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| Tijāniyyah | |
|---|---|
| Name | Tijaniyya |
| Native name | Tariqa Tijaniyya |
| Founder | Ahmad al-Tijani |
| Founded | 1784 |
| Region | North Africa, West Africa, Sahel, Horn of Africa, Europe, Americas |
| Headquarters | Fes |
| Notable members | Ahmad al-Tijani, Ibrahim Niass, Umar Tall, Amadou Bamba, Abdullahi dan Fodio |
Tijāniyyah The Tijāniyyah is a Sunni Sufi tariqa established in the late 18th century by Ahmad al-Tijani in Fes. It developed distinctive doctrines and litanies that spread across North Africa, West Africa, the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and into Europe and the Americas through scholars, merchants, and diasporas associated with figures such as Ibrahim Niass, Umar Tall, and Amadou Bamba.
Ahmad al-Tijani founded the order in Fes; his life intersected with institutions like Al-Qarawiyyin, Alaouite dynasty, Regency of Algiers, Ottoman Empire, and personalities including Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Karkari, Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Sanusi, Ali Bey al-Kabir who shaped Maghrebi religious networks. Early propagation linked the tariqa to centers such as Meknes, Marrakesh, Tangier, Tlemcen, and contacts with scholars from Egypt, Tripoli (Libya), and Fezzan. The founder’s claims and correspondences engaged contemporaries like Sidi Muhammad ibn al-Qadiri and institutions like Zawiya houses associated with families in Tunis and Constantine (Algeria).
Doctrinally the tariqa aligns with Sunni orders and draws from authorities such as Ibn Arabi, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyya in polemics, and exegetical traditions linked to Tafsir al-Jalalayn and jurisprudential currents in Maliki school circles. The order emphasizes spiritual transmission through chains associated with Ahmad al-Tijani and engages scholarship referencing works by Al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Al-Nawawi, and later reformists like Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida in debates. Theology interacts with scholastic debates involving names such as Ibn Khaldun and modern intellectuals like Cheikh Anta Diop and Léopold Sédar Senghor through cultural reception.
Local leadership often centers on zawiyas and shaykhs connected to an ijaza chain recognized across regions; major figures include Ibrahim Niass, El Hadj Malick Sy, Amadou Bamba, Seydou Nourou Tall, and Umar Tall. Institutional forms intersect with states and movements like the French colonial empire, British Empire, Portuguese Empire, and postcolonial governments in Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Nigeria, Algeria, and Morocco. Networks interact with international bodies and diasporic institutions in Paris, London, New York City, Toronto, and Dakar.
The tariqa expanded across Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Guinea, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and diasporas in France, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. Major demographic bases include communities in Saint-Louis (Senegal), Touba, Ziguinchor, Bamako, Kano, Kaduna, Niamey, Bamenda, and urban neighborhoods in Casablanca and Rabat. Scholarly historians and demographers such as David Robinson, John Hunwick, Nehemia Levtzion, and Ousmane Kane have studied its spread.
Central devotional practices include wird and dhikr recited in zawiyas and congregations influenced by ritual forms comparable to those preserved in Qadiriyya, Shadhiliyya, and Naqshbandiyya. Litanies draw on Qur'anic recitation traditions exemplified by codices from Al-Qarawiyyin and reciters linked to schools like Zawiyya of El-Hadji Malick Sy and figures such as Ibrahim Niass. Public ceremonies have been documented alongside festivals connected to the anniversaries of sheikhs in locales including Tivaouane, Touba, Saint-Louis (Senegal), Kankan, and Djenne.
Relations range from cooperative to competitive with movements and institutions such as Wahhabism, Salafism, Sufism orders like Qadiriyya and Shadhiliyya, reformist groups linked to Al-Azhar University, and political actors including Ahmadou Barrow, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and colonial administrations like French West Africa. Debates involve juristic authorities such as Malik ibn Anas school adherents and modern intellectual interlocutors like Sayyid Qutb and Fazlur Rahman in broader Sunni discourse.
Contemporary controversies concern authority of marabouts and shaykhs vis-à-vis states such as Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, and Morocco, contested leadership claims among lineages tied to Ibrahim Niass and Amadou Bamba, and encounters with movements like Salafi-Jihadism and political Islamist parties including Ennahda Movement and Justice and Development Party (Morocco). Critics include reformers inspired by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and scholars like Ali Abdelrazik and Khaled Abou El Fadl who discuss Sufi practices in modern legal and human rights frameworks. Contemporary scholarship and media outlets from BBC, Al Jazeera, Le Monde, and academic publishers engage debates about globalization, pilgrimage tourism in Touba, transnational charitable networks, and the role of the tariqa in civic life.