TOUBA

in full Touba Mosque, town, west-central Senegal, West Africa. The town takes its name from the Grand Mosque of the Murid sect, the largest Muslim sect in Senegal. Most of the sect's members are peanut (groundnut) farmers. The mosque, a large white structure with five minarets, is the tomb of Amadou Bamba (d. 1927), who founded the order. The cooperative efforts of the Murid brotherhood have made it an economic force. The town is located in an agricultural (peanuts and millet) and pastoral (zebu cattle and goats) area of the Senegalese Sahel; it is connected by paved road and rail with Diourbel, the regional capital, about 30 miles (50 km) southwest, and has a school and a regional marketplace. Pop. (1970) 3,594.