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The Songhai Empire was a state located in the western part of the Sahel during the 15th and 16th centuries. At its peak, it was one of the largest African empires in history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its largest ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai people. Sonni Ali established Gao as the empire's capital, although a Songhai state had existed in and around Gao since the 11th century. Other important cities in the kingdom were Timbuktu and Djenné, where urban-centred trade flourished; they were conquered in 1468 and 1475, respectively. Initially, the Songhai Empire was ruled by the Sonni dynasty (–1493), but it was later replaced by the Askia dynasty (1493–1591).
During the second half of the 13th century, Gao and the surrounding region had grown into an important trading center and attracted the interest of the expanding Mali Empire. Mali conquered Gao near the end of the 13th century. Gao remained under Malian command until the late 14th century. As the Mali Empire started disintegrating, the Songhai reasserted control of Gao. Songhai rulers subsequently took advantage of the weakened Mali Empire to expand Songhai rule.
Under the rule of Sonni Ali, the Songhai surpassed the Malian Empire in area, wealth, and power, absorbing vast regions of the Mali Empire. His son and successor, Sonni Baru, was overthrown by Muhammad Ture, one of his father's generals. Ture, more commonly known as Askia the Great, instituted political and economic reforms throughout the empire.
A series of plots and coups by Askia's successors forced the empire into a period of decline and instability. Askia's relatives attempted to govern the kingdom, but political chaos and several civil wars within the empire ensured the empire's continued decline, particularly during the rule of Askia Ishaq I. The empire experienced a period of stability and a string of military successes during the reign of Askia Daoud.
Askia Ishaq II, the last ruler of the Songhai Empire, ascended to power in a long dynastic struggle following the death of Daoud. In 1590, Ahmad al-Mansur took advantage of the recent civil conflict in the empire and sent an army under the command of Judar Pasha to conquer the Songhai and gain control of the trans-Saharan trade routes. The Songhai Empire collapsed after the defeat at the Battle of Tondibi in 1591.
The other group known to have inhabited the area were the Do people, talented farmers who raised crops in the fertile lands bordering the river. Before the 10th century, these early settlers were subjugated by more powerful, horse-riding Songhai speakers, who established control over the area. All these groups gradually began to speak the same language, and they and their country eventually became known as the Songhai.
The Sanhaja tribes were among the early people of the Niger Bend region. These tribes rode out of the Sahara Desert and established trading settlements near the Niger. As time passed, traders crossed the Sahara and joined the Tuaregs in their settlements. Both groups conducted business with the people living near the river. As trade in the region increased, the Songhai chiefs took control of the profitable trade around what would later become Gao. Trade goods included gold, salt, slaves, , leather, Date palm, and ivory.
By the 10th century, the Songhai chiefs had established Gao as a small kingdom, taking control of the people living along the trade routes. Around 1300, Gao had become prosperous enough to attract the Mali Empire's attention. Mali conquered the city, profited from Gao's trade, and collected taxes from its kings until about the 1430s. Conflict in the Malian homeland made it impossible to maintain control of Gao. Ibn Battuta visited Gao in 1353 when the town was still a part of the Mali Empire. He arrived by boat from Timbuktu on his return journey from visiting the capital of the empire, writing:
Then I travelled to the town of Kawkaw, which is a great town on the Nīl Niger, one of the finest, biggest, and most fertile cities of the Sūdān. There is much rice there, milk, chickens, fish, and the cucumber, which has no like. Its people conduct their buying and selling with cowries, like the people of Mālī.
During his campaigns for expansion, Ali conquered several territories, repelling attacks from the Mossi Kingdoms to the south and conquering the Dogon people to the north. He annexed Timbuktu in 1468 after the leaders of the town asked him to help overthrow the Tuaregs, who had taken the city following the decline of Mali.Sonni ʿAlī.(2007). Encyclopædia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica. When he attempted to conquer the trading town of Djenné, the townspeople resisted his efforts. After a seven-year siege, he was able to starve them into surrender, incorporating the town into his empire in 1473.
The invasion of Sonni Ali and his forces negatively impacted Timbuktu. Many Muslim accounts described him as a tyrant, including the Tarikh al-fattash, which Mahmud Kati wrote. According to The Cambridge History of Africa, the Islamic historian Al-Sa'di expresses this sentiment in describing his incursion on Timbuktu:
Sonni Ali created a policy against the scholars of Timbuktu, especially those of the Sankore region who were associated with the Tuareg. With his control of critical trade routes and cities such as Timbuktu, Sonni Ali increased the wealth of the Songhai Empire, which at its height would surpass the wealth of Mali.
