Hamallism

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Hamallism. A W. African Islamic brotherhood. It began from the attempt in Mali of a mystic within the Sūfī and Tijāniyya tradition, al-Akhdar (1909), to restore original Tijāni practices. In 1925 his saintly disciple, a half-Fulani, Hamahuʾullah ben Muhammad ben Seydina Omar (1886–1943), now known as Hamallah, formed a separate Tijāni brotherhood, whose aggressive reforming and missionary activities led to violent clashes with the Tijāniyya order and the French colonial regime. As a modernizing African Islam, Hamallism appealed to young élites as an ally against Arab and French influence, and was identified with the struggle for political independence, but has since gone into decline.