The famous ilmi giants are:
1. Shaikh Bhuddah al-Busairi- He was very sick when I las met him and might hae already left this word. He is one of the most senoir Ulama and the most respected. Unfortunately, he is also the one who introduced the warped wahabi Aqeedah on Sifat to Mauritania. But he isn't like the normal hardcore salafis, rather he is very mu'tadil. He is also really loved by the brothers of tableegh, as his support for it was one of the reason why the work of tableegh spread so well in that country. He is a master in all fields.
2. Shaikh Muhammad Salim ibn Adud- Most likely the most knowledgable of Mauritanian Ulama and probably the most famous. His aqeedah has been the subject of many debates, so the safest would be to stay far from that. He is a master of all fields as well, standing out in fiqh and lughah. (Well every mauritanian alim stands out in lughah). When we visited him, we spoke to his son Muhammad for a while. A colleague of mine from the U.K said to Muhammad that we heard that his father had memorized the entire Qamus of Firozabadi (the most authentic Arabic dictionary). Muhammad replied that that is not so, his father has memorized hundreds of other books but not the qamoss. Yes, his grandmother- yes this isn't a typo- had memorized half the qamus!!!
3. Shaikh Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Khadeem- He is the alim who I was really impressed with and would recommend studying under. He is one of the few mauritanian scholars who have dozens of published words. I have many of them. The sharh of Matharatul Qulub translated by Hamza Yusuf is by him. He is without any doubt a master in EVERY field having written top books in Fiqh, Uisul Fiqh, Usul Hadith, Tasawwuf etc. He is also a senior Sufi Shaikh of the Tijani silsilah, being very strict on sunnah and wary of bid'at. The wahabis don't like him as he is has written many rudood against them. His madrasah- mahzharah- is called at-tahseer andd is probably one of te easiest to study in as it is located close to a town with the major amenities. Nice enviroment in hsi madrasah as opposed to that in most of the others.
4. Shaikh Bah- Also one of the top scholars, yet not so senior as the others. Has one of the biggest madrasahs and probably the only one with free meals. Big in Lughah.
5. Shaikh Yadali ibn al-Haj Ahmed- My beloved Ustad, probably the last hafidhul hadith in the world. Allah knows best how many ahadeeth he has memorized, but his senior students say kutubus sittah and muattah!!! He gives dars of hadith from memory- I attended these for a few months- as well as dars of tafsir, fiqh etc from memory. He was the naaib mufti of the country previously, but steped down from that post. He gives dars every night between maghrib and Esha in the capital. Still young compared to the others - probably in early fifties- and is famous for te mastery of ahadith and narrators. When discussing a hadit e mentions a narrrator then his student - the narrator from him- and then mentions the numer of ahadith the student has narrated from this ustad. He does this for every rawi and then if thr ahadith are few, he mentions exactly in which book they appear.
These are the giants.
There will be others definitely, especially further inside the country. These are in and around Nouakchott.
source: sunniforum
