Contesting space, shaping places: Making room for the Muridiyya in colonial Senegal, 1912-45

Journal of African History

Volumn 46, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 405-426

  Babou, Cheikh Anta ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA   (United States)

Author keywords

Colonial; Cultural; Islam; Sacred space; Senegal

Indexed keywords

COLONIALISM; CULTURE; ISLAMISM; RELIGION; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

AFRICA; SENEGAL; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; WEST AFRICA;

MURIDAE;

EID: 31044436920     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: 14695138     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853705001295     Document Type: Article

References (133)

1. A note on orthography: Peoples and places, unless in quotations or book titles, are written in standard Wolof orthography. Except for Qur'an, Arabic words are written in their Wolof forms without diacritics.
2. See Paul Pélissier, Les paysans du Sénégal (Saint Yriex, 1966), especially ch. 6.
3. Donal Cruise O'Brien, The Mourides of Senegal: The Political and Economic Organization of an Islamic Brotherhood in Senegal (Oxford, 1971), see especially ch. 8. d 4 Jean Copans, Les marabouts de l'arachide (Paris, 1980), 228.
4. In later works, Copans downplays the importance of peanut production in the history of the Muridiyya and invites scholars to pay more attention to the cultural dimensions of the organization. See the latest edition of Les marabouts (Paris, 1988), 270-2, and his recent article: 'Mourides des champs, mourides des villes, mourides du téléphone portable et de l'internet: Les renouvellements de l'économie politique d'une conférie, Afrique Contemporaine, 194 (2000), 24-33.
5. Terence Ranger, 'Religious movements and politics in sub-Saharan Africa', African Studies Review, 29 (1986) 1-69, 2.
6. Ibid. 3.
7. See for example, the recent works of Allen Roberts and Mary N. Roberts, A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal (Los Angeles, 2003);
8. Cheikh Guèye, Touba: La capitale des Mourides (Paris, 2002);
9. Eric Ross, 'Tuba: A spiritual metropolis in the modern world', Canadian Journal of African Studies, 29 (1995) 222-59
10. idem 'Tubâ: An African eschatology in Islam' (Ph.D. thesis, McGill University, 1996).
11. See, for example, A. Salvatore and D. F. Eickelman (eds.), Public Islam and the Common Good (Leiden, 2004),
12. and M. Hoexter, S. N. Eisenstadt and N. Levtzion (eds.), The Public Sphere in Muslim Societies (New York, 2002).
13. An escale is a location near a railway station, major road or river, which functions as a center for economic transactions in rural or semi-urban areas.
14. Murray Last, 'The colonial caliphate', in J. L. Triaud and D. Robinson (eds.), Le temps des marabouts (Paris, 1997), 67-85.
15. There had not been an enduringly successful jihad or the establishment of a theocracy in the precolonial Wolof states. The nature of the relationships between clerics and rulers varied in time and space and depended on the political ambitions shown by or attributed to the Muslim leadership. However, most of the time, kings were able to win the support or political neutrality of powerful Muslims by granting them land and relative administrative autonomy. On the failure of jihad in the precolonial Wolof kingdoms see Lucy Colvin, 'Islam and the state of Kajoor: A case of a successful resistance to jihad', Journal of African History, 15 (1974), 587-607.
16. On the relationships between Muslim clerics and rulers in the precolonial Wolof states, see Boubacar Barry, Le royaume du Waalo: Le Sénégal avant la conquête (Paris, 1985);
17. e siècle: Pouvoir ceddo et conquête coloniale (Paris, 1990).
18. In Northern Nigeria, in contrast, see the proclamation of Uthman Dan Fodio translated by A. D. H. Bivar, 'A manifesto of the Fulani jihād', Journal of African History, 2 (1961), 235-43, especially principle No. 11, where Uthman writes: 'And that by assent the status of a town is of its ruler: If he be Muslim, the town belongs to Islam; but if he be heathen the town is a town of heathendom from which flight is obligatory'.
