View source for Tijaniyyah

{{Short description|Sufi mystic order in Sunni Islam}}
{{redirect-several|dab=no|Tijani (disambiguation)|Tidiane (given name)|Tidjane Thiam}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=April 2012}}
{{Sunni Islam|Sunni Orders of Mysticism}}
{{Sufism|Orders}}
[[File:Niger, Kiota (05), grand mosque, main entrance.jpg|thumb|right|220px|The grand mosque in [[Kiota]] is the centre of the Tijaniyyah order in Niger.]]
[[File:Niger, Kiota (04), grand mosque, interior.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Interior of the grand mosque in Kiota]]

The '''Tijjani order''' ({{langx|ar|الطريقة التجانية|translit=al-Ṭarīqa al-Tijāniyya}}) is a [[Sufi]] [[Tariqa|order]] of [[Sunni Islam]] named after [[Ahmad al-Tijani]]. It originated in [[Algeria]] but now more widespread in [[Maghreb]], [[West Africa]], particularly in [[Senegal]],  [[The Gambia|Gambia]], [[Mauritania]], [[Mali]], [[Guinea]], [[Niger]], [[Chad]], [[Ghana]], [[Northern Nigeria|Northern]] and Southwestern Nigeria and some parts 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 language|Wolof]], ''Tidiane'' or ''Tidjane'' in French).  Tijānīs place great importance on culture and education and emphasize the individual adhesion of the [[Apprenticeship|disciple]] (''[[murid]]''). To become a member of the order, one must receive the Tijānī ''[[Dhikr#Sufi view|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 Mostaganem, Algeria. Inspired by other saints he founded the Tijānī order in the 1780s; sources vary as to the exact date between 1781<ref name="foundingtriaud">see Triaud, 2000</ref> and 1784.<ref name="bbcblas">{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-35241608 |title=Nigeria Court in Kano Sentences Cleric to Death for Blasphemy |date=6 January 2016 |publisher=[[BBC]]}}</ref>

===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 [[Fula people|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 West Africa|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 people|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, Senegal|Dagana]]. In 1902, he founded a [[zawiya (institution)|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.

The "house" or branch of Tivaouane is not the only branch of the Tijānī order in [[Senegal]].  The Tijānī order was spread to the south by another jihadist, [[Màbba Jaxu Ba]], a contemporary of Umar Tall who founded a similar Islamic state in Senegal's [[Saalum]] area{{Dubious|date=March 2012}}.{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}}  After Màbba was defeated and killed at [[The Battle of Fandane-Thiouthioune]] fighting against [[Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Famak Joof]], his state crumbled but the Tijāniyya remained the predominant Sufi order in the region,{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}} and Abdoulaye Niass (1840–1922) became the most important representative of the order in the Saalum{{Dubious|date=March 2012}}, having immigrated southward from the [[Kingdom of Jolof|Jolof]] and, after exile in [[The Gambia]] due to tensions with the French, returned to establish a zāwiya in the city of [[Kaolack]].

The branch founded by Abdoulaye Niass's son, [[Ibrahim Niass]], in the Kaolack suburb of Medina Baye in 1930, has become by far the largest and most visible Tijānī branch around the world today.  Ibrahima Niass's teaching that all disciples, and not only specialists, can attain a direct mystical knowledge of God through ''tarbiyyah rūhiyyah'' (mystical education) has struck a chord with millions worldwide.  This branch, known as the ''Tijāniyyah Ibrāhīmiyyah'' or the ''Faydah'' ("Flood"), is most concentrated in [[Senegal]], [[Nigeria]], [[Ghana]], [[Niger]], and [[Mauritania]], and has a growing presence in the United States and Europe.  Most Tijānī web sites and international organizations are part of this movement. Ibrahim Niass' late grandson and former [[imam]] of Medina Baye, [[Hassan Cissé]], has thousands of American disciples and has founded a large educational and developmental organization, the [[African American Islamic Institute]], in [[Medina Baye]] with branches in other parts of the world.

Another Senegalese "house," in Medina-Gounass, Senegal (to the west of the Niokolo Koba park) was created by [[:fr:Mamadou Saidou Ba|Mamadou Saidou Ba]].
 
