Who the Murids are, what the holy city of Touba represents, why Sufism is important in Senegal, and why the Senegalese Murid diaspora is so widespread across the world. An interview with Cheikh Anta Babou
Ultimo aggiornamento: 02/11/2026 10:36:13
In Senegal, being Muslim almost automatically means belonging to a Sufi brotherhood, a central institution within Islam’s more spiritual tradition. The Muridiyya is one of the four Sufi brotherhoods present in the country. It was founded around 1884 by Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba (d. 1927) as a movement aimed at renewing local Islam and fostering cultural resistance to French colonial rule. The term “murid”, from which the brotherhood takes its name, means “disciple” in Arabic and refers to the spiritual bond between a believer and his master (sheikh), a key figure in the Sufi tradition.
At the heart of Ahmadou Bamba’s vision are “tarbiya”—a form of spiritual education aimed at transforming people’s behaviour, ethics and relationships with others—prayer and work. The essence of the Muridiyya is captured in the famous saying attributed to its founder: “Pray as if you were going to die tomorrow, work as if you were going to live forever.” This vision gave rise to a work ethic that continues to characterise the Murids today and helps explain their economic dynamism, both in Senegal and across the extensive diaspora.
Ahmadou Bamba’s growing popularity soon aroused the suspicions of the French colonial authorities. In 1895, the Sufi master was exiled to Gabon and, a few years later, was also subjected to internal exile in Mauritania. Paradoxically, these years away from home enhanced his prestige, strengthening his reputation as a saint and deepening the devotion of his disciples.
The spiritual centre of the Murid brotherhood is Touba, the holy city founded by Ahmadou Bamba in 1887. Every year, it hosts the Grand Magal, the most important Murid pilgrimage, which attracts millions of devotees from Senegal and the diaspora.
Today, more than a third of Senegalese identify with the Muridiyya. The brotherhood’s influence extends well beyond religion, playing a major role in the country’s social, economic and political life. Alongside the other Sufi brotherhoods, the Muridiyya is regarded as one of the main pillars of Senegal’s cohesion and stability, helping to curb the spread of extremism that has affected other West African countries.
Cheikh Anta Babou, Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the leading experts on the Muridiyya. Himself a Murid, he shared with us the history of the brotherhood and its founder, the role of Sufism in his native Senegal, and several anecdotes passed down by his father, who personally knew Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba and lived with him for several years.
Interview by Chiara Pellegrino
The emergence of the Muridiyya should be understood within the broader internal dynamics of the expansion of Islam in 19th-century West Africa. Could you explain this process? What motivations guided Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba when he founded this Sufi order?
The Muridiyya was founded around 1884, when Ahmadou Bamba’s father passed away. His father was a qādī, a Muslim judge, and served as an advisor to King Lat Dior, the king who ruled the province of Cayor in what is called today the country of Senegal. Formally, these kings were Muslims, but many of them harbored ceddo culture, a kind of mixed religion that combined the traditional African belief systems and Islam. They carried Muslim names and followed certain Islamic practices, but for clerics, they did not represent a fully committed form of Islam. Ahmadou Bamba’s father was in that circle. He was himself a respected Islamic scholar and cleric, deeply learned in religious sciences. However, from a young age, Ahmadou Bamba felt uncomfortable with his father’s relationship with these rulers. Many of them were involved in wars, raids, and enslavement. As a young man, Ahmadou Bamba began to challenge this relationship and encouraged his father to distance himself from the courts and devote himself entirely to Islamic teaching, study, and religious education.
As long as his father was alive, Ahmadou Bamba did not break openly with him. But after his father’s death in 1884, he began to advocate a complete separation from rulers. When he was approached to replace his father as an advisor to the king, he refused, saying that he would be ashamed to be seen walking toward the gate of a king’s house rather than toward the house of God. At that time, this was a very outrageous decision, because society expected young people to follow the path established by their parents and ancestors. This first rupture was both physical and intellectual. He left the region of Cayor, where his father had lived, and moved to Baol, his family’s heartland. But the separation was not only geographical: it also represented a break with the religious and educational model of the previous generations.
Around 1884, Serigne Touba [name by which Ahmadou Bamba is known among his disciples, NdR] began to develop his own vision of Sufi Islam. He was not the first to introduce Sufism to Senegal, as Sufi traditions and brotherhoods already existed. His own family belonged to the Qadiriyya order. However, Ahmadou Bamba wanted to create his own understanding of it.
