Songhai: Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad (c. 1464-1528)

Part oneSunni Ali the conqueror

The Songhai people lived along the middle Niger around Gao, a town whose kings had been Muslims since about 985. For a time Gao was part of Mali. In the late fourteenth century, as Mali weakened through quarrels at court and attacks from its neighbours, the Songhai broke away.

In about 1464 a warrior named Sunni Ali became king of Songhai. He spent almost his whole reign at war. His cavalry and his fleet of river boats on the Niger gave him speed on land and water. In 1468 he took Timbuktu from the Tuareg, who had seized it from Mali. Djenné, protected by water, fell to him a few years later after a long siege. By his death in 1492 Songhai controlled the middle Niger and had taken much of Mali's old empire.

Sunni Ali was a Muslim, but he also kept the old Songhai beliefs and rites close, and he distrusted the scholars of Timbuktu, whom he suspected of siding with the Tuareg. He treated some of them harshly. The chronicles written later by Timbuktu scholars remember him as a tyrant, though they could not deny his success in war.

Part twoAskia Muhammad the organiser

After Sunni Ali died, his son took the throne. Within months one of his generals, Muhammad Ture, rose against the new king, partly because he would not rule as a committed Muslim. In 1493 Muhammad defeated him and took power, with the title askia. History knows him as Askia Muhammad, or Askia the Great.

He changed the direction of the state. He brought scholars back into honour, gave them gifts and protection, and sought their advice. He divided the empire into provinces with governors, set up a standing army, regulated weights and measures in the markets and appointed judges in the main towns. Timbuktu flourished again as a city of teaching.

In 1496 and 1497 Askia Muhammad made the Hajj, following the road of Mansa Musa. In Cairo the Abbasid caliph, who lived there under the Mamluks, named him his deputy, caliph for the lands of Takrur, the old Arabic name for West Africa. He came home with new standing and a stronger sense of his duty to rule by Islamic law.

Part threeScholars and their advice

Askia Muhammad wrote to scholars for guidance. The best known of them was Muhammad al-Maghili, a jurist from Tlemcen in North Africa who travelled through Songhai and the Hausa lands teaching Maliki law. Askia sent him a list of questions on how a Muslim ruler should govern, how to treat people who mixed Islam with older practices, and how to deal with corrupt officials. Al-Maghili's answers became a well-known guide to government in West Africa. The great Egyptian scholar al-Suyuti also corresponded with rulers of the region. Al-Maghili also advised Muhammad Rumfa, the king of Kano, who worked to make his city a Muslim kingdom.

Under Askia Muhammad, Songhai stretched from the Atlantic side of the Sahel to the borders of the Hausa states, and north into the Sahara as far as the salt mines. It was the largest state in the history of West Africa. In his old age he went blind, and his sons fought over the succession. In 1528 his son Musa deposed him. He lived on for some years and was buried in a tomb at Gao that still stands, a pyramid of mud brick beside a mosque.

Askia Muhammad asked scholars how a Muslim ruler should govern, and their answers became a guide for centuries.

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The mapWhere it happened

• Gao
• Timbuktu
• Djenné
• Taghaza
• Kano
• Tlemcen
• Cairo
• Makkah

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

SourcesSources for this chapter