19. Many Murid villages are named Daaru, from the Arabic word daar which means house.
20. For more on the history and contemporary development of Tuba see Ross, 'Tuba: A spiritual metropolis in the modern world', and idem, 'Tubâ: an African eschatology in Islam';
21. Abdoulaye Dièye, Touba, signes et symbols (Paris, 1997);
22. Christian Coulon, 'Touba: Lieu saint de la confrérie mouride', in Mohammad Ali and Amir-Moezzi (eds.), Lieux d'Islam: Cultes et cultures de l'Afrique à Java (Paris, 1996), 226-38
23. and Cheikh Guèye, 'L'organisation de l'espace dans une ville religieuse: Touba (Sénégal)' (Thèse pour l'obtention du titre de Docteur de l' Université Louis Pasteur en géographie, 1999); and idem, Touba.
24. Interviews with Sheikh Maam Balla, Mbacke, May 1991, and Sawru Mbay, Daaru Salaam, 6 March 2000. All interviews cited were conducted by the author between 1991 and 2004. The tapes and transcripts are in the author's possession. Wolof oral traditions report many visits of Elhaji Umar Tall in the Wolof country, but traditions collected in his native land of Fuuta and French sources do not corroborate these reports.
25. See also Mbacké Bousso 'Deux traités d'un lettré religieux sénégalais, Serigne Mbacké Bousso (1864-1945)', translated from Arabic by Khadim Mbacké (Institut fondamental de l'Afrique Noire [IFAN], 1994) 3.
26. I use 'capital' as defined by David Robinson: 'the accumulation of values of different kinds'. See Paths of Accommodation: Muslim Societies and French Colonial Authorities in Senegal and Mauritania, 1880-1920 (Athens OH, 2000), 5.
27. Hassan El Boudrari, 'Quand les saints font les villes', Annales ESC, 3 (1985), 489.
28. See for example verse 58, where he wrote: '[Lord] make of Tuba a place of knowledge, faith and mercy', and verse 112 where he says this prayer: '[Lord] make of my home a place of knowledge and a crucible for the flourishing of [Islamic] ideas and thinking', Matlab ul Fawzayni (Dakar, undated). This poem was written in 1888, just after the founding of the village of Tuba. It has been edited many times, especially after the installation of a printing press in the library of Tuba in 1977.
29. The French colonial administrator and specialist of Islam, Paul Marty, offers a detailed description of Tuba in his article on the Murids published in Revue du Monde Musulman, 25 (1913), 1-2,
30. and reprinted in his book, Etudes sur l'Islam an Sénégal (2 vols.) (Paris, 1917), 1. Marty depicts Tuba as an Islamic Zawiya (lodge) comprising a school where students are taught religious and non-religious disciplines, a convent where Murid sheikhs train disciples in the way of the Sufi, and a busy pilgrimage site.
31. See ibid. 235.
32. Mbacké Bousso, as quoted by Bassirou Mbacké, in Les bienfaits de l' Eternel (Dakar, 1995) 71.
33. Bousso has extensively written on the Muridiyya and its history. For more on Mbacké Bousso see Khadim Mbacké, 'Deux traités d'un lettré religieux'. Khadim Mbacké has also collected and edited 15 Arabic manuscripts authored by Mbacké Bousso. I also refer to my interview with Afia Ñaη), Tuba, 30 May 2000.
34. From 1889 the Murids were embroiled in a conflict with the local African chiefs and the colonial administration that lasted until 1891, when after an exchange of letters and a visit to Governor Clément Thomas in Saint-Louis, Amadu Bamba was able to alleviate the suspicion of the French colonial authorities. See Archives Nationales du Sénégal, Dakar (henceforth ANS), 3B/54, fol. 46, Tautain, 'Letter to the administrator of Cayor', 19 March 1889
35. ANS, 3B/ 55, fols. 82-3, 'Letter of the governor to Amadou Bamba', 27 June 1889, in Oumar Ba, Amadou Bamba et les autorités coloniales (Abbeville, 1982), 25-6.
