El-Hadji Malick Sy was a Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

ese religious leader and teacher in the Tijaniyya Sufi brotherhood.

Life

Born in Gaya (in northern Senegal) to a Fulani family, El-Hadji Malick Sy traveled to Mauritania

Mauritania

Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

, then to Saint-Louis, Senegal

Saint-Louis, Senegal

Saint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegal's Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, and 320 km north of Senegal's capital city Dakar, it has a population officially estimated at 176,000 in 2005. Saint-Louis...

 in 1884 as a religious student. He traveled to Mecca

Mecca

Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

, then returned to teach at Louga

Louga

Louga is a town in northwestern Senegal. Louga is a cattle market centre and has road and rail links with the port city of Saint-Louis to the northwest and Dakar to the southwest...

 and Pire before etablishing a zāwiya (religious center) at Tivaouane

Tivaouane

-History:Tivaouane was part of the Wolof kingdom of Cayor, and was at one time its capital. It was first described to Europeans in the 15th century by Venitian explorer Luigi Cada-Mosto....

 in 1902 at the invitation of local leader Djibril Guèye, which became a center for Islamic education and culture under his leadership. In Senegal's Wolof country, especially the northern regions of Kajoor and Jolof, the Tijānī Order was spread primarily by El-Hajj Malick Sy.

Legacy

After his death on 27 June 1922, Malick Sy was succeeded by his son Seydi Ababacar Sy as the khalife général des Tidjanes from 1922 to 1957. The family line has continued to hold the title, with El-Hadji Abdou Aziz Sy from 1957 - 1997, to the current khalife, Serigne Mansour Sy "Borom daaraji". The Gàmmu (Mawlid

Mawlid

Mawlid or sometimes ميلاد , mīlād is a term used to refer to the observance of the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad which occurs in Rabi' al-awwal,...

 in Arabic, the celebration of the birth of Muḥammad

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

) of Tivaouane gathers many followers each year.

There is an Avenue Malik Sy in Dakar

Dakar

Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...

.