Touba, Senegal

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Touba is a town in central Senegal. It is the holy city of Mouridism, where Seex Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke, its founder, is buried. Next to his tomb lies a large mosque, completed in 1963.

Seex Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke (1853-1927) founded Touba under a large tree when, in a moment of transcendence, he experienced a cosmic vision of light. In Arabic, "ţûbâ" means "felicity", "bliss" or "beatitude", and evokes the sweet pleasures of eternal life in the hereafter. In Islamic tradition, Ţūbâ is also the name of the Tree of Paradise. Reliable reports from the Prophet Muhammad describe it as a great tree of astronomical proportions and many excellent attributes. In Sufism, this symbolic tree represents an aspiration for spiritual perfection and closeness to God Most-High.

The mosque at Touba

Seex Aamadu Bàmba, Senegal's most famous Sufi, was more than a spiritual master; he had a social mission as well, that of rescuing society from colonial alienation and returning it to the "Straight Path" of Islam. His city of Touba played a major role in both these endeavors. Life in Touba is dominated by Muslim practice and Islamic scholarship. A major annual pilgrimage, called the "Grand Magal" attracts between one and two million people from all over Senegal and beyond, from as far away as Europe and America. Other, minor pilgrimages occur throughout the year.

For Mourides, Touba is a sacred place, protected from the corruption of the profane world. Forbidden in the holy city are all illicit and frivolous pursuits, such as the consumption of alcohol and tobacco, the playing of games, music and dancing. The Mouride order maintains absolute control over its "capital", to the exclusion of usual state-run civil and administrative services. The city constitutes an administratively autonomous zone with special legal status within Senegal. Every aspect of its city’s life and growth is managed by the order independently of the state, including education, health, supply of drinking water, public works, administration of markets, land tenure, and real estate development.

Seex Aamadu Bàmba founded Touba in 1887. The holy site remained a tiny, isolated place in the wilderness until his death and burial there 40 years later. Only then did construction of the city really get underway. The Great Mosque was completed in 1963 and since its inauguration the city has grown at a rapid pace: under 5,000 inhabitants in 1964, 30,000 in 1976, 125,000 in 1988, the population was officially estimated at 428,000 in 2005. Along with the neighboring town of Mbacke (founded by Seex Aamadu Bàmba's great-grandfather in the 1790s), the Mouride conurbation is Senegal's second largest, after Dakar.

At the heart of the Mouride holy city lies its Great Mosque, purported to be one of the largest in Africa. Since completion in 1963 it has been continuously enlarged and embellished. The Mosque has five minarets and three large domes, one of which marks Seex Aamadu Bàmba's tomb. The Mosque's 87-meter high central minaret, called "Lamp Fall", is one of Senegal's most famous monuments. The immediate vicinity of the mosque houses the mausolea of Seex Aamadu Bàmba's sons, the Caliphs of the Mouride order. Other important institutions in the center of the holy city include a library, the Caliph's official audience hall, a sacred "Well of Mercy", and a cemetery. The current Caliph of the Mourides, Serigne Saliou Mbacke, is the fifth of Aamadu Bàmba's sons to hold the position. Like his predecessors, he resides in the large compound on the main square facing the Mosque.