Hadji Oumarûl Foutiyou Tall (Umar ibn Sa'id al-Futi Tal, ), ( – 1864 CE), born in Futa Tooro, present day Senegal, was a West African Tijani sufi Toucouleur Islamic scholar and military commander who founded the short-lived Toucouleur Empire, which encompassed much of what is now Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania and Mali.
Name
Omar Tall's name is spelled variously: in particular, his first name is commonly transliterated in French as Omar, although some sources prefer Umar; the patronymic, ibn Sa'id, is often omitted; and the final element of his name, Tall (), is spelt variously as Tall, Taal or Tal.
The honorific El Hadj (also al-Hajj or el-Hadj), reserved for a Muslim who has successfully made the Hajj to Mecca, precedes Omar Tall's name in many texts, especially those in Arabic. Later he also took on the honorifics Amir al-Mu'minin, Khalifa, Qutb (pole of the universe), vizier of the Mahdi, Khalifat Khatim al-Awliya (successor of the seal of saints), and Almami (Imam).
Early life
Omar Tall was born about 1794 in Halwar in the Imamate of Futa Toro (present-day Senegal); he was the tenth of twelve children. His father was Saidou Tall, from the Torodbe tribe, and his mother was Sokhna Adama Thiam.
Omar Tall attended a madrassa before embarking on the Hajj in 1828, during which he learned from the scholars of Al Azhar University. While in Mecca he stayed with Muhammad al Ghali, the head of the Tijaniyyah order, who made him a muqaddam (commander) of the order with a commission to destroy paganism in the Sudan. He returned in 1830 as a marabout with the title El Hadj and assumed the khalifa of the Tijaniyya Sufi order in the Sudan. El-Hadj took the Tijani honorific Khalifat Khatim al-Awliya. This authority would become the basis of his personal authority necessary to lead Africans.
When returning from the Hajj, he camped near Damascus, where he met Ibrahim Pasha, Omar Tall befriended the Pasha and healed his son from a deadly fever. Omar Tall was highly inspired by the trends set by the Pasha.
Gathering strength
Settling in Sokoto from 1831 to 1837, he took several wives, one of whom was a daughter of the Fula caliph of the Sokoto Caliphate, Muhammed Bello. In 1837, Omar Tall moved to the Imamate of Futa Jallon and founded his own religious settlement at Jegunko in 1840. Omar Tall claimed a transcendental personal authority. He denied the important of adherence to a madhhab and favoured ijtihad or personal religious judgment. He taught that a believer should follow the guidance of a Sufi shaykh who has immediate personal knowledge of the divine truth. Even though Omar Tall never took the title of either mujaddid or mahdi, he was regarded as such by his followers. He became the torodbe ideal of religious revival and conquest of pagans.
Omar Tall's message appealed to a large cross-section of the Sahelian population in the mid 19th century, including Fula, Soninke, Moors, and others. Many lowerclass people had grievances against local religious or military elites. Slaves aspired to gain freedom fighting for Islam. Rootless individuals of mixed ethnic background found new social identity and opportunities. Communities under the power of Europeans looked to Tall to drive off the foreigners. Marabout families hoped to gain political power in addition to their religious influence.
His growing power and number of followers caused tension with the leaders of the Imamate. In 1851 he moved his community to found the city of Dinguiraye in what was then the Kingdom of Tamba. The king, Yambi, granted him the land in return for a yearly payment. Soon, however, Tall's continued stockpiling of weapons began to worry the Tamba leaders as well. After a series of emissaries to Tall were rebuffed, and one prominent griot even converted to Islam, Yambi pre-emptively attacked the community but was defeated in September 1852.
Initial conquests
With his victory in Tamba, Tall proclaimed a jihad against pagans, lapsed Muslims, European intruders, and the backsliding rulers of Futa Toro and Futa Jallon. As his army scored victories, he reinforced his army with the new recruits who flocked to Dinguiraye and English guns purchased in Sierra Leone with the spoils of war.
Omar 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. He conquered Bambouk, then seized Nioro du Sahel, the capital of Kaarta, in April 1855, which became his capital.