"he distinguished between the civilian and the army unlike Sunni Ali 1464–92 when everyone was a soldier."
He opened religious schools, constructed , and opened his court to scholars and poets from throughout the Muslim world. His children went to an Islamic school, and he enforced Islamic practices but did not force religion on his people. Askia completed one of the Five Pillars of Islam by taking a hajj to Mecca, bringing a large amount of gold. He donated some of it to charity and spent the rest on gifts for the people of Mecca to display his empire's wealth. Historians from Cairo said his pilgrimage consisted of "an escort of 500 cavalry and 1000 infantry, and with him he carried 300,000 pieces of gold".
Islam was so important to him that, upon his return, he established more learning centres throughout his empire and recruited Muslim scholars from Egypt and Morocco to teach at the Sankore mosque in Timbuktu.
He was interested in astronomy, which led to increased astronomers and observatories in the capital.
Askia initiated multiple military campaigns, including declaring Jihad against the neighbouring Mossi. He did not force them to convert to Islam after subduing them. His army consisted of war canoes, a cavalry, protective armour, iron-tipped weapons, and an organized militia.
He centralized the administration of the empire and established a bureaucracy responsible for tax collection and the administration of justice. He demanded the building of canals to enhance agriculture, eventually increasing trade. He introduced a system of weights and measures and appointed an inspector for each of Songhai's major trading centres.
During his reign, Islam became more entrenched, trans-Saharan trade flourished, and the salt mines of Taghaza were brought within the empire's boundaries.
During this period, Moroccan armies annihilated a Portuguese invasion at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, but were left on the verge of economic depletion and bankruptcy, as they needed to pay for the defences used to hold off the siege. This led Ahmad al-Mansur of the Saadi dynasty in 1591 to dispatch an invasion force south under the eunuch Judar Pasha. The Moroccan invasion of Songhai was mainly to seize and revive the trans-Saharan trade in salt, gold and slaves for their developing sugar industry. During Askia's reign, the Songhai military consisted of full-time soldiers, but the king never modernized his army. On the other hand, the invading Moroccan army included thousands of and eight English cannons.
Judar Pasha was a Spaniard by birth but had been captured as an infant and educated at the Saadi court. After a march across the Sahara desert, Judar's forces captured, plundered, and razed the salt mines at Taghaza and moved on to Gao. When Emperor Askia Ishaq II (r. 1588–1591) met Judar at the 1591 Battle of Tondibi, Songhai forces, despite vastly superior numbers, were routed by a cattle stampede triggered by the Saadi's gunpowder weapons. Judar proceeded to sack Gao, Timbuktu and Djenné, destroying the Songhai as a regional power. Governing so vast an empire proved too much for the Saadi dynasty. They soon relinquished control of the region, letting it splinter into dozens of smaller kingdoms.
After the empire's defeat, the nobles moved south to an area known today as Songhai in current Niger, where the Sonni dynasty had already settled. They formed smaller kingdoms such as Wanzarbe, Ayerou, Gothèye, Dargol, Téra, Sikié, Kokorou, Gorouol, Karma, Namaro and further south, the Dendi Kingdom which rose to prominence shortly after.
The Songhai Empire at its zenith extended over the current territories of Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Mauritania, Senegal, most other Guinean Coast countries and Algeria. Its influence stretched as far as Cameroon over a vast contiguous ethnolinguistic, cultural, and political space of Mandé peoples, Gur languages, Dogon, Berbers, Arab people, Fulani people, Wolof people, Hausa people, Soninke people, Akan people, and Yoruba people.
An elite of Songhai horsemen led this population from nomadic Nilo-Saharan riders of the Neolithic coming from East Africa to mix with the Sorko fishing population and local Niger-Congo agriculturalists of the Niger River.
Overland trade was influenced by four factors: camels, Berber tribe members, Islam, and the structure of the empire. Gold was readily available in West Africa, but salt was not, so the gold-salt trade was the backbone of overland trade routes in the Sahel. Ivory, ostrich feathers, and slaves were sent north in exchange for salt, horses, camels, cloth, and art. While many trade routes were used, the Songhai heavily used the way through the Fezzan via Bilma, Agadez, and Gao.
The Niger River was essential to trade for the empire. Goods were offloaded from camels onto either donkeys or boats at Timbuktu. From there, they were moved along a 500-mile corridor upstream to Djenné or downstream to Gao.
The Julla (merchants) would form partnerships, and the state would protect the merchants and port cities along Niger. Askia Muhammad I implemented a universal system of weights and measures throughout the empire.