36. See the report filed by Leclerc after the arrest of Amadu Bamba in August 1895 and Merlin's report to the Conseil Privé at the occasion of Amadu Bamba's trial in Ba, Amadou Bamba, 29-45.
37. For an extensive discussion of Amadu Bamba's education and religious thoughts and his standing among the Muslim community of Senegal before the exile, see Cheikh Anta Babou, 'Educating the Murid: Theory and practices of education in Amadu Bamba's thought', Journal of Religion in Africa, 33 (2003), 309-27.
38. On the changing French policy towards the Muridiyya, see David Robinson, 'The Murids: Surveillance and accommodation', Journal of African History, 40 (1999), 13-21.
39. On the aura surrounding Amadu Bamba see Allen Roberts and Mary N. Roberts, 'The aura of Amadu Bamba', Anthropologie et Sociétés, 22 (1998), 15-38.
40. See also Roberts and Roberts, A Saint in the City.
41. For further exploration of French policy towards Amadu Bamba after his settlement in Diourbel, see Robinson, 'The Murids'.
42. On the Islamization of the Sereer see James Searing, 'Conversion to Islam: Military recruitment and generational conflict in a Sereer-Safèn village (Bandia), 1920-38', Journal of African History, 44 (2003), 73-94.
43. Eric Ross, 'Touba et ses sœurs' (mémoire de maîtrise, McGill University, 1989), 66
44. idem, 'Tuba: A spiritual metropolis in the modern world'.
45. See also ANS, 10D 5-8, 'Monographie du cercle de Diourbel', février 1911.
46. Sufi are critical of city life, which they associate with the nafs. That is the animal instinct that is found in every human being and which lures people's body and mind to immoderate search for worldly pleasures. For the Sufi, nafs is the main obstacle that stands between the believer and God.
47. Eric Ross, 'Marabout republics then and now: Configuring Muslim towns in Senegal', Islam et Sociétés au sud du Sahara, 16 (2002), 35-65, 38.
48. Reproduced in Majmuha, a collection of letters, sermons and advices to the disciples in Arabic, collected and published by Caliph Abdu Lahad Mbakke (Tuba, 1985), 144.
49. See Amadou Bamba Mbacké, Jazaawu shakuur (Gifts from the Worthy of Recognition) translated from Arabic into French by the Organization of Murid Students, undated, 7.
50. See 'Lettre à monsieur Brévié', translated into French from Arabic by Khadim Mbacké, 'Deux traités'. Mbacké Bousso wrote this letter to Governor Brévié after the latter's trip to Tuba in 1928 in the context of the dispute that erupted between leading figures of the Mbakke family after Amadu Bamba's death in 1927.
51. The relationships between rulers and clerics in the Wolof states have historically been characterized by exchange of services. Rulers granted powerful learned Muslims and teachers large cultural and administrative autonomy against their political neutrality and prayers.
52. See Lamin O. Sanneh, The Jakhanke: The History of an Islamic Clerical People of the Senegambia (London, 1979).
53. As reported by Bassirou Mbacké, one of the rare sons of Amadu Bamba to have spent an extended period of time with him in Mauritania and Diourbel. See Les bienfaits, 44-5.
54. See Amadu Bamba, Jazaawu shakuur, 31. In one of his poems, he depicted Gabon as a 'city of sin' and prayed that God delivers him from its captivity. Quoted in Amadou Lamin Diop, L'abreuvement du commensal, originally in Arabic translated into French by Khadim Mbacké (IFAN, undated), 58.
55. Ross, 'Marabout republics', 48-54
56. and also Sanneh, The Jakhanke.
57. Interview with Makhtar Diop, grandson of Amadou Lamin Diop, the biographer of Amadu Bamba in Diourbel, 28 June 2000.
58. See J. M. Cowan, The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (Ithaca NY, 4th edn, 1994), 84. 'Al Buqahat al Mubarakati' is a Qur'anic expression that refers to the story of Moses's flight from Egypt and the idea of the Promised Land.
