The death of an icon for Islam in Senegal

January 5, 2008 10:00 AM

Serigne Saliou (article in French) Mbacké, the leader of the Mourides (academic link), a prominent Islamic brotherhood in Senegal (and Harlem, NY , died a week ago today. Arguably the most influential person in Senegal, he had been the the last living son of the Mouride founder Chiekh Amadou Bamba. Thousands of peoplehave traveled Touba, the Mouride capital, to pay their respects.

More background information by Reuters regarding the Mourides.

posted by fizzix (8 comments total)

Many of the street vendors here in NYC are from Senegal. It's good to know about influential people in other countries one might not have known about. Thanks for your post fizzix.
posted by nickyskye at 10:36 AM on January 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

Wow, that's huge news for Senegal. Thanks for this excellent post. Anyone who wants more background should visit this earlier great post by Mo Nickels (let's hope this gets more than the four comments that one did!).
posted by languagehat at 10:43 AM on January 5, 2008

These brotherhoods are akin to the millet system under the Ottoman empire, where religious minorities retained local autonomy but were loyal to a sultan.
posted by Brian B. at 10:45 AM on January 5, 2008

(Um, your "academic link" goes to a two-paragraph abstract; did you mean to link the actual paper?)
posted by languagehat at 10:45 AM on January 5, 2008

Thanks for this. My parents were stationed in Senegal, and while I never got a chance to visit them there, one of the most enjoyable weeks I've spent in my life was spent over Ramadan ten years ago, while one of their friends, Cheikh Sene, was visiting. He was in the US working on his PhD at Fordham, comparing the thought and writing of Amadou Bamba and Thomas Merton. My discussions with him were great.

I got to take him to Iranbooks, now sadly closed, in Bethesda, where he schooled me on the Sufi stuff that I'd been eyeing there for a year or more.

I have no doubt he's in deep mourning.
posted by OmieWise at 12:02 PM on January 5, 2008

.
posted by mike3k at 1:45 PM on January 5, 2008

Here's a full copy of the academic article (in case you don't have access to it, through an educational institution
posted by fizzix at 8:44 AM on January 6, 2008

Well, shows what I know, my dad informs me that Cheikh Sene is aka Cheikh Sene M'backe, one of Serigne Saliou's sons.
posted by OmieWise at 6:00 AM on January 7, 2008