Saad Buh

Who is Saad Buh?

Sheikh Saad Buh was a Moorish, Qadiriyya, Fadiliyya Sufi from Mauritania. Buh, who settled in Trarza in the 1870s, developed a following in St. Louis, and began a pattern of visits to the peanut basin and river valley. During the last two decades, he gave invaluable service to the administration, service that Dudu Seck, as a functionary, could hardly perform.. It was in the late 1860s that Buh established ties with the French administration who were busy in their venture to conquer the Senegalo-Mauritanian zone. At this point he was less than 20 years old. He became a dominant figure in a configuration of teachers, schools and zawiyas that stretched across the Sahel and Sahara. He had a huge network of disciples and relations which made him very popular with the French administration for he enjoyed prestige and respect across the frontiers of language, social status and even religious identity. Al Hajj Umar Tal had sought support from Buh's father, however the latter a traditional Qadiriyya and Fadiliyya rejected the hostility and violence that jihad entailed and refused to support Tal's cause.

Sheikh Saad Buh was to perform many services for the French including at numerous times saving French explorers from the hands of local bands. He rescued Soleillet, Blanchet and Fabert. Soleillet was rescued from a local band who pillaged his possessions. Buh advised the traveller not to attempt to journey any further into the dangerous Sahelian zone.