59. Amadu Bamba, who often drew from Qur'anic idioms to describe his experience with the French, certainly found some similarities between his exile and aspiration to live in daar al Islam and this story. See Qur'an, 'The history', 28:30, which reads: 'When he [Moses] drew near, a voice called out to him from the tree on the blessed spot on the right side of the valley: O Moses! I am verily God, the Lord of all of the worlds'. Ahmed Ali, Al Qur'an: A Contemporary Translation (Princeton NJ, 1988), 331. The italics are mine.
60. Yi-Fu Tuan, 'Sacred space: Exploration of an idea', in Karl W. Butzer (ed.), Dimensions of Human Geography: Essays on Some Familiar and Neglected Themes (University of Chicago: Department of Geography Research Paper 186, 1978), 84-5.
61. Tuan notes that the Latin word sacer from which the English word sacred is derived, the Hebrew root k-d-sh, which means 'holy', the Greek word templos that gave the Latin word templum and the word 'temple' are all associated with the idea of 'cutting out' and 'setting apart'.
62. ANS, Dossier Amadou Bamba, 'Rapport sur les mourides d'Amadou Bamba dans le cercle du Bawol', Mars, Avril, Mai et Juin 1914. Dossier Amadou Bamba is an unnumbered and uncoded folder containing archival pieces related to the history of the Muridiyya drawn from different series and files, kept in the office of the Director of the National Archives of Senegal in Dakar. Therefore, it will be quoted as Dossier Amadou Bamba and the number and date of the pieces, when provided, will be mentioned.
63. See also Marty, Etudes, 234.
64. Diop, L'abreuvement, 110.
65. In his biography of Amadu Bamba, Diop included a poem he wrote to honor these aides. See L'abreuvement, 102-10.
66. ANS, Dossier Amadou Bamba, 'Rapports sur les mourides', Mars, Avril, Mai, Juin 1914.
67. ANS, 2G 13.54, 'Rapport sur les mourides', mois de septembre 1913.
68. ANS, Dossier Amadou Bamba, 'Rapport de l'administrateur', février 1914.
69. ANS, 2G 17.5 'Rapport politique d'ensemble sur le Sénégal', année 1917.
70. According to Murid oral tradition, the ndigel or recommendation to commemorate the maggal was given by Amadu Bamba in 1912 in Diourbel. He annually commemorated the event during his stay in Diourbel, and after his death, his son and successor, Mamadu Mustafa, moved the maggal to Tuba as a collective annual celebration of the Muridiyya. For more on the maggal see Christian Coulon, 'The grand magal in Touba', African Affairs, 391 (1999) 195-210.
71. See also Sophie Bava and Cheikh Guèye, 'Le grand magal de Touba: Exil prophétique, migration et pélerinage au sein du mouridisme', Social Compass, 48 (2001), 421-38.
72. See Tuan, 'Sacred space', 85.
73. See Barbara Metcalf (ed.), Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe (Berkeley, 1996), 3.
74. Victor Turner emphasizes the role of pilgrimage as 'communitas': A means of building social bonds between believers. See Dramas, Fields and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society (Ithaca NY, 1974), 169.
75. Many of these houses are still visible in Al Mubaraka, better known now as Ker Gu Mag (literally, the senior or first house), where they are now occupied by descendants of the Murid sheikhs who built them.
76. The seclusion of a holy man's wife is common in Islam. Amadu Bamba strictly forbade men from entering the women's quarter of his house. Disciples even refused to accompany colonial administrators who, sometimes, came to inspect the compound without notice. I was told a story about an epidemic of smallpox in Diourbel in 1919 in which Bamba, when told that a male nurse named Lam was trying to access the women's quarter, grabbed a cane and chased him away. Interview with Gallo Mbay, Tuba, 14 January 2000. Mbay is the son of one of the earliest companions of Amadu Bamba. His father, Amadu Makhtar Mbay, was among the first Murids to join the cleric in Diourbel in 1912.
77. ANS, 2G 18, 'Sénégal, situation politique', rapports trimestriels, 1-2-3
78. 'Sénégal, rapport politique' premier trimestre 1918.
