The Tijāniyyah () is a Sufi tariqa (order, path), originating in the Maghreb but now more widespread in West Africa, particularly in Senegal, The Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Niger, Chad, Ghana, Northern and South-western Nigeria and some part of Sudan. The Tijāniyyah order is also present in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in India. Its adherents are called Tijānī (spelled Tijaan or Tiijaan in Wolof, Tidiane or Tidjane in French). Tijānīs place great importance on culture and education and emphasize the individual adhesion of the disciple (murid). To become a member of the order, one must receive the Tijānī wird, or a sequence of holy phrases to be repeated twice daily, from a muqaddam, or representative of the order.
History and spread of the order
Foundation of the order
Ahmad al-Tijani (1737–1815) was born in Aïn Madhi in Algeria and died in Fes, Morocco. He received his religious education in Fes, Morocco. Inspired by other Moroccan saints he founded the Tijānī order in the 1780s; sources vary as to the exact date between 1781 and 1784. Tijānīs, speaking for the poor, reacted against the then-dominant conservative, hierarchical Qadiriyyah brotherhood, focusing on social reform and grassroots Islamic revival.
During the first period, some of al-Tijani's adherents appointed khalifas, established new Tijani centres abroad, and developed ramifications of their own: the centres of Sidi Mohammed al-Ghali Boutaleb (d. 1829) and Sidi Alfa Hachim al-Futi (d. 1934) in Medina Munawwara the centres of Sidi al-Mufaddal Saqqat, Sidi Mohammed b. Abdelwahid Bannani al-Misri (d. after 1854), and Sidi Mohammed al-Hafidh al-Misri (d. 1983) in Egypt the centres of Shaykh al-Islam Sidi Ibrahim Riyahi Tunsi (d. 1851), Sidi Mohammed b. Slimane Manna’i Tunsi, Sidi Mohammed Ben Achour (d. before 1815) and Sidi Taher b. Abdesaadiq Laqmari (d. after 1851) in Tunisia the centre of Sidi Uthman Filani Aklani (d. after 1815) in the Sudan, the centres of Sidi Mohammed Alawi Chinguiti (d. 1830), Sidi Mawlud Fall (d. 1852) and Sidi Mohammad al-Hafid b. al-Mokhtar Beddi in Mauritania the centres of Sidi Mohammed b. al-Mishri Sibai (d. 1809), author of al-Jami’a li-ma f-taraqa mina-l ‘ulumn (The Absolute in What Has Separated from the Sciences), and al-Qutb Sidi Abul Hassan Ali b. Aissa Tamacini (d. 1845) in Algeria
Expansion in West Africa
The order has become the largest Sufi order in West Africa and continues to expand rapidly. It was brought to southern Mauritania around 1789 by Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ of the 'Idaw `Ali tribe, which was known for its many Islamic scholars and leaders and was predominantly Qādirī at the time. Nearly the entire tribe became Tijānī during Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ's lifetime, and the tribe's influence would facilitate the Tijāniyya's rapid expansion to sub-Saharan Africa.
Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ's disciple Sidi Mawlūd Vāl initiated the 19th-century Fulɓe leader Omar Saidou Tall and the Fulɓe cleric ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Nāqil from Futa Jalon (now Guinea) into the order. After receiving instruction from Muḥammad al-Ghālī from 1828 to 1830 in Mecca, Umar Tall was appointed Caliph (successor or head representative) of Aḥmed al-Tijānī for all of the Western Sudan (Western sub-Saharan Africa). Umar Tall then led a holy war against what he saw as corrupt regimes in the area, resulting in the large but fleeting Toucouleur Empire in Eastern Senegal and Mali. While Omar Saidou Tall's political empire soon gave way to French colonialism, the more long-standing result was to spread Islam and the Tijānī Order through much of what is now Senegal, Guinea, and Mali (see Robinson, 1985).
In Senegal's Wolof country, especially the northern regions of Kajoor and the Kingdom of Jolof, the Tijānī Order was spread primarily by Malick Sy, born in 1855 near Dagana. In 1902, he founded a zāwiya or religious center in Tivaouane, which became a center for Islamic education and culture under his leadership. Upon Malick Sy's death in 1922, his son Ababacar Sy became the first Caliph. Serigne Mansour Sy became the present Caliph in 1997, upon the death of Abdoul Aziz Sy. The Mawlid or Gàmmu, the celebration of the birth of Muhammad, of Tivaouane gathers many followers each year.