# Sulayman Bal
**Sulayman Bal** (سليمان بال; also written Ceerno Suleymaan Baal or Thierno Souleymane Baal, c. 1720 – 1776) was a Torodbe Muslim scholar and war leader from Futa Toro, in the [Senegal River](https://www.edgepedia.org/senegal-river) valley of present-day Senegal, who led the maraboutic (relating to marabouts, Muslim holy men/scholars) revolution that overthrew the Denianke dynasty and founded the theocratic Almamiyat of Futa Toro.[1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) • [2](https://doi.org/10.61585/pud-asasx-a1n114) Between 1770 and 1776 his clerical party deposed the last Deeniyanke Saltigi and established a state headed by an elected imam, the almaami; Baal himself declined the office and died in battle against Moorish forces around 1776.[1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) • [3](https://lequotidien.sn/241-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1720, Bode, Toro region[1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) • [3](https://lequotidien.sn/241-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/) |
| People | Torodbe (Toorobbe), a Muslim clerisy of the Senegal valley[4](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853700027596) |
| Principal act | Led the revolution of 1770–1776 that ended Denianke rule in Futa Toro[1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) |
| State founded | The Almamiyat, a theocracy headed by an elected almaami, founded 1776[1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) |
| Death | c. 1776, killed fighting the Moors of Ulad Abdallah in the Jowol[1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) • [3](https://lequotidien.sn/241-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/) |
| Successor | Abdul Qaadiri Kan (Abdoul Kader Kane), first almaami[1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) • [3](https://lequotidien.sn/241-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/) |
## Origins and education
Sulayman Bal was born at Bode in the Toro region of Senegal, around the 1720s, into the maraboutic family of Ceerno Aso (Baal).[3](https://lequotidien.sn/241-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/) • [1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) He studied at the higher school of Pire in the Cayor, and in Bundu and Futa Jallon.[2](https://doi.org/10.61585/pud-asasx-a1n114) • [3](https://lequotidien.sn/241-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/) • [1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) According to the Senegalese scholar Dr Ameth Diallo, these journeys deepened his knowledge of Islamic law and exposed him to different models of governance.[5](https://fr.apanews.net/governance/senegal-le-comiac-appelle-a-sinspirer-de-ceerno-sileymaan-baal/)
## The revolution of 1770–1776
On his return to Futa, Bal toured the country campaigning among the notabilities on the need to end the Denianke regime, which the narratives describe as a rule of infidels over a Muslim people.[2](https://doi.org/10.61585/pud-asasx-a1n114)
The revolution also targeted Moorish domination. Bal broke the mouddo horma, an annual tribute levied by the Moors, said by Alla Kane to equal 5 kg of gold, and refused to let the tithe be collected at Njafaan, confronting the Moors there.[6](http://www.cridem.orgwww.cridem.org/imprimable.php?article=704203) The overthrow is also framed against the growing enslavement of Muslims in the context of the [Atlantic slave trade](https://www.edgepedia.org/atlantic-slave-trade), with Futa Toro exposed to raids and deportations from Saint-Louis.[7](https://www.sciencespo.fr/africa-programme/fr/recherches-and-publications/articles/le-senegal-celebre-la-revolution-du-fouta-toro-et-les-lumieres-africaines/)
Sources disagree on the name of the last Satigi: one scholarly study of the 1776 narratives gives the victory as over the satigi Sule Sam Mayram,[2](https://doi.org/10.61585/pud-asasx-a1n114) while a Futa Toro cultural account names Suley Njaay Tokooso as the ruler whose overthrow ended the dynasty.[8](https://suudu-baaba.com/2026/03/02/thierno-souleymane-ball-architect-of-a-moral-revolution/)
## Political influence and institutions
After the victory, Bal convened a general assembly of the ulama and notables at Cilony (Horofonde) and set out the organization of the new state.[3](https://lequotidien.sn/241-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/) • [9](https://flam-mauritanie.org/242-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/) His recommendations included that Futa is one and indivisible; that all are equal before justice; that qadis judge local affairs with appeals lying to the Almamy; that revenues serve the public interest; that the royal title of Satigi is banned and the new chief bears the title of Almamy; and that the Almamy is designated by an electoral college from the six provinces of Fouta.[3](https://lequotidien.sn/241-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/) He directed that the ruler be a learned, pious, and honest man who does not accumulate riches for himself or his children, that the office never become hereditary, and that an enriching Almamy be deposed and his goods confiscated.[1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) • [7](https://www.sciencespo.fr/africa-programme/fr/recherches-and-publications/articles/le-senegal-celebre-la-revolution-du-fouta-toro-et-les-lumieres-africaines/)
When the choice of leader fell on Bal himself after the victory, he declined it, but he drew the profile of the future head of state, a portrait that matched Abdul Qaadiri Kan, who became the first almaami.[2](https://doi.org/10.61585/pud-asasx-a1n114)