Still another in Thienaba, near [[Thiès]],{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}} was founded by the disciple of a famous [[marabout]] of [[Futa Tooro]], [[Amadou Sekhou]].

The Ḥamāliyya (Ḥamālliyya) branch, founded by [[Hamahullah bin Muhammad bin Umar]], is centered in Nioro, [[Mali]], and is also present in [[Senegal]], [[Côte d'Ivoire]], [[Burkina Faso]], and [[Niger]].  One of its most prominent members is the novelist and historian [[Amadou Hampâté Bâ]], who preserved and advocated the teachings of [[Tierno Bokar|Tierno Bokar Salif Taal]] (Cerno Bokar Salif Taal), the "Sage of Banjagara".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sanankoua |first1=Bintou |title=Amadou Hampâté Bâ: A Testimony |journal=Islamic Africa |date=Winter 2010 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=144–145 |doi=10.1163/21540993-90000015 |jstor=42636155 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/42636155 |access-date=7 Apr 2025|url-access=subscription |doi-access=free }}</ref>

It was Cherno Muhammadou Jallow, along with Sheikh Oumar Futi Taal, who first received the tarikha Tijaniyya in the Senegambia region. Cherno Muhammadou waited for the tarikha for over twelve years in Saint Louis Senegal, where Sheikh Oumar Futi Taal sent his student Cherno Abubakr. He (Cherno Muhammadou) started spreading it in the Senegambia region. Through oral history, it is that said he (Cherno Muhammadou) passed it to twelve disciples. These disciples range from Mam Mass Kah of Medina Mass Kah, Abdoulaye Niass of Medina Kaolock, Cherno Alieu, Deme of NDiaye Kunda Senegal, Cherno Alieu, Diallo of Djanet in Kolda, to name a few. Through these disciples the tarikha spread through the Senegambia region and beyond. Most of these disciples today have loads of followers and all of them are doing the Laazim daily. Cherno Muhammadou passed it to his son Cherno Omar, who later passed to his son Cherno Muhammadou. Baba Jallow later went on looking for his grandfather (Cherno Muhammadou Jallow), whom he later found in the Casamance. After discovering his grandfather's grave, Cherno Baba created a community and named it Sobouldeh and started an annual Ziarre, where thousands converge to honor him yearly.

==Practices==
{{See also|wazifa|wird|Lazimi|Bid'ah|Salat al-Fatih}}

Members of the Tijānī order distinguish themselves by a number of practices.  Upon entering the order, one receives the Tijānī [[wird]] from a ''muqaddam'' or representative of the order.  The ''muqaddam'' explains to the initiate the duties of the order, which include keeping the basic tenets of [[Islam]] including the five [[Five Pillars of Islam|Five Pillars]], to honor and respect one's parents, and not to follow another Sufi order in addition to the Tijāniyya.  Initiates are to pronounce the Tijānī wird (a process that usually takes ten to fifteen minutes) every morning and afternoon. The wird is a formula that includes repetitions of the [[shahada]], [[istighfar]], and a prayer for Muḥammad called the ''[[Salat al-Fatih]]'' "Prayer of the Opener". They are also to participate in the [[wazifah]], a similar formula that is chanted as a group, often at a [[mosque]] or zāwiya once on a daily basis, as well as in the Haylalat al-Jum'ah, another formula chanted among other disciples on Friday afternoon before the sun down.

Additionally, disciples in many areas organize regular meetings, often on Thursday evenings or before or after Waẓīfa and Hailalat al-Jum'ah to engage in ''[[dhikr]] Allāh'', or remembrance of [[God]]. In such meetings, poems praising God, [[Muhammad]], Aḥmed at-Tijānī, or another religious leader may be interspersed with the dhikr. Such meetings may involve simple repetition as a group or call-response, in which one or more leaders lead the chant and others repeat or otherwise respond.

Occasionally, a group of disciples, known in Senegal as a ''daayira'', from Arabic ''dā'irah'', or "circle", may organize a religious conference, where they will invite one or more well known speakers or chanters to speak on a given theme, such as the life of Muḥammad or another religious leader, a particular religious obligation such as [[fasting]] during [[Ramadan]], or the nature of God.

