Cheikh Ibra Fall and the Baye Fall

~1883 · Touba

Cheikh Ibrahima Fall descended directly from the royal family of the damel of Cayor. Trained at his father's Quranic school and then under other masters, his meeting with Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba marked a turning point: born into the Wolof nobility, he renounced every claim to chieftaincy to place himself at his guide's service. He raised productive labour into an act of devotion and devoted his farming and his fortune to the needs of the Mouride community, becoming its chief material support. From this path the Baye Fall were born. It has been said that if Ahmadou Bamba was the soul and architect of the Way, Ibra Fall was its secular arm, its workhorse. He was called back to God in 1930 and rests at Touba, beside his master.

Sources

• Persée — Vincent Monteil, « Une confrérie musulmane, les Mourides du Sénégal » (Archives de sociologie des religions, 1962)
• Sans Limite — Mame Cheikh Ibra Fall, le portrait

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