Early Life
Born Umar bin Sa'id in Halwar in the Kingdom of Fouta Tooro (present-day Senegal), Umar Tall attended a madrassa before embarking on the Hajj in 1820. When returning from the Hajj he camped near Damascus there he met Ibrahim Pasha, Umar Tal befriended the Pasha healed his son from a deadly fever, Umar Tal was highly inspired by the trends set by the Pasha. In 1826, after many years of scholarship, Umar Tall returned with the title El Hadj and assumed the caliphate of the Tijaniyya sufi brotherhood in the Sudan.
Settling in Sokoto, he took several wives, one of whom was a daughter of the Fula Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammed Bello. In 1836, El Hajj Umar Tall moved to the Kingdom of Fouta Djallon and then to Dinguiraye, in present-day Guinea, where he began preparations for his jihad.
Read more about this topic: El Hadj Umar Tall
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