79. On the building of the congregational mosque of Al Mubaraka, see ANS, 2G 18, cercle de Diourbel, 'Rapports mensuels d'ensemble, 1918'.
80. See also Diop, L'abreuvement, 99-100
81. and Abdou Lahad Mbacké (ed.), Cheikh Amadou Bamba: Fondateur de la confrérie des mourides (2 vols.) (Paris, 1984), 11. This two-volume book is a compilation of testimonies by Senegalese and Mauritanian Muslim scholars and saints on Amadu Bamba.
82. The architecture of the mosque followed the Ottoman style which is characterized by a large central dome over a square prayer hall with a minaret in each of the four corners. This design was uncommon in West Africa, where the Maghrebi architectural tradition of columned hall and single minaret without central dome was more common (this is also the style of the central mosque of Tuba). The decision to adopt an Ottoman style mosque at a time when the French were at war with the Ottoman Empire may also be seen as a form of symbolic expression of dissent. I thank Eric Ross for calling my attention to the typical Ottoman style of the mosque of Diourbel and its possible political significance. Personal conversation, 22 March 2005.
83. Jonathan Bloom, for example, associates the addition of the minaret to the mosque and the sophistication of mosque architecture with the growing influence and power of Islam. See Jonathan Bloom, Minaret: Symbol of Islam (Oxford, 1989), 19.
84. See ANS, Dossier Amadou Bamba, the reports of Lasselves, the administrator of the district of Diourbel, on the Murids for the month of November 1913.
85. ANS, Dossier Amadou Bamba, 'Rapport sur Amadou Bamba et ses mourides', Diourbel 22 Octobre 1915.
86. Interviews with Cheikh Maam Balla, Mbakke, 5 May 1991, 29 May 2000 and Mor Talla Mbakke, Gowaan, 24 April 2000. In his many poems celebrating the accomplishments of Amadu Bamba and leading Murid sheikhs, Musa Ka, the hagiographer and most prolific Murid writer in Wolofal (Wolof written with Arabic script), tells in superlative terms the stories of Murid conquest of the wilderness of Kajoor and Bawol. It is also interesting to observe that when, in the 1980s, the caliph of the Murids banned the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and the playing of drums in Tuba, Murid sheikhs in Mbakke, Diourbel and some of the villages in eastern Bawol followed suit.
87. My interviewees describe the move to join Amadu Bamba in the early years of the Muridiyya in eastern Bawol as gaddaay. Murid disciples, however, may have joined the migratory movement for a variety of reasons, although many may have been driven primarily by religious motivation.
88. From around 1888, Amadu Bamba had adopted a system of decentralized management whereby sheikhs were quickly released and recommended to form autonomous communities. Many of these sheikhs returned to their villages of origin to recruit a following. When he left for exile in 1895, Bamba did not give instructions to the followers about where to go or what to do. In 1903, when he was deported to Mauritania, he ordered his two brothers and disciples, Ibra Faty and Cheikh Anta, to take care of 'the good and sincere disciples', but did not mandate that they settle in any particular location. See letter of Amadu Bamba to the disciples, 23 June 1903, a copy of which was intercepted by the colonial administration and is now in Dossier Amadou Bamba at the Senegalese National Archives in Dakar. But others probably reached the disciples. Musa Ka, for example, states that he had acquired a copy of the letter from the Murid Sheikh, Ibrahima Sarr. See his version of Jazaawu shakuur verses 533-8, transcribed and translated by Diao Faye in 'L'œuvre poétique wolofal de Moussa Ka ou l'épopée de Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba' (Thèse pour un Doctorat de Troisième Cycle, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, 1999), 354. This long poem in Wolofal of 1,344 verses, written probably in the 1940s, is an epic rendering of Amadu Bamba's confrontation with the French. It is divided into two cycles, the 'cycle of the sea' that describes the trip from Mbakke Baari (also Mbakke or Tuuba Jolof) to Gabon and back (764 verses) and the 'cycle of the land' that recounts the events that took place between Daaru Mannaan, Mauritania and Ceyeen (580 verses).