The most important communal event of the year for most Tijānī groups is the Mawlid, known in Wolof as the ''Gàmmu'' (a borrowed term from the ancient [[Serer religion|Serer religious]] festival of "Gamo" or "Gamou" of the [[Serer people]], from the Serer term  ''Gamahou'' or ''Gamohou''<ref>Diouf, Niokhobaye, "Chronique du royaume du Sine, suivie de Notes sur les traditions orales et les sources écrites concernant le royaume du Sine par Charles Becker et Victor Martin (1972)". (1972). Bulletin de l'IFAN, tome 34, série B, no 4, 1972, pp. 706–7 (pp. 4–5), pp. 713–14 (pp. 9–10).</ref>), or the celebration of the birth of Muḥammad, which falls on the night of the 12th of the Islamic month of Rabīʿ al-'Awwal (which means the night before the 12th, as Islamic dates start at sundown and not at midnight).  Most major Tijānī religious centers organize a large Mawlid event once a year, and hundreds of thousands of disciples attend the largest ones (in Tivaouane, Kaolack, Prang, Kiota, Kano, Fadama, etc.)  Throughout the year, local communities organize smaller Mawlid celebrations.  These meetings usually go from about midnight until shortly after dawn and include hours of dhikr and poetry chanting and speeches about the life of Muḥammad.

==See also==
*[[Sufism]]
*[[Wazifa]]
*[[Lazimi]]
*[[Salat al-Fatih]]
*[[List of Sufi orders]]
*[[Muslim brotherhoods of Senegal]]
*[[Ahmad At Tijânî Ibn Bâba Al 'Alawî]]
*[[Sheikh Abubakre Sidiq Bello|Abubakre Sidiq Bello]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*Brenner, Louis. 2000. "Amadou Hampâté Bâ: Tijânî Francophone." In Triaud and Robinson, 2000.
*Davidson, Basil. 1995. ''Africa in History''. New York: Simon & Schuster.
*Klein, Martin A. 1968. ''Islam and Imperialism in Senegal: [[Sine-Saloum]] 1847-1914.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press.
*Robinson, David. 1985. ''The Holy War of Umar Tall.'' Oxford: Clarendon.
*Triaud, Jean-Louis. 2000. "La Tijâniyya, une confrérie musulmane pas comme les autres?"  In Triaud and Robinson, 2000.
*Triaud, Jean-Louis and David Robinson, eds. 2000. ''La Tijâniyya: Une confrérie musulmane à la conquête de l'Afrique.''  Paris: Karthala.
*[http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Mali_native.html WorldStatesmen- here Mali Traditional States]
* [http://abdelazizbenabdallah.org/Tariqa/docs/Tariqa_Jawaheer_al_maani.pdf ''Jawâhir Ul Ma'ânî''] du Shaykh [['Alî Al Harâzim]], sur le site officiel du Pr. Abdelaziz Benabdallah. Traduit en francais par le Pr.Abdelaziz Benabdallah et son neveu Moustapha Benmoussa.
* [http://abdelazizbenabdallah.org/Tariqa/docs/Tariqa_Boghia_Mataalib.doc ''Al Boghia : Mataâlib = Requêtes''] de [['Sidi Larbi Ben Sayeh]], sur le site officiel du Pr. Abdelaziz Benabdallah.
*[http://abdelazizbenabdallah.org/oeuvres/Tariqa_Voie.html  ''La Tijânia''] du [['Pr. Abdelaziz Benabdallah]], sur le site officiel du Pr. Abdelaziz Benabdallah.
* [http://abdelazizbenabdallah.org/Tariqa/docs/Tariqa_Sidi_Cheikh.pdf الشيخ سيدي أحمد التجاني، أبعاد ضلاعته العلمية.بقلم أحمد بن عبد العزيز بن عبد الله, من الموقع الإلكتروني للأستاذ عبد العزيز بن عبد الله.]

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book |last=Abun-Nasr |first=Jamil M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QFRtAAAAMAAJ |title=The Tijaniyya: A Sufi Order in the Modern World |publisher=London |year=1965 |language=en}}

==External links==

{{Sufi}}
{{Portal bar|Religion|Islam|Education|Psychology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Sunni Sufi orders]]
[[Category:Tijaniyyah order| ]]
[[Category:Sufism in Africa]]
[[Category:Islam in Senegal]]
[[Category:French West Africa]]
[[Category:Islam in Nigeria]]