Central to his vision was “tarbiya”, a form of education and spiritual training. For Ahmadou Bamba, education was not simply about memorizing the Qur’an or acquiring religious knowledge. People had been studying the Qur’an for generations, but he believed that this type of education did not always transform their behavior, ethics, or relationship with others. What he wanted was a deeper form of education: one that could transform the whole person — body, mind, and soul. Tarbiya was therefore a holistic process aimed not only at filling the intellect with knowledge but at reshaping the individual from within. It was a discursive and experiential education, a way of forming people through discipline, spiritual practice, and ethical transformation.
At the beginning, Sufism in Senegal was a mystical movement reserved for the elites. When did it become a movement of popular devotion?
The history is quite complicated. The Qadiriyya brotherhood came first. It arrived in West Africa around the 15th century, brought by Arab scholars and merchants, particularly the Kunta tribe, a group which claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad. Scholars generally consider the Qadiriyya a more elitist Sufi order. Later on, came the Tijaniyya brotherhood, which developed a different approach and became much more open to ordinary people. Within the Tijaniyya tradition, access to baraka (spiritual blessing) and to God was easier.
The Muridiyya brotherhood emerged as an offshoot of the Qadiriyya. Both Ahmadou Bamba’s father and Ahmadou Bamba himself were originally part of the Qadiriyya brotherhood. In this sense, the Muridiyya can be seen as a continuation of the Qadiriyya, but with a new interpretation. Ahmadou Bamba did not consider himself the founder of a new brotherhood. He maintained a connection with the Qadiriyya through the concept of the silsila, namely the chain of spiritual authority that links a disciple to a sheikh, from one generation to another, ultimately reaching the Prophet Muhammad. This connection is important.
However, in practice, the Muridiyya became a new Sufi order with its own wird (litany), its own educational system, rituals, festivals, and holy city. While it preserved a formal link with the Qadiriyya, it developed a distinct identity. When you look at the Muridiyya, you see an avant-garde with highly educated people, such as Ahmadou Bamba himself and his close disciples. But from the beginning, the movement was also open to ordinary people. Becoming a Murid is not difficult: you just submit to a sheikh and commit to following his guidance. Knowing the wird is not mandatory. What is mandatory is the relationship with the Sheikh: the disciple submits to him and follows his prescriptions and proscriptions.
Could you tell us a little more about the wird?
A wird is a set of litanies that disciples of a Sufi order recite using their rosary. It can include passages from the Qur’an as well as specific litanies that are particular to each Sufi order. These litanies are attributed to the founder of the brotherhood, who is said to have received them through a dream in which the Prophet Muhammad appears and transmits the prayers.
Every Sufi order has its own wird. The Murids trace their wird back to Amadou Bamba. While he was in exile in Mauritania in 1904, he saw the Prophet Muhammad in a dream, who gave him these litanies, which he then wrote down. These prayers are recited after the daily prayers or at specific times of the day. By performing the wird, the Murids reinforce their spiritual bond and sense of belonging.
What are the main pillars of this Sufi order? You mentioned the tarbiya—are there other pillars as well?
Each Sufi order has a specific structure. It includes a wird, as well as the relationship between the sheikh and the disciple (murīd). Sufi orders aim to guide believers towards God, arguing that the path to God is not something that everyone can undertake alone. Without a guide, you are lost. A common Sufi saying goes: “If you don’t have a guide, then Satan will be your guide.”
Human life and the relationship with God are a constant battle against the nafs, the carnal soul or lower self. What truly connects a person to God is the light that God preserves within them. If disciples are left entirely on their own, they may know the Qur’an and perform the prayers, but they still lack the tools needed to recognize the machinations of Satan and resist them. Some Sufi thinkers have compared the disciple to a blind man who wants to cross a river: he needs a guide to show him the way. Others have said that the disciple should be like a dead man in the hand of the undertaker. All Sufi orders emphasize the necessity of a guide.
The murid doesn’t ask questions of his sheikh; he simply does what he is told. Ahmadou Bamba himself wrote that a true Murid is, first and foremost, a Muslim, then someone who loves his sheikh and follows him without hesitation, and finally someone who practices khidma (service). Khidma means working for one’s sheikh, but it is not simply ordinary work. If we compare it to the idea of work in Calvinist thought, it resembles the concept of good works performed for the sake of God. Although this work may generate wealth, the disciple’s primary goal is not material gain: its purpose is to serve God through service to the sheikh.
