Editing Mouride (section)

==History==

===Founding ===
[[Image:AhmaduBamba.jpg|right|thumb|260px|Amadou Bamba]]
The Mouride brotherhood was founded in 1883 in Senegal by ''Shaykh'' Aḥmadu Bàmba Mbàkke ([[Wolof language|Wolof]] name), commonly known as [[Amadou Bamba]] (1850–1927). In [[Arabic]], he is known as Aḥmad ibn Muhammad ibn Habīb Allāh or by the nickname "Khadīmu r-Rasūl" ("Servant of [[Muhammad|the Prophet]]"). In Wolof he is called "Sëriñ Tuubaa" ("Holy Man of Touba"). He was born in the village of [[Mbacké]] in [[Baol]], the son of a Cheikh from the [[Qadiriyya]], the oldest of the [[Muslim brotherhoods of Senegal|Muslim brotherhoods]] in Senegal.

Amadou Bamba was a Muslim [[mysticism|mystic]] and ascetic ''[[marabout]]'', a spiritual leader who wrote tracts on [[meditation]], [[rituals]], work, and ''[[tafsir]]''. He is perhaps best known for his emphasis on work, and his disciples are known for their industriousness. Although he did not support the [[French West Africa|French conquest of West Africa]], he did not wage outright war on them, as several prominent [[Tijaniyyah|Tijani]] ''cheikh'' had done. He taught, instead, what he called the ''jihād al-akbar'' or "greater struggle," which fought not through weapons but through learning and fear of [[God in Islam|God]].

Bamba's followers call him a ''[[mujaddid]]'' (a "renewer of [[Islam]]"). Bamba's fame spread through his followers, and people joined him to receive the [[salvation]] that he promised. Salvation, he said, comes through submission to the ''cheikh'' and hard work.{{clarify|date=November 2015}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://toubacincinnati.org/al-mouridya.php|title=Khadim Rassoul Foundation of North America|website=toubacincinnati.org|access-date=2018-07-10}}</ref>

There is only one surviving photograph of Amadou Bamba, in which he wears a flowing white kaftan and his face is mostly covered by a scarf. This picture is venerated and reproduced in paintings on walls, buses, taxis, and other private and public spaces all over modern-day Senegal.

===French colonial rule===
{{main|French West Africa}}
At the time of the foundation of the Mouride brotherhood in 1883, the French were in control of Senegal as well as most of [[West Africa|West]] and [[North Africa]]. Although it had shared in the horrors of the [[History of West Africa#Jihad and colonization|pre-colonial slave trade]], French West Africa was managed relatively better than other African regions during the [[Scramble for Africa]] and ensuing [[colonialism|colonial era]]. Senegal enjoyed small measures of self-rule in many areas. However, French rule still discouraged the development of local industry, preferring to force the exchange of raw materials for European finished goods, and a large number of taxation measures were instituted.

[[File:Carte de l'Afrique-Occidentale française, 1914.svg|thumb|left|260px|[[French West Africa]] around 1913.]]
At the end of the 19th century, French colonial authorities began to worry about the growing power of the Mouride brotherhood and its potential to resist French colonialism. Bamba, who had converted various kings and their followers,{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} could probably have raised an army against the French had he wanted. Fearful of his power, the French sentenced Bamba to exile in [[Gabon]] (1895–1902) and later [[Mauritania]] (1903–1907) and confining him in house arrest in Senegal until 1912.<ref name="Babou">{{cite book |last= Babou |first=Cheick Anta |editor-last1=Diouf| editor-first=Mamadou|date=2013 |chapter= The Senegalese “Social Contract” Revisited’|title=Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senegal |chapter-url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/diou16262.10 |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=128 |doi=10.7312/diou16262 |jstor=10.7312/diou16262 |isbn= 978-0-231-16262-3}}</ref>

However, Bamba's exile fueled legends about his miraculous ability to survive torture, deprivation, and attempted executions, and thousands more flocked to his organization. For example, on the ship to Gabon, forbidden from praying, Bamba is said to have broken his leg-irons, leapt overboard into the ocean, and prayed on a prayer rug that miraculously appeared on the surface of the water. In addition, when the French put him in a furnace, he is said to have simply sat down and had tea with [[Muhammad]]. In a den of hungry lions, it is said the lions slept beside him.{{Citation needed |reason=This appears to be a collection of folk tales but I could not find them all sourced at a quick glance|date=April 2024}}

[[Image:Touba moschee.jpg|thumb|right|260px|The [[Great Mosque of Touba]], Senegal]]

By 1912, policy shifted towards using the Senegalese Sufi orders – among them the Mourides – as assets in the colonial administration. This way, it was thought, the authority and power of the orders could instead be used to support colonial rule. In order to facilitate rapprochement and in an attempt to limit the appearance of Bamba as a freedom fighter, he was released from house arrest and moved back to [[Diourbel]], close to the future site of [[Touba]].{{sfn|Babou|2013|p=128}} The Mouride doctrine of hard work served French economic interests, as addressed below. After [[World War I]], the Mouride brotherhood was allowed to grow and in 1926 Bamba began work on the [[Great Mosque of Touba|Great Mosque]] in Touba, where he would be buried one year later.

Bamba’s successors were increasingly cordial with the French administration, collaborating and receiving support against rivals and material benefits such as land and machinery in return. This led to the brotherhood’s authority becoming part of a form of [[indirect rule]] by the French.{{sfn|O'Brien|1971|p=69-71}} In 1928 the French colonial administration issued a deed recognizing the land of Bamba’s tomb and the Great Mosque as private property of the Mouride community. This marked the first step towards Touba’s autonomy from the wider Senegalese state which continued post-independence.{{sfn|Babou|2013|p=128-129}} 

The Mourides played a central role in the [[1958 Senegalese constitutional referendum]] which determined whether Senegal would become part of the new [[French Community]]. The leaders of the main Senegalese Sufi orders jointly announced their loyalty to [[Charles de Gaulle]] and their support of the proposed French Community.<ref>{{cite book |last= Villalón |first=Leonardo Alfonso |date=2006 |title=Islamic Society and State Power in Senegal: Disciples and Citizens in Fatick |url= https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/islamic-society-and-state-power-in-senegal/4D2591F3344A7C84453E89EFE40B35F9 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780511598647 }}</ref> Their campaigning, supported by the French Administration, led to the overwhelming yes of nearly 98% being coined “the marabouts’ Yes.”{{sfn|O'Brien|1971|p=275-276}}