Oumar Tall, whose real name is Omar Foutiyou Tall (or Oumar Seydou Tall), also called El Hadj Omar or Al-Fouti, is a ruler, warlord, Muslim scholar and leader of the Sufi congregation of Tijaniyya.
Born in Halwar in Fouta-Toro, present-day Senegal, between 1794 and 1797, he founded a Toucouleur Muslim empire in the territory of what is now Guinea, Senegal and Mali1.
Initially a follower of the Qadiriyya, he embraced the Tijaniyya and therefore played a major role in the spread of the latter2 in Niger, Mali and Senegal (he also claimed the title of caliph of the tariqa in sub-Africa. -Saharan). He mysteriously disappeared in the cliff of Bandiagara (present-day Mali) on February 12, 1864
Born between 1794 and 1797 in Halwar, he is the son of Saidou Tall and Sokhna Adama Aïssé Thiam. He is his father's fourth son. Fulani Toroodo5 from a large family of notables and religious leaders, he began to deepen his knowledge of Islam thanks to Abd el-Karim, a Muslim scholar from Fouta-Djalon, member of the Tijaniyya brotherhood.
From 1827 and for eighteen years, Oumar Tall undertakes several trips. He went to Hamdallaye on the Niger where he met Cheikhou Amadou, the founder of the theocratic empire of Macina, then spent several months in Sokoto at the court of Mohammed Bello. He then crossed the Fezzan and went to Cairo before reaching Mecca where he received, from Muhammad Al Ghâlî6, the titles of El Hadj and caliph of the Tijan Sufi brotherhood for the Sudan (1828). He thus joined the Tidjaniya brotherhood in 1833, through Mohammed el-Ghali Boutaleb, a native of Fez, whom he had met and frequented in Mecca.
He then stayed at al-Azhar University in Cairo, then with the Sultan of Bornu, with whom he married a daughter, at the court of Mohammed Bello, with whom he also married a daughter, finally back in Hamdallaye with Cheikhou Amadou.
Then he was imprisoned by the Bambara animist king of Ségou. When he was released, he went to Fouta-Djalon where the almami authorized him to create a zaouia (1841). For thirteen years, he preached Sunni Islam through Asharite doctrine, Maliki jurisprudence and Tijaniyya spirituality, first in Fouta-Djalon, then in Dinguiraye (now Guinea) in 1848.
In Dinguiraye, he is preparing for jihad (holy war). He acquired a reputation as a saint and gathered many disciples who would form the cadres of his army. His army, equipped with European light weapons received from British traffickers in Sierra Leone, attacked several Malinke regions from 1850. He easily occupied the territories of Mandingo and Bambouk (1853), then attacked the Bambaras Massassi including he takes the capital Nioro (1854). In 1856, he annexed the Bambara kingdom of Kaarta and severely suppressed the revolts.
Fighting against the French colonial army, he built a tata (a fortification) at Koniakary (77 km west of Kayes). In April 1857, he declared war against the kingdom of Khasso and besieged the fort of Medina, which was liberated by Louis Faidherbe's troops on July 18, 1857.
Between 1858 and 1861, El Hadj Oumar Tall attacked the Bambara kingdoms of Kaarta and Ségou (Battle of Ngano). On March 10, 1861, he conquered Ségou which he entrusted a year later to his son Ahmadou to set out to conquer Hamdallaye, capital of the Fulani empire of Macina which fell on March 16, 1862 after three battles making more than 70 000 dead. Forced to take refuge in the caves of Deguembéré, near Bandiagara, he mysteriously disappeared in the cave.
His nephew Tidiani Tall will be his successor and will install the capital of the Toucouleur empire in Bandiagara. His son Ahmadou Tall reigned in Ségou, Nioro and commanded the Niger from Sansading to Nyamina, part of the Bambaras of Beledougou, the Bakhounou, the Kaarta7 until the French conquest in 18938.
Driven by the universalist ideology of Islam and by a project of egalitarian renewal of society, El Hadj Oumar encourages the liberalism of Sunnism via the Tidjaniya brotherhood, of which he is the representative of the time, and promises to impose a "transcendent brotherhood" to the peoples of Western Sudan.
El Hadj Oumar governs his states like a theocracy, assisted by a council comprising some great marabouts, some of his brothers and fellow pilgrims. Quranic law is the fundamental principle of government. Administratively, El Hadj Oumar is inspired by the Egyptian-Turkish model with the division of power between a civilian governor (pasha) and a military governor (bey). Each province has a powerful fortress (tata) commanded by a military leader in charge of a large garrison.
He is, like the Fulani colonization led by Modibbo Adama in Adamaoua, the founder of a state prospering mainly through slave trade9.