You mentioned the litanies that Ahmadou Bamba received in a dream. Could you explain the importance of dreams in Sufi culture?
Sufis consider dreams a means through which God can teach and guide people. They believe that Islam is not limited to the Qur’an alone. God has many ways of teaching beyond the revealed Text itself. One of these ways are ilhām and kashf, meaning inspiration and unveiling. Nobody knows the ultimate meaning of the Qur’an except God Himself. Therefore, Sufis believe that when someone becomes a friend of God—namely someone who has purified his soul and drawn close to Him through the wird and other spiritual practices—God can reveal realities that are not accessible to ordinary human beings. Such a person has privileged access to divine knowledge because he has reached a higher degree of closeness to God. He becomes walī Allāh, friend of God. In Islam, there is no revelation after Muhammad. However, this does not mean that God cannot unveil meanings and knowledge to certain individuals. Ahmadou Bamba claimed that after his exile, sacrifices, and suffering, the Prophet Muhammad continued to teach him through dreams.
2027 will mark 100 years since Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba’s death. In your book Fighting the Greater Jihad you wrote that your grandfather and your father knew Ahmadou Bamba personally. Could you share with us a personal family memory or an anecdote that has been passed down about Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba?
My grandfather was a ceddo. The ceddos were people with an Islamic culture, but who did not practice Islam in an orthodox way. My grandfather served in the army of Cayor, and my father used to tell how he had fought in sixty battles and was wounded many times. But when Ahmadou Bamba emerged, my grandfather abandoned his old life. He had four sons: my father and his three older brothers. He took all of them to Ahmadou Bamba and said: “I give you my children. Make of them whatever you want.” This was his way of expressing his regret for the life he had lived before. Ahmadou Bamba took my father and two of his brothers and entrusted them to Cheikh Anta Mbaké, who was Ahmadou Bamba’s brother. That is why my name is Cheikh Anta: I was named after Ahmadou Bamba’s brother. Cheikh Anta was a very wealthy and influential man, also exiled by the French to Ségou, in Mali. The French didn’t like him at all because he was very smart, knew many politicians and lawyers, and had learned some French.
My father said he was born in 1900, although he may have been born earlier since there was no birth certificate. He lived with Ahmadou Bamba for 27 years. He used to tell me about Cheikh Anta and Cheikh Ibrahima Fall, about his visits to them, and what they taught him about Ahmadou Bamba.
When you talk about Cheikh Ibrahima Fall do you mean the founder of the Baye Fall?
Yes, him. The Baye Fall is a movement within the Muridiyya. They are quite an atypical and controversial group because they don’t pray regularly and they don’t fast regularly. Their way of being Murid is different: their devotion to Ahmadou Bamba is expressed through physical labor and service. Whatever the sheikh needs, they do it. For them, prayer and fasting are secondary compared to following the will of the sheikh and serving him.
Cheikh Ibrahima Fall was, together with Cheikh Anta Mbacké, one of Ahmadou Bamba’s most influential disciples. He himself had a ceddo background, but after hearing about Ahmadou Bamba, he set out in search of him in order to place himself under his guidance. He went to Cayor, where Ahmadou Bamba was living at the time. It must have been around 1884. Cheikh Ibrahima Fall later said that when he arrived, he saw my grandfather and many of his companions riding, carrying rifles and other weapons. The people with him said: “They are warriors. They are bandits.” But Cheikh Ibrahima Fall replied, “No, these are neither warriors nor bandits. They are noble people.” He later told my father, “Do you know why I said that your grandfather was a noble man? Because I saw your seed in him.” My father had not yet been born, but Cheikh Ibrahima Fall saw the future and what my grandfather’s descendants would become. This is the language of Sufism.
Every year, pilgrims gather in Touba for the Grand Magal, the annual pilgrimage commemorating Ahmadou Bamba’s exile to Gabon by the French colonial authorities. How is this event commemorated, and what are its main rituals?
The Magal has its own history. It was Ahmadou Bamba himself, while under house arrest in Diourbel, who recommended his followers to commemorate the day of his arrest and departure into exile, not his return, as many scholars once believed. He introduced the celebration probably between 1922 and 1924, as a thanksgiving ceremony to be held every year on the 18th of the month of Ṣafar in the Islamic calendar.
