ABSTRACT
Among the leaders o f Western Sudanese Islamic movements, the Sarakholle2 Shaykh al-Hajj Mahmadu Lamin (M uhammad al-Amin, c. 1835-1887) occupies a rather peculiar place. Seen against the wider background of the nineteenth century revivalist movements and compared with other leaders like 'Usum an dan Fodio. Seku Ahmadu Lobbo, al-Hajj 'U m ar Tal or the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad-his achievement was more than modest. Neither did he succeed in founding an organized state as those men did, nor do we know what precisely his religious message was as there are few traces o f his writings. On the other hand he is mostly remembered for his stubborn resistance to French colonial penetration and as the champion of Sarakholle aspirations against Torodbe supremacy and the French rule-in short as a fighting shaykh. This more important and better known part o f his career on the one hand, and the relatively poor evidence as to his other activities on the other, could easily obscure the undeniable fact that he belonged to the same category of Muslim revivalists as the above mujahidin. To explain his rather complicated personality and deeds, he must be seen against the Islamic and local context, and regarded as a Muslim as well as a Sarakholle, a shaykh as well as a warrior.
