Touba, Senegal

Touba
city
The Great Mosque at Touba
Touba Location within Senegal
Coordinates: 14°52′N 15°53′W / 14.867°N 15.883°W / 14.867; -15.883
Country	Senegal
Region	Diourbel
Department	Mbacké
Government
• Governor	Shaykh Sidy Mokhtar Mbacké
Elevation	35 m (115 ft)
Population (2010)
• Total	529,176

Touba (Hassaniya: Ṭūbā "Felicity") is a city in central Senegal, part of Diourbel Region and Mbacké district. With a population of 529,176 in 2010, it is the second most populated Senegalese city after Dakar. It is the holy city of Mouridism and the burial place of its founder, Shaikh Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke. Next to his tomb lies a large mosque, completed in 1963.

Shaikh Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke, commonly known as "Cheikh Amadou Bamba" (1853-1927), is said to have founded Touba under a large tree when, in a moment of transcendence, he experienced a cosmic vision of light. In Arabic, ṭūbā means "felicity" or "bliss" and evokes the sweet pleasures of eternal life in the hereafter. In Islamic tradition, Ṭūbā is also the name of the tree of Paradise. In Sufism, this symbolic tree represents an aspiration for spiritual perfection and closeness to God.

Aamadu Bàmba founded Touba in 1887. The holy site remained a tiny, isolated place in the wilderness until his death and burial at the site of the Great Mosque, 40 years later. The Great Mosque was finally completed in 1963 and since its inauguration the city has grown at a rapid pace: from under 5,000 inhabitants in 1964, the population was officially estimated at 529,000 in 2007. Along with the neighboring town of Mbacké (founded by Aamadu Bàmba's great-grandfather in 1796), the Mouride conurbation is Senegal's second largest urban area, after the capital region of Dakar.