Cheikh Ahmed Tijani Ba (Shaykh Aḥmad Tījānī Bā), 1932-2001) was a Malian-born ʿālim (religious scholar), author of Islamic books, imām of the Grand Riviera Golf Mosque in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire's first national muftī , and khalīfa (lit. "deputy") of the Al Hajj Umar (al-Ḥājj ʿUmar) Tall branch of the Tījāniyya. (The Tijāniyya was founded in 1195/1781 in Tlemcen, Algeria, by the shaykh and religious scholar Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Tijānī, d. 1815, and it gained influence in large parts of North and West Africa and,