Khaly Amar Fall
Founder of the Islamic university of Pire (1555 – 1638)
Family : Place of birth : Fouta (according to one source) ; Date of birth : 1555 ; Mother : Djégui Bâ, from Fouta ; Father : Pathé Kouly Fall, of the Fall dynasty that ruled Cayor
Education : He first studied in Fouta, then in Mauritania, where he completed his religious education.
Action : Back in Cayor, under the reign of the damel Makhourédia Kouly, he devoted himself to passing on Islamic knowledge. The damel granted him a large wooded plot at Saniakhor. There he founded in 1603 (a date Wikipedia gives with a question mark) the school of Pire, one of the first great centres of Islamic teaching in sub-Saharan Africa, which drew disciples from all over Senegambia.
Spiritual legacy : He was called back to God in 1638, aged 83. His mausoleum at Pire is classified among the historic monuments, and Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar named a foundation and a lecture hall after him. The university of Pire later trained great scholars, including Souleymane Baal, the initiator of the 1776 revolution in Fouta.