'UMAR TAL

born c. 1797, , Halvar, Fouta-Toro [now in Senegal] died Feb. 12, 1864, near Hamdalahi, Tukulor empire [now in Mali] in full al-Hajj (the Pilgrim) 'Umar ibn Sa'id Tal, also spelled el-Hadj Omar ibn Sa'id Tal West African Tukulor leader who, after launching a jihad (holy war) in 1854, established a Muslim realm, the Tukulor empire, between the upper Senegal and Niger rivers (in what is now upper Guinea, eastern Senegal, and western and central Mali). The empire survived until the 1890s under his son, Ahmadu Seku.