89. ANS 2G, Lucien Nekkache, 'Le mouridisme depuis 1912', Rapport au gouvernement du Sénégal' (Saint-Louis, 1952);
90. also Cheikh Tidiane Sy, La confrérie sénégalaise des mourides (Paris, 1969), 152.
91. Interview with Sadiikh Kan, and Modu Jakhate, last living son and successor of Mbaye Jakhate, Xuru Mbakke, 29 June 2000. By the time I was visiting Xuru Mbakke in 2000, a new building was being erected on the site where Amadu Bamba's mother's hut once stood. The Mbakke compound in Xuru Mbakke has recently become a pilgrimage site for Murid disciples.
92. Mortalla Mbakke, a grandson of Sheikh Madumbe and historian of his family, states that after his settlement in Diourbel, Amadu Bamba asked both Sheikh Madumbe and Sheikh Ibra Faal to leave the west (Dakar) for the east or Bawol. Interview in Gowaan, 24 April 2000. In the Murid heartland, the west or sowwu, that is the Atlantic coast where the major colonial cities were located, functions as a metaphor for French and European cultural domination. It is opposed to the east or penku, which is the qibla (direction for prayer) and the location of Mecca and Medina, the holy sites of Islam. In Senegal, the expression to 'travel to the East' also means to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca.
93. On the founding of Daaru Muhti and colonial reactions to the initiative see Musa Ka, Marsiyya Maam Cerno Birahim, a eulogy in Wolofal written after the latter's death in 1943, audio-cassette version;
94. see also John Glover, 'Maam Cerno and the settlement of Darou Mousty, 1912-1947' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Chicago, 2000);
95. James Searing, God Alone is King (Portsmouth NH, Oxford and Cape Town, 2001).
96. ANS, 2G 26. 10, Sénégal, 'Rapport politique annuel', 1926.
97. Examples include Amadou Lamin Diop who originated from Dagana on the Senegal River Valley, the Dem of Kajoor and the Thiam family of Kell in the region of Thiès.
98. Also see Nekkache, 'Le mouridisme depuis 1912'.
99. See Pélissier, Les paysans, 304.
100. For a study of this episode in the development of the Muridiyya, see le rapport Portères 'Aménagement de l'économie agricole et rurale au Sénégal' (brochure 1 et 11 Mars-Avril, 1952);
101. Pélissier, Les paysans, esp. ch. 6
102. Cruise O'Brien, The Mourides; Copans, Les marabouts;
103. see also Nekkache, 'Le mouridisme depuis 1912'.
104. It should be noted, however, that many of these daaras after a certain number of years of use were transformed into villages. For example, Njenne, Tuuba faal, Tuuba bogo, Tindodi, all today large villages, started first as daara.
105. Non-Murid Wolof villages also have a penc, but it is often smaller, oriented differently and plays a different role in the life of the community. Since the penc constitutes the public sphere where the power of the village's leader is exerted, its functions very much reflected the nature of this power. The importance of the penc in the Murid village reflects, to a large extent, the greater religious and political authority that Murid sheikhs enjoy over their disciples.
106. The mbaar consists of a sort of vestibule with a roof made of tin, thatch or (now more usually) concrete, and supported by pillars and open on the four sides.
107. ANS, Dossier Amadou Bamba, 'Rapport sur Amadou Bamba et les mourides à Diourbel', 29 Octobre 1913
108. and also 'Rapport sur Amadou Bamba et ses mourides', 1915.
109. Michel Villeneuve, for example, observed that 'Murid quarters are recognizable by the square huts that always signal the presence of Murid disciples in an area, all other people, regardless of their ethnic affiliation, live in round huts'.
110. See 'Une société musulmane d'Afrique Noire: La confrérie des Mourides', Revue de l'Institut des belles lettres arabe, 110 (1965), 137. Square huts were also found in non-Murid villages, but they were more typical of Murid dwellings.