The revolution placed the Toorobbe religious class at the head of the state and founded a system in which the Almamy was chosen for his knowledge and probity rather than family belonging, with taxation directed to the general interest.[7](https://www.sciencespo.fr/africa-programme/fr/recherches-and-publications/articles/le-senegal-celebre-la-revolution-du-fouta-toro-et-les-lumieres-africaines/) • [5](https://fr.apanews.net/governance/senegal-le-comiac-appelle-a-sinspirer-de-ceerno-sileymaan-baal/) In the longer view of the [Torodbe](https://www.edgepedia.org/torodbe) clerisy, the jihads in Futa Bundu, Toro, and Jallon in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were sustained by Torodbe scholars and prefigured the jihads of Usuman dan Fodio and al-Hajj Umar b. Sa'id, although in Futa Toro and Bundu the Turudiyya itself later took shape as a hereditary ruling class.[4](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853700027596)
## Death and successors
Baal died around 1776 while fighting against the Moors of Ulad Abdallah in the Jowol.[1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) • [3](https://lequotidien.sn/241-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/) Abdoul Kader Kane continued the mission as the first Almamy of the Fouta.[3](https://lequotidien.sn/241-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/) The theocratic state, undermined by wars of succession, collapsed about a century after its founding; one study dates the Almamiyat to 1776–1880,[1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) while another gives its end as 1890.[7](https://www.sciencespo.fr/africa-programme/fr/recherches-and-publications/articles/le-senegal-celebre-la-revolution-du-fouta-toro-et-les-lumieres-africaines/)
## Historians' assessment
In the narratives on the 1776 theocratic revolution, Bal appears more as a fighter, a moudjahid, than as a statesman, and he died in combat.[2](https://doi.org/10.61585/pud-asasx-a1n114) A study of the Torodbe places the Futa Toro jihad within a clerical movement whose members were drawn from diverse strains of Sudani society, so that Turudiyya denotes a metier rather than an ethnic category.[4](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853700027596) Oumar Kane's *La première hégémonie peule* (2004) describes him as tall, very corpulent, eloquent, with a very clear voice and courage bordering on temerity.[6](http://www.cridem.orgwww.cridem.org/imprimable.php?article=704203) A recent monograph calls him the father of the maraboutic revolution that led the Futa to theocracy.[10](https://www.editions-harmattan.fr/catalogue/livre/thierno-souleymane-baal-lettre-musulman-peulh-torodo-et-revolutionnaire-au-xviiie-siecle/5351)
## Legacy
The revolution Bal led is commemorated in Senegal as the Torodbe revolution, and public bodies have invoked his recommendations on meritocracy and the accountability of rulers as a model for governance.[7](https://www.sciencespo.fr/africa-programme/fr/recherches-and-publications/articles/le-senegal-celebre-la-revolution-du-fouta-toro-et-les-lumieres-africaines/) • [5](https://fr.apanews.net/governance/senegal-le-comiac-appelle-a-sinspirer-de-ceerno-sileymaan-baal/) The Almamiyat he founded outlived him by roughly a century, and the Torodbe current it embodied is seen by historians as a forerunner of the later West African jihads.[1](https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf) • [4](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853700027596)
## References
1. LE FUUTA TOORO DE CEERNO SULEYMAN BAAL A LA FIN DE L'ALMAMIYAT (1770 – 1880): https://storage.canalblog.com/01/66/847883/64437613.pdf
2. Sainteté et action politique. Figures de saints dans les récits sur la révolution théocratique de 1776 au Fouta Tooro: https://doi.org/10.61585/pud-asasx-a1n114
3. 241 ans après la Révolution torodo : Thierno Souleymane Baal toujours actuel: https://lequotidien.sn/241-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/
4. The Torodbe Clerisy: A Social View, The Journal of African History: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853700027596
5. Sénégal : le COMIAC appelle à s'inspirer de Ceerno Sileymaan Baal: https://fr.apanews.net/governance/senegal-le-comiac-appelle-a-sinspirer-de-ceerno-sileymaan-baal/
6. Mauritanie : 241 ans après la Révolution torodo (Le Quotidien via Cridem): http://www.cridem.orgwww.cridem.org/imprimable.php?article=704203
7. Le Sénégal célèbre la révolution du Fouta Toro et les Lumières africaines (Sciences Po): https://www.sciencespo.fr/africa-programme/fr/recherches-and-publications/articles/le-senegal-celebre-la-revolution-du-fouta-toro-et-les-lumieres-africaines/
8. Thierno Souleymane Ball: Architect of a Moral Revolution: https://suudu-baaba.com/2026/03/02/thierno-souleymane-ball-architect-of-a-moral-revolution/
9. 242 ans après la Révolution torodo : Thierno Souleymane Baal toujours actuel – FLAM: https://flam-mauritanie.org/242-ans-apres-la-revolution-torodo-thierno-souleymane-baal-toujours-actuel/
10. Thierno Souleymane Baal : lettré musulman, Peulh torodo et révolutionnaire au XVIIIe siècle (L'Harmattan): https://www.editions-harmattan.fr/catalogue/livre/thierno-souleymane-baal-lettre-musulman-peulh-torodo-et-revolutionnaire-au-xviiie-siecle/5351
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Other history › Sub-Saharan Africa and the Horn › Western Sudan after Songhai: Segou, Masina, and the jihad states (1591 to 1898)*
*Initially written Sep 24, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license