At a glance
Era 7- Dates
- Ruled 1493-1528 CE; died 1538 CE
- Who
- Songhai ruler who governed with the advice of scholars and made the Hajj in 1496-97
- Era
- West Africa
ProfileAskia Muhammad
Muhammad Ture was a general of the Songhai king Sunni Ali, who had built a great empire along the Niger. After Sunni Ali's death, Muhammad rose against his son, partly because the new king would not rule as a committed Muslim, and in 1493 he took power with the title askia.
He brought the scholars of Timbuktu back into honour, appointed judges, divided the empire into provinces, set up a standing army and regulated the markets. In 1496 and 1497 he made the Hajj, and in Cairo the Abbasid caliph named him his deputy for West Africa. He asked the North African jurist Muhammad al-Maghili for guidance on ruling justly, and al-Maghili's answers became a guide for rulers in the region.
In his old age he lost his sight, and in 1528 his son deposed him. His tomb at Gao still stands.
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