Habib Saleh bin Alawi Jamal al-Layl (Habib Swaleh)

Habib Swaleh was a Hadrami sayyid of the Ba 'Alawi lineage (descendants of the Prophet via the Jamal al-Layl clan), born in the Comoros and settled in Lamu in the 1880s. Between 1885 and 1892 he founded the Riyadha Mosque and college, which became the foremost center of Islamic learning on the East African coast. In the late 19th century he introduced the Maulidi al-Habshy celebration to Lamu, originating the annual Lamu Maulidi festival that today draws pilgrims from across the Gulf and the Indian Ocean diaspora. His major social reform was opening Islamic education to the descendants of slaves and the marginalized; he died on 2 Muharram 1354 / 6 April 1935 and was buried in the cemetery beside the Riyadha Mosque. (Sources: Anne K. Bang, 'Sufis and Scholars of the Sea', Routledge 2003; Oxford COMPAS, 'Lamu Maulid'; English Wikipedia 'Habib Salih')