Seventy thousand secrets: Sufi esoterism and revolutionary politics in Libya
Join this event to hear Igor Cherstich discuss an ethnographic study of the Libyan Revolution and Gaddafi's contradictory relationship to Sufism.
Seventy thousand secrets: Sufi esoterism and revolutionary politics in Libya
23 Jan 2024, 13:00 – 14:00
In 2011, a revolution broke out in Libya, and the Gaddafi regime collapsed. To grasp this event, one first has to understand what kind of project Gaddafi wanted to establish, and the factors that pushed Libyans to revolt.
Igor will argue that an insightful way to explore these dynamics is to look at the regime’s interaction with the ‘Issawiya, a brotherhood of practitioners of Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam. His analysis will help illustrate how the Libyan revolution was a revolt against a contradictory ruler, and that the forms of religion and politics that are currently dominating the Libyan scenario have emerged as a direct response to the regime’s inconsistencies.
This in-person event will be particularly useful for those interested in Libya, Sufism, Islam, revolution and Gaddafi.
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He is a social anthropologist. He also has conducted extensive ethnographic research in Western Libya both before and after the revolution of 2011.