Tijaniyyah

The Tijjani order () is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam named after Ahmad al-Tijani. It originated in Algeria but is now more widespread in the Maghreb and West Africa, particularly in Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Niger, Chad, Ghana, Northern and Southwestern Nigeria and some parts of Sudan. The Tijāniyyah order is also present in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in India. Its adherents are called Tijānī (spelled Tijaan or Tiijaan in Wolof, Tidiane or Tidjane in French). Tijānīs place great importance on culture and education and emphasize the individual adhesion of the disciple (murid). To become a member of the order, one must receive the Tijānī wird, or a sequence of holy phrases to be repeated twice daily, from a muqaddam, or representative of the order.

==History and spread of the order== ===Foundation of the order=== thumb|The oasis of Boussemghoun in Algeria, where al-Tijani established his tariqa in 1781 Ahmad al-Tijani (1737–1815) was born in Aïn Madhi in Algeria and died in Fes, Morocco. He received his religious education in Mostaganem, Algeria. Inspired by other saints he founded the Tijānī in order in Boussemghoun in the 1780s; sources vary as to the exact date between 1781 and 1784.