Ibrahim Baye Niass

Ibrahim Baye wet

Ibrahim Baye Niasse (* 1900 in Kaolack , Senegal ; † July 26, 1975 in London ) was an Islamic scholar ( marabout ) and politician who was active mainly in Senegal and Kano and founded a branch order of the Tijānīya , which today has a worldwide following Has.

Life

Ibrahim was born in 1900 - other sources speak of 1902 - in the village of Tayba Niaseen (Taïba Niassène in French), which lies between the Senegalese Kaolack and the border with Gambia , as the son of Abdoulaye Niass (1840-1922); he was the only son born in Senegal. His mother's name was Sokhna Astou Diankha. Abdoulaye Niass was a representative of the Tijani order in the Saloum region at the beginning of the 20th century . Probably in 1901 the father and his family, who had previously come further north from the region around Jolof , moved again further south to Kër Sàmba , just across the border of the English colony of Gambia, in order to avoid possible conflicts with the French colonial rulers, those of the growing influence of this denomination at the time was suspect.

It was only ten years later that Abdoulaye Niass reached an agreement with the French. They allocated him, his family and his followers a place within the borders of Kaolack, where they established the religious center ( zāwiya ) of Lewna Niasseen. After the death of his father in Lewna Niasseen in 1922, Ibrahim's older brother, Muhammad al-Khalifa, became his caliph (successor). 22-year-old Ibrahim, on the other hand, spent most of his time tilling the family's fields and teaching the growing group of followers in the nearby village of Kóosi Mbittéyeen. Although Ibrahim never claimed to succeed his father, his profound knowledge and charisma made him regarded as such by a growing discipleship. This increased tension between him and his older brother Muhammad. During his fieldwork in Kóosi Mbittéyeen, Ibrahim announced in 1929 that God had entrusted him with a secret that no one else had and that anyone who wanted to know about it had to follow him. Finally it came a year later, in 1930, after the festival of the breaking of the fast ( 'id al-fitr  /عيد الفطر / ʿĪdu ʾl-fiṭr ), to an open fight between the supporters of the two brothers, in which Ibrahim immediately decided to go to a new place with his believers.

The mosque in Medina Baay, Kaolack

That evening he and a small group of confidants moved to a new place and the next day the new faith center was founded in Medina Baay, a village that was later incorporated into the growing city of Kaolack. In the years that followed he divided his time according to the seasons so that he could farm in Kóosi Mbittéyeen in the rainy season and teach in Medina Baay in the dry season.

Although the disciples of the Tijani order in Senegal always remained a minority, they formed the largest network of this order worldwide. In this unlikely role reversal in the 1930s, numerous leaders of the Arab-Mauritanian Idaw ʿAli tribe became his followers, including Shaykhani (1908–1986), a grandson of the founder of the order, who through his efforts to integrate the various Idaw ʿAli tribal groups around the places Tidjikja , Boûmdeïd and Chinguetti settled, they could unite to the Tijaniyya Ibrahimiyya brotherhood.

In 1937 the Emir of Kano in Nigeria, Abd Allah Bayero, became his follower on a pilgrimage to Mecca . In the 1940s he made several trips to Kano and built a following there. So he became an important leader within the Hausa people , ultimately with more disciples outside than inside Senegal. In the years that followed, Ibrahim became such a prominent Islamic figure. Eventually Ibrahim achieved loyalty from many prominent leaders in northern Nigeria in the 1940s .

In the summer of 1945 he re-established himself in his father's house and his native village Tayba Ñaseen by having it rebuilt after a devastating fire that had largely destroyed the village. His reputation in the area grew tremendously as a result, and many of his father's followers immediately switched to his followers, despite the fact that he was one of the youngest in the family. Throughout the 1950s, however, he visited Kano regularly, mostly being a guest of Sanusi, the Chiroma, or from 1953 Emir of Kano.

After Senegal gained independence in 1960, he was elected as a member of the following institutions:

• Research Academy of Azhar University in Cairo,
• Communauté des Erudits en Islamologie in Algiers ,
• High Council of the Organization of Islamic Well Being
• Superior Islamic Council in Algeria

In 1962 he became Vice President of the Islamic World League in Mecca and Vice President of the World Islamic Congress in Karachi , two years later even its President and member of the General Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research in Cairo.