111. This architecture draws inspiration from both the Islamic tradition of space making and traditional Wolof court culture. The division of the sheikh's compound into smaller houses connected by doors reflects a social reality that can be associated with the Muslim conception of space. See for example, Alexandre Guérin, 'Some features of a village architecture in transition from antiquity to Islam', Al usur al wusta, 2 (1999) 51.
112. The large space left open at the entrance of the house reminds one of the bulo, a sort of vestibule found in traditional Mandingo and Wolof royal compounds. See Abbé David Boilat, Esquisses sénégalaises (Paris, 2nd edn, 1984), 292-3
113. Ross, 'Marabout republics', 57-62
114. also Adama Guèye, 'The impact of the slave trade in Kayor and Baol: mutations in habitat and land occupancy', in Sylvian Diouf (ed.), Fighting the Slave Trade (Athens OH, 2003), 50-61.
115. In Guérin's study of the architecture of a Muslim village in Syria, the mastaba (a platform made of cut stone raised half a meter from the ground) plays the role of a bridge between the private and public domain. See 'Some features', 49.
116. Ross, 'Marabout republics', 43.
117. Lasselves, the head of the district of Bawol, repeatedly marveled at the cleanliness of the Murid quarter and Murid use of the straight line, two things he considered difficult to teach the 'Blacks'. See ANS, Dossier Amadou Bamba, 'Rapport sur Amadou Bamba et les mourides à Diourbel', 29 Octobre 1913,
118. and also 'Rapport sur Amadou Bamba et ses mourides', 1915. One needs to note, however, that the people in Senegal had been using straight lines and squares in their built environment for centuries before the emergence of the Muridiyya. See, e.g., Michel Adanson's description of the African quarter of Saint-Louis and the village of Sor in Histoire naturelle du Sénégal: Coquillages; avec la relation abrégée d'un voyage fait en ce pays, pendant les années 1749, 50, 51, 52 et 53 (Paris, 1757), 21.
119. Adanson attributes the use of symmetry in the Wolof built environment to the positive influence of the French of Saint-Louis on the local population. The use of these forms certainly predated the arrival of the French and may have been influenced by Islam which reached this area in the tenth century, as argued by Labelle Prussin, Hatumere: Islamic Design in West Africa (Berkeley, 1986), 53. Most of the objects associated with African traditional religions in Senegal (shrine enclosure, calabash, pestle and mortar) tend to be round. What set the Murids apart in the twentieth century was, perhaps, their more systematic and conscious use of sacred geometry to shape their space.
120. See Seyyed Hossein Nasr, foreword, in Nader Ardalan and Laleh Bakhtiar, The Sense of Unity: The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture (Chicago, 1973), xii.
121. Ibid. xiii.
122. Alexandre Papadopoulos, Islam and Muslim Art, translated from the French by Robert Erich Wolf (Newport CT, 1976), 195.
123. On the role of khatem in West African Islamic eschatology see Prussin, Hatumere, 74-6.
124. and Roberts and Roberts, A Saint in the City, 174-7.
125. Prussin, Hatumere, 53.
126. ANS, Dossier Amadou Bamba, 'Rapport sur Amadou Bamba et ses mourides', 1915.
127. Ibid.
128. ANS, Dossier Amadou Bamba, 'Rapport confidentiel sur les mourides d'Amadou Bamba', Janvier 1914.
129. ANS, 11D1 0049, 'Affaires politiques et religieuses'.
130. On the legal status of the land surrounding the mausoleum of Amadu Bamba and the great mosque and penc of Tuba, see Guèye, Touba, 102. It is worth noting that the land granted to the Murids was in the words of the colonial administration 'a perfect square of 400 hectares'.
131. Ibid. The italics are mine.
132. Tuba is today a city of over 500,000 people, but administratively it is considered a village privately owned and managed by the Caliph of the Murids, who is the last living son of Amadu Bamba. The city benefits de facto from a status of quasi extra-territoriality similar to that of the Vatican; the government of Senegal does not have much say in its administration.
133. The haram is the inviolable space surrounding the Ka'aba in Mecca to which only Muslins are allowed access.