Sheex Omar Ture was one of Baay Ñas’s earliest disciples and became a major muqaddam and teacher in Ndóofaan Lagem (southeast of Kawlax) and later in Serekundaa (near Bànjul), Gambia. Along with Babaakar (Baay Mbay) Ñas, Sëriñ Alliw Siise, and Usmaan Njaay, Omar Ture is considered one of Baay’s four most important disciples. He trained a large number of imams, muqaddams, and teachers who are now active in Senegambia.

Introduction

My primary references to Ahmadu Saar (Wàkk), the father of Baay Ñas’s wife ᶜĀᵓishatu (“Maa Astu”) Saar are from Haraka’s Roundtable documents. This information is based on those documents, and his information is based on interviews with three of Ndóofaan’s elders.

Introduction

Cerno Hasan Dem (Ash-Shaykh al-Ḥājj Ḥasan Dem al-Fūtiyy), one of Baay Ñas’s major muqaddams, was a Haal Pulaar born in the Mauritanian side of Fuuta Tooro but spent most of his life in Medina Baay. He had a number of muqaddams, some of them female.

Haraka Caam held his “roundtable” in honor of Cerno Hasan Dem on Friday 13 October, 1995, and the documents he collected for this roundtable give some information about Hasan Dem’s family. Haraka lists Dem’s children as follows:

1. Sayyidah al-Ḥājjah Fāṭimah Dem
2. Sayyidah Nenne Dem
3. Maam ᶜĀᵓishah Dem (named after Shaykh ᵓIbrāhīm’s mother)
4. Al-Ḥājj Muḥammad al-Kabīr Dem
5. Shaykh ᵓIbrāhīm Dem
6. Al-Ḥājj Muḥammad al-Ḥabīb Dem (named after the son of Shaykh Tijāniyy)
7. ᶜAbd al-Bāqī Dem
8. Sëriñ Alliw Siise Dem
9. Ummu Baniina Dem
10. Ummu Siise Dem (named after the sister of Alliw Siise)
11. Shaykh ᶜUmar Ture Dem (named after Sheex Omar Ture)
12. Shaykh ᵓAḥmad at-Tijāniyy Dem (named after the founder of the Ṭarīqah Tijāniyyah)
13. ᶜĀᵓishah Dem (named after the mother of [Fāṭumata] Zahrāᵓ ᵓIbrāhīm [Asta Daawur])
14. Zahrāᵓ Dem (named after Fāṭimata Zahrāᵓ ᵓIbrāhīm Ñas)
15. Ḥalīmah Dem
16. ᶜAbd Allāh Dem (named after Maam Allaaji Abdulaay Ñas)
17. Ndey ᶜĀᵓishah Dem (named after his wife, ᶜĀᵓishah Njaay)
18. Raḥmat Allāhi Dem
19. Ajaa Sow Dem (also called Marie Hélène Dem, named after Madame Jeŋ)
20. ᶜAbd al-Qudūs Dem
21. Ṭaha Dem (named after the Prophet)
22. Al-ᶜArabiyy ibn as-Sāᵓiḥ Dem [named after the Moroccan Shaykh]
23. Khalīfah Dem (named after Shaykh al-Ḥājj Muḥammad al-Khalīfah ᶜAbd Allāh Ñas [Xaliifa Ñas
24. Cerno Saᶜīd ash-Shuᶜarāᵓ (also called ash-Shiᶜrāwiyy) Dem (named after his first Shaykh)
25. ᶜAliyy Ḥarāzim Dem (named after one of the greats of the Tijāniyy Ṭarīqah and one of the disciples (ᵓaṣḥāb) of Shaykh at-Tijāniyy) [ᵓAḥmad at-Tijāniyy’s khalīfah and author of the canonical book Jawāhir al-Maᶜānī]
26. ᶜAliyy at-Tamāsīniyy Dem (also named after one of the greats of the Tijāniyy Ṭarīqah and one of the disciples (ᵓaṣḥāb) of Shaykh at-Tijāniyy)]
27. Sayyidah Salmah Dem

Haraka says this information is from Sayyidah al-Ḥājjah Fāṭimah Ḥasan Dem (Ḥasan Dem’s oldest child), 12 October, 1995.

Medina Baay is a neighborhood on the northeast corner of Senegal’s peanut capital of Kawlax. Before being incorporated into the city, it was an independent village founded in 1930 by Baay Ñas and his disciples after they left the Ñas family’s headquarters of Lewna Ñaseen. It still almost has the feel of a village, with its red dirt roads predominantly Njolofeen population, most of whom are related to most of each other. This profile includes broader information about the city of Kawlax and its various neighborhoods. Of particular importance to the history of Medina Baay are four other neighborhoods: Lewna Ñaseen, founded in 1911 by Baay’s father, Maam Allaaji Abdulaay Ñas, and now constituting much of Kawlax’s city center; Medina Mbàbba, an area south of Medina Baay which was already inhabited by Séeréer-speaking Gelwaar when Baay Ñas arrived; Saam, an area West of Medina Baay that, although densely populated today, originally served as fields and orchards for the residents of Medina Baay; and Coofog, north of Saam, where the Gelwaar royalty who controlled the area lived.

All information in this sketch, unless otherwise noted, comes from conversations with Al-Ḥājj wuld al-Mishri, the oldest son and current khalīfah of Muḥammad al-Mishri (hereafter called Mishri). Al-Ḥājj wuld al-Mishri (more commonly called simply “Ḥājj”) is currently the head of the village of Maᶜṭamulāna, the village that Mishri founded.