El Hadj Umar Tall (1797 - 1864) was a conqueror and Toucouleur king who founded a brief empire encompassing much of what is now Guinea, Senegal, and Mali. 1797 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Takrur was one of the minor Iron Age states of West Africa, which flourished roughly parallel to the Kingdom of Ghana. ... The word king has many meanings: For the head of state, see Monarch. ...

Early life

Born Umar bin-Said in Halwar, Fouta-Toro (present-day Senegal), Umar Tall attended a madrassa in his youth before embarking on the Hajj in 1820. After many years of scholarship, in 1826 Umar Tall returned with his new title of "El Hadj" to assume the caliphate of the Tijaniyya brotherhood for the Sudan. Settling in Sokoto, he took several wives, one of whom was a daughter of Fulani Sultan Muhammed Bello. In 1836, El Hajj Umar Tall moved to Fouta Djallon in present-day Guinea and began preparations for his jihad. Futa Toro (formerly known as Mussukeba Sane) is a region of Northern Senegal and Southern Mauritania in the Senegal River Valley. ... Madrassa in the Gambia The word madrassa in the Arabic language (and other languages of the Islamic nations such as Persian, Turkish, Indonesian etc. ... The Hajj or Haj (Arabic حَجّ Ḥaǧǧ) is the Pilgrimage to Mecca (or, Makkah) and is the fifth of the Five Pillars of Islam. Every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so is obliged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime. ... 1820 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1826 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Caliph is the term or title for the Islamic leader of the Ummah, or community of Islam. ... Tijani order (sufi tarika) was founded in Fez in the 1780s by Ahmad al-Tidjani (d. ... Sokoto (which is the modern/anglicised version of the local name, Sakkwato; also known as Sakkwato, Birnin Shaihu da Bello or Sokoto, Capital of Shaihu and Bello) is a city located in the Northwestern region of Nigeria, and is the modern day capital of Sokoto State (and its predecessor, the... Categories: Africa-related stubs | Burkina Faso | Cameroon | Ethnic groups of Africa | Fulani Empire | Mali | Nigeria ... The Sokoto Caliph was the ruler of the Sokoto Caliphate. ... Son and aide of Usman Dan Fodio. ... 1836 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Fouta Djallon is a highland region in Guinea, West Africa. ... Jihad (ǧihād جهاد) is an Islamic term, from the Arabic root ǧhd (to exert utmost effort, to strive, struggle), which connotes a wide range of meanings: anything from an inward spiritual struggle to attain perfect faith to just cause in a political or military sense. ...

Initial conquests

In 1848, El Hajj Umar Tall's Toucouleur army, equipped with European light arms, invaded several neighboring Malinké regions and met with immediate success. Umar Tall pressed on into what is today the region of Kayes in Mali, conquering a number of cities and building a tata (fortification) near the city of Kayes that is today a popular tourist destination. 1848 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Takrur was one of the minor Iron Age states of West Africa, which flourished roughly parallel to the Kingdom of Ghana. ... The Malinké are an African Mandé ethnic group. ... Kayes is a region in Mali. ... Nakhal Fort, one of the best-preserved forts in Oman. ... A tourist boat travels the River Seine in Paris, France Tourism can be defined as the act of travel for the purpose of recreation, and the provision of services for this act. ...

In April of 1857, Umar Tall declared war on the Khasso kingdom and besieged the French colonial army at Medina Fort. The siege failed on July 18 of the same year when Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrived with relief forces. 1857 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... World map of colonialism circa 1945. ... July 18 is the 199th day (200th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 166 days remaining. ... Louis Léon César Faidherbe (June 3, 1818 - September 29, 1889), French general and colonial administrator, was born at Lille. ...

Conqueror of the Bambara

After his failure to defeat the French, El Hadj Umar Tall launched a series of assaults on the Bambara kingdoms of Kaarta and Ségou. The Kaarta capital of Nioro du Sahel fell quickly to Umar Tall's mujahideen, followed by Ségou on March 10, 1861. Bambara, also known as Bamanankan, is a language spoken in Mali by as many six million people. ... The Bambara Empire, also known as the Bamana Empire or the Segou Empire, was a large kingdom based at Segou, now in Mali. ... Nioro du Sahel is a town in western Mali. ... Mujahideen (مجاهدين; also transliterated as mujāhidīn, mujahedeen, mujahedin, mujahidin, mujaheddin, etc. ... March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (70th in Leap years). ... 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

While Umar 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 Ségou, Umar Tall marched down the Niger, on the Massina imamate of Hamdullahi. More than 70,000 died in the three battles that followed until the final fall and destruction of Hamdullahi on March 16, 1862. This article is in need of attention. ... The term Christian means belonging to Christ and is derived from the Greek noun Χριστός Khristós which means anointed one, which is itself a translation of the Hebrew word Moshiach (Hebrew: משיח, also written Messiah), (and in Arabic it is pronounced Maseeh مسيح). Christian is primarily an adjective, describing an object associated... Islam  listen? (Arabic: al-islām) the submission to God is a monotheistic faith, one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second largest religion. ... Imam is an Arabic word meaning Leader. The ruler of a country might be called the Imam, for example. ... March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (76th in Leap years). ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

Death and legacy

Now controlling the entire Middle Niger, Umar Tall moved against Timbuctu, only to be repulsed. He died in an expedition against the Dogon people of Bandiagara in 1864, when his reserves of gunpowder exploded. His nephew Tidiani Tall succeeded him as the Toucouleur emperor, though his son Ahmadu did much of the work to keep the empire intact from Ségou. However, the French continued to advance, finally entering Ségou itself in 1890. The Dogon village of Banani. ... Bandiagara is a city in the Malian Land of the Dogons. A sandy formation of cliffs and plateaux in the region is also known as Bandiagara. ... 1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Gunpowder is a substance which burns very rapidly and is used as a propellant in firearms. ... 1890 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...

El Hadj Umar Tall is still a legendary figure in Senegal, Guinea, and Mali, though his legacy varies by country. Where the Senegalese tend to remember him as a hero of anti-French resistence, Malian sources tend to describe him as an invader who prepared the way for the French by weakening West Africa. Umar Tall also figures prominently in Maryse Condé's historical novel Segu. Maryse Condé - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... An historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, where the time the action takes place in predates the lifetime of the author -- distinguish and contrast the alternate history genre. ...

References

This article is based on a translation of the corresponding article from the French Wikipedia, retrieved on July 1, 2005, which in turn cites the following sources:

• « La guerre sainte d'al-Hajj Umar Le soudan occidental au milieu du XIXème siècle » de David Robinson (Editions Karthala)
• « Le temps des marabouts Itinéraires et stratégies islamiques en Afrique occidentale française » (collectif) (Editions Karthala)

English language source:

• Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

External links

• Map of the Toucouleur Empire

Audio files

• Wolof praise song of Umar Tall (RealAudio file)