Al-Hajj Abdoulaye bin Mamadou Niasse By Zakariya Wright Picture of Al-Hajj Abdoulaye bin Mamadou NiasseAl-Hajj Abdoulaye (1845-1922) was one of the greatest scholars of the Senegambia region in the early twentieth century. One time Jihadist and subsequent farmer, he was the first to obtain the unlimited authorization (ijaza mutlaqa) in the Tijaniyya in the Senegambia and was famous for his teachings on a wide range of Islamic sciences. The French commandant in Nioro, Senegal, observed in 1898: “Abdoulaye is the leader of all the marabouts of Rip and of Saloum, and is superior to all of them – consequently, he enjoys a great authority over the masses” (Klein, p. 224). Mamadou Niasse, the father of al-Hajj Abdoulaye, was also a marabout, or Islamic scholar, who immigrated to the Saloum region from Djoloff and founded his own village of Niacene in 1865. This was at the time of the religious wars of al-Hajj Umar Futi, carried out in the Saloum region by another Tijani, Ma Ba Diakhou. Abdoulaye would later participate in the war as an advisor to Saer Maty, the son of Ma Ba who assumed leadership of the movement after his father was assassinated by French intrigue. He soon dissociated himself from the jihad however, and devoted himself exclusively to teaching and farming. Like his father, he also founded his own village, Taiba Niacene. But the memory of his participation in the jihads, along with his growing local influence, was too much for the new French-appointed rulers in the region. In 1900, he and 200 of his disciples were forced to flee to Gambia by the French-appointed governor, even as three villages belonging to his followers, including Taiba Niacene and the central mosque and extensive library therein, were burned to the ground. Abdoulaye only returned to the Saloum region in 1910, when he installed himself finally in Kaolack, probably only after the intervention of his friend, al-Hajj Malik Sy, with the French authorities.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 21:16:39 +0000
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