Malick Sy
Senegal
El Hadj Malick Sy is responsible for bring the Tijaniyyah Sufi Islamic order to Senegal which he spread from the religious center at Tivaouane around the beginning of the 20th century.
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Biographical Information
Malick Sy
(At a Glance)
Gender: male
Place of Origin: Senegal
El Hadj Mailck SY was born in the village of Dawfal, in Senegal, around 1855. He was born to Ousmane Sy, a Toucouleur, and Faowad Wélé from the Wolof ethnic group.
Sy started his coranic education at a young age in Gaya. He finished in the Fouta Toro, the region around the Senegal River. At the age of 30, he completed the entire traditional Islamic higher education, which includes among other things theology, law, literature, grammar.
In 1889, Sy embarked on his pilgrmage to Mecca. Upon his return he open a school in Saint-Louis and continued to open schools in Diolf, Waalo, and Cayor. In 1902, Djibril Guèye, a local leader at Tivaouane, invited Sy to open a school there. It became a center for Islamic education and culture under his leadership.
