El-Hadji Malick Sy was a Senegalese spiritual leader and teacher affiliated with the Malikite and Ash’arite traditions within the Tijaniyya Sufi brotherhood. He lived from 1853 to 1922. Born in Gaya, northern Senegal, to a Fulani family, he pursued religious studies and initially migrated to Mauritania before settling in Saint-Louis, Senegal, in 1884. After a pilgrimage to Mecca, he returned to teach in Louga and Pire [fr]. He later established a zawiya (religious center) in Tivaouane, where he permanently settled in 1898. In 1902, he officially founded the Tivaouane zawiya upon the guidance of his father-in-law, Mor Massamba Diery Dieng, and at the invitation of the local leader.