Medina Baay Research Association

I have finally found the time to make a quick translation of the interview on the Al-Jazeera program “Ziyārah Khāṣṣah” (Special Visit) between Sayyidah Maryam Ñas and Al-Jazeera's Sāmī Kulayb. The original interview in Arabic is available on the Al-Jazeera web site here. Here is my quick translation, and I invite any corrections or comments:

Medina Baay (written in French as “Médina Baye”) is a center of Islamic learning and Sufi practice on the outskirts of Kaolack, Senegal established in 1930 by Shaykh ᵓIbrāhīm Ñas (1900-1975), a leader of the Tijānī Sufi order who has millions of followers worldwide. Ñas is known to Senegalese disciples as “Baay” (“Father,” written “Baye” in French). The Medina Baay Research Association (originally called the Medina Baay Historical and Social Research Committee) conducts and presents research on the history and current dimensions of Shaykh ᵓIbrāhīm's disciples worldwide. The Association began its research in 2004, founded by anthropologist Joseph Hill and residents of Medina Baay, and since then its members have conducted research sporadically.

Our research consists of several activities:

As part of our historical research in Medina Baay, I returned to Kóosi Mbittéyeen today for a second time to do more interviews with grandparents, including:

When I went to Senegal this summer, I had just (I thought) finished writing an article on women acting as Islamic leaders in Senegal, based on interviews with a handful of female muqaddams (representatives of the Sufi order). I thought I would seize the opportunity to do a couple final interviews, and I interviewed several daughters of Baay Ñas who act as muqaddams (including Roqiyatu Ñas, pictured right) as well as women who came from non-Taalibe Baay and non-clerical families. I soon realized that the phenomenon was far more widespread than I had imagined.