The Magal reflects a distinctly Sufi understanding of suffering. Rather than mourning his arrest, Amadou Bamba asked his followers to celebrate it as an act of thanksgiving. He encouraged them to gather with family and friends, share food, recite the Qur’an, and thank God for the strength He had given him to endure exile and hardships. God had taken him away from his family and placed him in the hands of the French for 32 years, from 1895 to 1927. During that period, he lived either in exile or under house arrest. Ahmadou Bamba believed that these trials had brought him extraordinary spiritual rewards: closeness to God, a privileged relationship with the Prophet Muhammad, and a depth of understanding of the Arabic language and the Qur’an that he believed no Black person had attained before. He never sought followers, yet thousands were drawn to him. In his view, all of this was the fruit of his suffering.
Originally, the Magal was celebrated in people’s homes. Only after Ahmadou Bamba’s death did his first successor, Mamadou Moustapha Mbacké, invite Murids to gather in Touba. He wanted to create a community and build the mosque of Touba. He saw the Magal as an opportunity for Murids to gather, reinforce their sense of unity, and continue the projects Ahmadou Bamba had envisioned but had not completed.
The rituals of the Magal have remained largely the same since its beginnings. The three-day celebration includes recitation of the Qur’an, the reading of Ahmadou Bamba’s qasā’id (devotional poems), visits to his tomb and those of his successors, visits to one’s sheikh, and the offering of the hadiya, the Murid’s contribution to the community. Over time, the Magal has also acquired a political dimension, with the attendance of government authorities.
Beyond its spiritual dimension, did the Muridiyya also represent a form of cultural resistance to French colonial rule?
Ahmadou Bamba was deeply concerned about the “French civilizing mission,” even if he did not say it in these academic terms. One of his main concerns was how to preserve Islamic culture and local traditions under French domination. He understood that the French wanted to turn Senegalese people into “Black French”.
The Murid project can be understood as an attempt to protect Senegalese society and culture from assimilation. A key tool was tarbiyya, which I see as a form of counterculture, a way of preserving a distinct Islamic and Senegalese identity. This effort involves many aspects of daily life: clothing, language, and social practices. Murids continue to wear traditional Senegalese clothing; you don’t see them wearing jackets and ties. And wherever they are, they keep speaking Wolof. If you compare Senegal to Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, or Congo, you see that French culture has less impact in Senegal than in those former French colonies. Today, Senegalese native languages are still widely present in public life, including on television and radio, and traditional forms of dress remain visible, even among political leaders. Murids don’t have any inferiority complex. They’re very proud of their culture and carry it with them wherever they go.
In Senegalese Islamic culture, the mother plays a significant role, as baraka (spiritual blessing) is often associated with the maternal lineage. Ahmadou Bamba’s sainthood is partly linked to his mother, Mame Diarra Bousso. Her tomb in Porokhane is an important place of devotion, attracting thousands of murids every year in a pilgrimage dedicated to her memory — the only one in Senegal devoted to a Muslim woman saint. Who was Mame Diarra Bousso, and why is she still so deeply venerated today?
Mame Diarra Bousso died at age 33. In the hagiographic tradition, she is portrayed as the perfect mother and the perfect wife. At the same time, she embodies the ideal woman in Wolof culture: one characterized by obedience to her husband and sacrifice for her children. She is also described as a highly educated woman, like her own mother.
Within the matrilineal traditions of Wolof society, there is a saying: “Like mother, like son.” The idea is that what a son or daughter becomes in life is the result of the mother’s work within the father's household. All these elements contributed to the making of Mame Diarra Bousso’s image and her importance today. She died around 1866 or 1867. For a long time, people didn’t know where she had been buried. Her tomb was only identified in the 1950s, and the Magal of Porokhane itself began around that period.
Today, she is present everywhere. In the narratives surrounding Ahmadou Bamba’s exiles, she is constantly present. According to these narratives, when he was alone in Gabon, his mother would come to him spiritually to comfort him. Murids also recount that, when he was imprisoned in Dakar before his departure for Gabon in 1895, she appeared to him and encouraged him to remain strong in the face of French oppression.
