Sufi City: Urban Design and Archetypes in Touba

312 Pages·2006·12.97 MB·English

by  Eric S. Ross

SUFI CITY
Toyin Falola, Senior Editor
The Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial Professor in History
University of Texas at Austin
(ISSN: 1092–5228)
A complete list of titles in the Rochester Studies in African History and the
Diaspora, in order of publication, may be found at the end of this book.
SUFI CITY
URBAN DESIGN AND ARCHETYPES IN TOUBA
Eric Ross
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER PRESS
Copyright © 2006 Eric Ross
All rights reserved.Except as permitted under current legislation, no part of this work may
be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted,
broadcast, transmitted, recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.
First published 2006
University of Rochester Press
668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
www.urpress.com
and Boydell & Brewer Limited
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
www.boydellandbrewer.com
ISBN: 1–58046–217–0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ross, Eric, 1962–
Sufi City : urban design and archetypes in Touba / Eric Ross.
p. cm. – (Rochester studies in African history and the
diaspora, ISSN 1092–5228; v. 24)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–58046–217–0(hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Touba
(Senegal)–Geography. 2. Sufism–Social aspects–Senegal–Touba.
3. Landscape–Social aspects–Senegal–Touba. 4. Symbolism in
architecture–Senegal–Touba. 5. City and town life–Senegal–Touba.
6. City planning–Senegal–Touba. 7. Landscape
architecture–Senegal–Touba. 8. City and town life–Senegal–Case
studies. 9. City planning–Senegal–Case studies. 10. Islamic cities
and towns–Senegal–Case studies. I Title. II. Series.
DT549.9.T68R672006
307.1(cid:1)41609663–dc22
2006016349
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
This publication is printed on acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America.
Touba in Senegal.
Quickbird satellite image of center of Touba [DigitalGlobe #1010010001962B05, 26
January 2003 ©DG distributed by Eurimage/Infoterra. Reproduced with permission of
the distributor.]
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations viii
List of Appendixes x
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Translation, Spelling, and Transliteration xiii
Introduction 1
1 Archetypes: Sufi Phenomenology and the Semiosis of Landscape 11
2 Urban Design: The Spatial Configuration of a Spiritual Project 43
3 Marabout Republics Then and Now: Autonomous Muslim
Towns in Senegal 117
4 The Pénc: Trees and Urban Design in West Africa 176
Conclusion 216
Appendixes 1–7 221
Notes 229
Bibliography 261
Index 277
vii
ILLUSTRATIONS
1.1 Cosmology of the World Tree 19
1.2 The Ancient Egyptian ishedtree 36
2.1 Touba during the foundation years (1884–1926) 50
2.2 Touba in 1908 57
2.3 Genealogy of the Mbacké showing principal lineages 65
2.4 Quickbird satellite image of Touba’s central shrine complex 67
2.5 Sketch of qiblahfaçade of the Great Mosque circa 1963 70
2.6 The Guy Texe or “Baobab of Bliss” in the cemetery 73
2.7 Touba’s central wards 80
2.8 Darou Marnane 81
2.9 Ndame 82
2.10 Darou Salam 83
2.11 Guédé Bousso 84
2.12 Touba within the Rocade 88
2.13 Touba in 1986 90
2.14 Touba’s khâtimdesign 92
2.15 Plan of Dingueraye mosque, Fouta Jallon (Guinea) 93
2.16 Plan of Bogué mosque, Fouta Toro (Mauritania) 94
2.17 Growth of Touba’s population since 1912 97
2.18 The Touba-Mbacké conurbation 98
2.19 Touba and the Mouride heartland 100
2.20 Change in type of residential allotments 103
2.21 Southern suburbs 107
2.22 Djannatoul Mahwa and the west end 108
2.23 Tindoli 111
2.24 Touba Bagdad 112
2.25 Darou Karim 113
3.1 Muslim towns in precolonial Senegambia 123
3.2 Escale of Tivaouane 137
3.3 Muslim towns in contemporary Senegal 139
3.4 Qâdirî centers 141
3.5 Layenne shrines 146
3.6 Tijânî centers 148
3.7 Network of Mouride shrines 150
viii
List of Illustrations ix
3.8 Darou Mousty in 1945 151
3.9 Hadji Malick, Tivaouane’s Tijânî neighborhood 156
3.10 Tivaouane in 1989 157
3.11 Zâwiyyah of Al-Hâjj Abdoulaye Niass in Leona, Kaolack 158
3.12 Madina Baye, the Niassene neighborhood of Kaolack 160
3.13 Kaolack in 1989 161
3.14 Diourbel in 1989 164
3.15 Touba’s autonomous zone as represented in 1980 atlas 169
3.16 Madina Gounass in 1973 172
4.1 Keur Niang 179
4.2 Darou Rahmane I 180
4.3 Sketch plan of Tabakali 183
4.4 Ndiassane 184
4.5 The Layenne centers: Yoff Layène and Cambérène 186
4.6 Muslim towns at the scale of 1:200,000 188
4.7 Sketch plan of Touba in Futa Jallon (Guinea) from 1909 191
4.8 Sketch of the original configuration of the misrof Kûfa (Iraq) 194
4.9 Kahone in 1945 198
4.10 Kahone 199
4.11 Senegal’s historic capitals 205
4.12 Darou Mousty 211