Dinguiraye (
N’ko: ߘߌ߲ߞߌߙߊߦߌ߫ ) is a small town in northern
Guinea
Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...
, known for its large
mosque
A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard.
Originally, mosques were si ...
which until recently was
thatched
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge ('' Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
. As of 2014 it had a population of 47,250 people.
History
The town and its mosque hold special historical importance;
El Hadj Umar Tall
Hadji Oumarûl Foutiyou Tall (ʿUmar ibn Saʿīd al-Fūtī Ṭaʿl, , – 1864 CE), born in Futa Tooro, present-day Senegal, was a Senegalese Tijani sufi Toucouleur Islamic scholar and military commander who founded the short-lived Touc ...
founded the
Toucouleur Empire
The Tukulor Empire (; ; ; also known as the Tijaniyya Jihad state or the Segu Tukulor or the Tidjaniya Caliphate or the Umarian State) (1861–1890) was an Islamic state in the mid-nineteenth century founded by Elhadj Oumar Foutiyou Tall of the ...
in the city and initially made it his capital. Al-Hadj Umar also built the city's large mosque at this time and the city served as a staging ground for his 1850 jihad.
[Histoire d'Afrique: les enjeux de mémoire, Jean-Pierre Chrétien, Jean-Louis Triaud
KARTHALA Editions, 1. jan. 1999, pg.73]
Notable people
*
Saïdou Bokoum (1945-) - writer
References
Sub-prefectures of the Faranah Region
Toucouleur Empire
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