Last year, I visited both Touba and Medina, in Saudi Arabia. I was struck by the rules regarding how people are supposed to behave and move around Touba. In some ways, they seemed to me even stricter than the norms that visitors must follow in Medina. In Touba for example there are no restaurants and no hotels.
Restaurants are not forbidden in Touba, but hotels are. There are hotels in Mbacké, seven kilometers from Touba. These restrictions were introduced around 1980 by the third Caliph of the Muridiyya, who sought to preserve Touba’s status as a holy city. He feared that, without regulations, Touba would gradually become like any other city in Senegal, with bars, alcohol, nightlife, and other activities he considered incompatible with the city where Ahmadou Bamba is buried. So, he decided that alcohol and smoking should be forbidden, and that women should dress more conservatively.
Where do people sleep and eat during the Grand Magal?
Touba is home to more than one million permanent residents. It’s the second-largest city in Senegal after the capital, Dakar. During the Magal, three to four million pilgrims arrive to visit the Great Mosque and the tomb of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba. It’s the duty of Touba’s citizens to host and feed pilgrims. My family house is in Mbacké, seven kilometers from Touba, as I told you. During the Magal, our house is always open: anyone who needs to eat or sleep is welcome.
During the Magal, pilgrims sleep and eat wherever they can. This is also one of the reasons why there are not many restaurants in Touba. The last time I went to the Magal, I remember seeing dozens, maybe even hundreds, of temporary street restaurants set up everywhere across the city to feed people. Because you have this culture of pilgrimage, people become very generous, open, and helpful. During the Magal, usual social rules are suspended. You don’t fear the foreigner or the stranger. Everyone who arrives is Ahmadou Bamba’s guest and should be accommodated generously.
Political scientists often argue that Senegal’s stability, and the absence of turmoil and violence seen in other parts of Africa, are partly linked to the role of Sufi orders. Do you agree?
Yes, Sufi brotherhoods play an important role, especially the Muridiyya. They have, in many ways, served as a kind of social safety valve. They have acted as intermediaries between the government and the people, helping to build political legitimacy and maintain social cohesion. Most of the time, Sufi leaders and political authorities have worked together to promote peace, stability, and economic development.
The Muridiyya’s contribution to Senegal’s economy is well documented. Senegal’s economy has long been based on peanut production, and the Murids have historically been among the main producers.
How is the Muridiyya perceived by other Islamic movements?
Senegal, probably, has the largest percentage of Sufis of any Muslim country. Around 80% of Senegalese identify as members of a Sufi order. The Tijaniyya, the Muridiyya, and the Qadiriyya are the dominant ones. There is a subdued rivalry between these orders, but they maintain peaceful, cooperative relationships. Salafi Islam, a more conservative tradition influenced by Middle Eastern Islamism, made some inroads in the 1980s and 1990s, but it has lost its momentum. Salafis remain vocal in their critiques of Sufis, whom they accuse of practicing a heterodox and corrupt form of Islam, but they remain a small minority. Tensions between them and the Sufis sometimes flare up, but overall, the Muslim community lives in peace and harmony, including with the minority Christian population. The vast majority of Senegalese Muslims embrace the country’s tradition of secularism and reject political Islam.
You are also an expert on the Senegalese diaspora. On June 8, you took part in the annual celebration of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba in Montichiari, where hundreds of Senegalese gathered. Why is the Murid community so prominently represented in the Senegalese diaspora?
Senegal’s population is estimated at eighteen million; 95% are Muslim. Murids represent maybe 30–35% of the Senegalese population, certainly less than 40%. However, if you look at the Senegalese diaspora, more than 50% are Murids. I believe this can be explained by the ideas of khidma (service) and the value placed on good work. Murids believe that Ahmadou Bamba’s prayers were accepted by God, and that the fruits of the gifts granted to him continue to manifest in the world. Their successes and achievements are seen as evidence that his prayers continue to have an effect and that divine blessing continues to materialize in his community.
Murids who leave Senegal usually migrate to Italy, Spain, France, the United States, and increasingly to China and Brazil. Wherever they go, they work hard to contribute to the prosperity of Ahmadou Bamba’s brotherhood. I know people who left Senegal for the United States with no money, no knowledge of English, and no degree. They took the risk because they believed in the sheikh and in his baraka. From a sociological perspective, this reveals something important about motivation: when people believe that they will succeed, they will succeed.