Failed Islamic States in Senegambia

David Robinson

Praise Poem of Umar Tall

Praise Poem of Umar Tall
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This excerpt comes from the beginning of a long poem in praise of Umar Tall and his career as a Muslim pilgrim, scholar and especially a leader of jihad. The poem is a "qasida," an Arabic form of 1200 verses. In this case it is written in Arabic characters but in the Pulaar language spoken by the core of Umar's followers. It was written in the late 19th century by one follower, Mohammadou Aliou Tyam, who lived in the Umarian capital of Segu but returned to Futa Toro after the French conquest of Segu in 1890. His text was transcribed and translated into French by a French Pulaarophone, Henri Gaden, while Gaden was living in Saint-Louis, Senegal and serving in the French administration of Mauritania in the 1930s.

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Praise Poem of Umar Tall
Praise Poem of Umar Tall
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Related Essay
Umar Tal Or Al-hajj Umar
Creator: Tyam, Mohammadou Aliou
Contributing Institutions: David Robinson; MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online at Michigan State University
Contributor: Henri Gaden (Translator)
Description: This excerpt comes from the beginning of a long poem in praise of Umar Tall and his career as a Muslim pilgrim, scholar and especially a leader of jihad. The poem is a "qasida," an Arabic form of 1200 verses. In this case it is written in Arabic characters but in the Pulaar language spoken by the core of Umar's followers. It was written in the late 19th century by one follower, Mohammadou Aliou Tyam, who lived in the Umarian capital of Segu but returned to Futa Toro after the French conquest of Segu in 1890. His text was transcribed and translated into French by a French Pulaarophone, Henri Gaden, while Gaden was living in Saint-Louis, Senegal and serving in the French administration of Mauritania in the 1930s.
Date Range: 1890-1899
Location: Segu, Senegal
Format: Text/jpeg
Language: Pulaar
Rights Management: For educational use only.
Digitizer: MATRIX
Archive: Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN) in Dakar
Source: La vie d'El Hadj Omar. Qacida en Poular,ed. and trans. by Henri Gaden, Paris 1935. Original document can be found in the Fonds Gaden of IFAN at the university in Dakar.