Libya will certainly benefit from their feedback. A large group of Libya experts, scholars and researchers have contributed to my work commenting on my arguments and data through e-mails and conversations, many thanks to John Davis, Anna Baldinetti, George Joffe, Douglas L. Johnson, Federico Cresti , Frederick De Jong, Michael ,(ﺍﻝﻕﺍﻑﻝﺓ ﺕﺱﻱﺭ ﻭﺍﻝﻙﻻﺏ ﺕﻥﺏﺡ) Gilsenan, Knut S. Vikør, Jean-Louis Triaud, the late James and Dorothy Thorn Hafed Walda, Dirk Vandewalle, Alan George, Faraj Najem, Araf Nayed, Kathryn Spellman, Paul Bennet (and the kind people of the Society for Libyan Studies), Gumah el Qumati, Laleh Khalili, Mahnaz Marashi, Kostas Retsikas, Dolorez Martinez, Paul Rollier, Caroline Osella, David Mosse, Stephen Hughes, Davide Morandini, Jessica Kendall. I am also in great debt with Caludia Gazzini, Salem el Maiar, Emanuela Paoletti and my friend Francesca di Pasquale for their help in the field and outside the field. Claudia and Salem deserve a special mention for helping me securing a visa for the initial pre-field-work visit. I also wish to thank the members of the archaeological mission of the University of Chieti, in particular Emanuela Fabricotti (who took me to Libya for the first time some ten years ago), Luca Cherstich, Oliva Menozzi, the late Domenico Fossataro, Eugenio di Valerio and Serena Torello di Nino. I hope our collaboration will continue. During my years at SOAS I have been fortunate enough to meet a group of people without whom I would have never completed my research (or survived the ‘down and out’ existence I have conducted in London). My brother Ashraf ul Hoque, who has accompanied me during this absurd journey like a fellow darwysh, saving my mental sanity on more than one occasions, thanks for the chat we had at Esuton some ten years ago, I think we will “navigate the shadows” together for a while; Arash Sedighi, for his practical advices, his practical actions, his practical jokes, his practical wisdom, his practical friendship, his practical understanding, and his practical practices; Hasan Al Khoee for being the voice of truth and justice in the midst of un-truth and un-justice, thank you for your support ya akhy, and also, of course, Gonzalo Pozo (….senti….ti dico…), Maria-Federica Moscati (matri, abbiamo condiviso le gioie e i dolori di Mordor), James Abdul Aziz Brown, William Rook, Jeremy Brown, Sehrvin Sedighi, Faris Nasrallah, Taymur Harding, Emile Harding, Chiara Piovani (tu non lo sai, ma senza il tuo suggerimento di fare domanda per la borsa di Bologna non avrei mai cominciato il dottorato), Chiara Formichi, Omar al Khairy, Francesca Biancani, Victor ‘Vittorio’ Kattan, Mansur Telebpur, Ayan Shome, Sanaa Alimia, Adam Benkato, Mahsn Majidy, Amin al Kahteeb, Simone Mauri, Zohayr Abulghasim, and (maybe) Layla Fathi.
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