Hadji Oumarûl Foutiyou Tall (ʿUmar ibn Saʿīd al-Fūtī Ṭaʿl, , &ndash; 1864 <small>CE</small>), born in Futa Tooro, present-day Senegal, was a Senegalese Tijani sufi Toucouleur Islamic scholar and military commander who founded the short-lived Tukulor Empire, which encompassed much of what is now Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea and Mali.

Name

Omar Tall’s name is spelt variously: in particular, his first name is commonly transliterated in French as Omar, although some sources prefer Umar; the patronymic, ibn Saʿīd, is often omitted; and the final element of his name, Tall (), is spelt variously as Tall, Taal or Tal.

The honorific El Hadj (also al-Hajj or el-Hadj), reserved for a Muslim who has successfully made the Hajj to Mecca, precedes Omar Tall's name in many texts, especially those in Arabic. Later he also took on the honorifics Amir al-Mu'minin, Khalifa, Qutb (pole of the universe), vizier of the Mahdi, Khalifat Khatim al-Awliya (successor of the seal of saints), and Almami (Imam). His father was Saidou Tall, from the Torodbe lineage, and his mother was Sokhna Adama Aissatou Thiam.

Omar Tall attended a madrassa before embarking on the Hajj in 1828, during which he learned from the scholars of Al Azhar University. While in Mecca he stayed with , the head of the Tijaniyyah order, who made him a muqaddam (commander) of the order with a commission to destroy paganism in the Sudan. He returned in 1830 as a marabout with the title El Hadj and assumed the khalifa of the Tijaniyya Sufi order in the Sudan. El-Hadj took the Tijani honorific Khalifat Khatim al-Awliya. This authority would become the basis of the authority necessary to lead Africans.

When returning from the Hajj, he camped near Damascus, where he met Ibrahim Pasha, Omar Tall befriended the Pasha and healed his son from a deadly fever. The trends set by the Pasha highly inspired Omar Tall.

Gathering strength

Settling in Sokoto from 1831 to 1837, he entered into a polygynous marriage, with one of the women being the daughter of the Fula caliph of the Sokoto Caliphate, Muhammed Bello. In 1837, Omar Tall moved to the Imamate of Futa Jallon and founded his religious settlement at Jegunko in 1840. Omar Tall claimed a transcendental personal authority. He denied the importance of adherence to a madhhab and favoured ijtihad or personal religious judgment. He taught that a believer should follow the guidance of a Sufi shaykh who has immediate personal knowledge of the divine truth. Even though Omar Tall never took the title of either mujaddid or Mahdi, he was regarded as such by his followers. He became the Torodbe ideal of religious revival and conquest of pagans. Soon, however, Tall's continued stockpiling of weapons began to worry the Tamba leaders as well. After a series of emissaries to Tall were rebuffed, and one prominent griot even converted to Islam, Yambi pre-emptively attacked the community but was defeated in September 1852. Tall seized Nioro du Sahel, the capital of Kaarta, in April 1855, which became his capital. When Segu fell, their king, Ali Diara (Bina Ali), fled to Hamdullahi taking with him the traditional idols of the royal family.

While Omar Tall's wars thus far had been against the animist Bambara or the Christian French, he now turned his attention to the smaller Islamic states of the region. Installing his son Ahmadu Tall as imam of Segu, Omar Tall marched down the Niger to attack the Massina Empire of Hamdullahi. This was controversial, as attacking a fellow Muslim power was forbidden. in the battles that followed. The most decisive was at Cayawal, after which Amadu III, the Masina king, was captured and executed.

Now controlling the entire Middle Niger, Omar Tall moved against Timbuktu, only to be repulsed in 1863 by a combined force of Tuaregs, Moors, and Fulas. In 1863, the coalition inflicted several defeats on Omar Tall's army, ending up killing Tall's generals Alpha Umar (Alfa 'Umar), Thierno Bayla and Alfa 'Uthman.

Rebellion and death

Meanwhile, a rebellion broke out in the Masina lands led by Ba Lobbo, cousin of executed Masina monarch Amadu III. In suppressing the revolt during the spring of 1863, Omar Tall reoccupied the city of Hamdullahi, and in June Ba Lobbos's combined force of Fulas and Kountas besieged Omar Tall's army there. They captured Hamdallahi in February 1864. Omar Tall fled and managed to make it to a cave in Degembere (in the Bandiagara Escarpment) where he died on 14 February 1864.

Omar Tall's nephew Tidiani Tall succeeded him in retaking Massina, though his son Ahmadu Tall, operating out of Ségou, did much of the work in keeping the empire intact. Nonetheless, the French continued to advance, conquering Nioro in 1891.

In November 2019, the French government returned the so-called sword of Omar Tall—which was the sword of Ahmadu Tall, Omar Tall's son—to the government of the Republic of Senegal. The sword was returned five years later. French MPs will vote later on permanently returning the sword.

Lineage of kingship

References

Notes

Sources

  • Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
  • Robinson, David, (1985) The Holy War of Umar Tal. Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • B. O. Oloruntimeehin. The Segu Tukulor Empire. New York: Humanities Press (1972). SBN 391002066
  • Willis, John Ralph. In the Path of Allah: The Passion of al-Hajj 'Umar. London: Cass, 1989.
  • Wise, Christopher. The Desert Shore: Literatures of the Sahel. Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner, 2001.
  • Wise, Christopher. Yambo Ouologuem: Postcolonial Writer, Islamic Militant. Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner, 1999.
  • African Legends page
  • Map of the Toucouleur Empire
  • Wolof praise song of Umar Tall (RealAudio file)