At the time of his death in London in 1975, he had allegedly visited Mecca 75 times and written 75 books, had many children with up to four women without breaking Sharia law and (allegedly) divorcing more often in order to make others economically worse asked women to be able to marry. And he had a million-fold following. His religion within the Tijani Brotherhood became the most important in the world. After his death, the community was continued by his closest confidante, Aliou Cisse and Ibrahim's eldest son Alhadji Abdulaaay Ibrayima Niass . The incumbent caliph in Medina Baay is currently his last living son, Ahmadu Niass . The imam of the mosque is his grandson Shaykh Ḥasan Sise (also spelled Assane Cissé), who is certainly the most famous leader of the Tijani religious community today and who still has numerous followers in South Africa, America and Europe.

Works

From the large number of his publications stand out in particular:

• Kāshif al-'ilbās ʿan Fayḍati l-Khatmi 'Abī l-ʿAbbās (for example: "Deciphering the seed flood Abū l-ʿAbbās [Ahmad at-Tijānī]"). Edited by Shaykh Tijānī ʿAlī Sīse. Ash-Sharīka ad-dawliyya li-ṭ-ṭibāʿa, Cairo, Egypt.
• Jawāhir ar-rasā'il (roughly: "pearls of letters"), a comprehensive study by Ibrahim Baye Niass.
• As-sirr al-'akbar ("The Greatest Secret")
• Numerous collections of poetry published in Ad-Dawāwīn as-Sitt ("The Six Edited Volumes "), Jāmiʿ Jawāmiʿ ad-Dawāwīn ("The Collection of Collections") and Majmūʿ Riḥlāt ash-Shaykh 'Ibrāhīm ("The Travel Guide of Shaykh Ibrahim") were. They were all edited by his son Shaykh Muḥammad al-Ma'mūn Ibrāhīm Ñas.
• Kitāb at-taṣrīf ("The Book of Arabic Forms"), an Arabic textbook widely used in Senegal.
• Manāsik al-ḥajj al-mubārakah al-musammāt: tuḥfat 'ahl al-ḥādirah bi-mā yanfaʿ al-ḥājj siyyamā fī ṭ-ṭā'irah (for example: "Requirements for a successful pilgrimage, or: jewels for townspeople, a pilgrimage to exist, especially for air travelers "). Edited by Shaykh Tijānī ʿAlī Sīse.
• A number of fatwa s (legal interpretations), including: Wajh at-taḥqīq fī kawn jāmiʿ medīna huwa l-ʿatīq ("Proof of the ancient rules as a prerequisite for the mosque in the city"), regarding the circumstances of the construction of a mosque and Baḥth fī thubūt ru 'yat al-hilāl ("Study of the Appearance of a New Crescent Moon"), relating to the end of Ramadan and the festival of the breaking of the fast .

In addition to the written works, dozens of audio cassettes widely used in Africa have been published by Ibrahim Baye Niass in Senegal, including the complete Tafsīr al-Qur'ān (interpretations of the Koran ) in Wolof and Arabic, numerous lectures by Mawlid an-nabawī (Birth and Life of Mohammed), also in Wolof and Arabic, as well as speeches on various religious and practical topics in the Wolof language.

literature

• Rüdiger Sesemann: The divine flood: Ibrahim Niasse and the roots of a twentieth-century Sufi revival. Oxford 2011.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Joseph Hill, June 22, 2006: Profile: (Baay) Ñas ( Memento from February 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Shaykhani (Manna Abba ibn Muhammad at-Tulba, 1908–1986) and the renewal of Tijaniyya Mauritania ( Memento from June 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) by Britta Frede in the Center for Modern Orient (ZMO)
3. ↑ Jonathan T. Reynolds: The Time of Politics (Zamanin Siyasa). Islam and the Politics of Legitimacy in Northern Nigeria 1950-1966 . San Francisco et al. a. 1999. p. 181.
4. ↑ See Reynolds 193.
5. ↑ See Reynolds 194.
6. ↑ Mouhammad Safwate Assaqâ Amînî, December 17, 2010: L'ombre de Cheikh Ibrahim NIASS plane sur le Cinquantenaire de la Ligue Islamique Mondiale (The shadow of Sheikh Ibrahim NIASS lies over the 50th anniversary of the Islamic World League), PDF file 652 kB