The Songhai economy was based on a clan system. The clan a person belonged to ultimately decided one's occupation. The most common occupations were metalworkers, fishermen, and carpenters. The lower castes mainly consisted of immigrants, who, at times, were provided special privileges and held high positions in society. At the top were noblemen and descendants of the original Songhai people, followed by freemen and traders. At the bottom were prisoners of war and enslaved people who mainly worked in agriculture. The Songhai used slaves more consistently than their predecessors, the Ghana and Mali empires. James Olson described the Songhai labour system as resembling , with the kingdom possessing craft guilds that consisted of various mechanics and artisans.Olson, James Stuart. The Ethnic Dimension in American History. New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1979
Qadis worked locally in important trading towns like Timbuktu and Djenné. The king appointed the Qadi and dealt with common-law misdemeanours according to Sharia law. The Qadi also had the power to grant a pardon or offer refuge. The Assara-munitions, or "enforcers", worked like a police commissioner whose sole duty was to execute sentencing. Jurists were mainly composed of representatives of the academic community; professors were often noted as taking administrative positions within the Empire, and many aspired to be qadis.
The tax was imposed on peripheral chiefdoms and provinces to ensure Songhai's dominance; in return, these provinces were given almost complete autonomy. Songhai rulers only intervened in the affairs of these neighbouring states when a situation became volatile, usually an isolated incident. Each town was represented by government officials, holding positions and responsibilities similar to today's central bureaucrats.
Under Askia Muhammad, the Empire saw increased centralization. He encouraged learning in Timbuktu by rewarding its professors with larger pensions as an incentive. He also established an order of precedence and protocol and was noted as a nobleman who gave back generously to people experiencing poverty. Under his policies, Muhammad brought much stability to Songhai, and great attestations of this registered organization are still preserved in the works of Maghreb writers such as Leo Africanus, among others.
The emperor was the strategist and commander-in-chief of the military, and the balama acted as minister of defence and army general. The janky was the army corps general, and the wonky were lieutenants in charge of a garrison. The head of the mounted archers was called the tongue farma. The hike was second in the chain of command of the empire and served as its interior minister. He was assisted by two vice-admirals at the ports of Kabara and Ayourou and commanded over a thousand captains, ensuring the rapid movement of troops along the Niger River.
The infantry was led by a general called the nyay hurry (war elephant), and the camel cavalry, called gu, was led by the guy, or cavalry chief. The cavalry mainly consisted of Berbers recruited from the northern provinces.
The Songhai included three military provinces, and an army was stationed in each. It was divided into several garrisons, the kurmina, led by the balama, the central province by the emperor himself and the dendi by the dendi fari. The army of the closest military province was mobilized with that of the emperor. Those remaining on the spot ensured order in the three provinces; the emperor was obliged to be in front of the armed during a war of conquest. The Jinakoy ruled secondary provinces and their lieutenants in the regions of the provinces.
According to Potholm, the Songhai army was dominated by heavy cavalry of "mounted knights outfitted in chain mail and helmets", similar to medieval European armies. The infantry included a force made up primarily of freemen and captives. Swords, arrows and copper or leather shields made up the arsenal of the Songhai infantry. At the Battle of Tondibi, the Songhai army consisted of 30,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry.
| Alayaman | c. 837 | c. 849 |
| Za Koi | c. 849 | 861 |
| Takoi | 861 | 873 |
| Akoi | 873 | 885 |
| Ku | 885 | 897 |
| Ali Fai | 897 | 909 |
| Biyai Komai | 909 | 921 |
| Biyai Bei | 921 | 933 |
| Karai | 933 | 945 |
| Yama Karaonia | 945 | 957 |
| Yama Dombo | 957 | 969 |
| Yama Danka Kibao | 969 | 981 |
| Kukorai | 981 | 993 |
| Kenken | 993 | 1005 |
| Za Kosoi | 1005 | 1025 |
| Kosai Dariya | 1025 | 1044 |
| Hen Kon Wanko Dam | 1044 | 1063 |
| Biyai Koi Kimi | 1063 | 1082 |
| Nintasani | 1082 | 1101 |
| Biyai Kaina Kimba | 1101 | 1120 |
| Kaina Shinyunbo | 1120 | 1139 |
| Tib | 1139 | 1158 |
| Yama Dao | 1158 | 1177 |
| Fadazu | 1177 | 1196 |
| Ali Koro | 1196 | 1215 |
| Bir Foloko | 1215 | 1235 |
| Yosiboi | 1235 | 1255 |
| Duro | 1255 | 1275 |
| Zenko Baro | 1275 | 1295 |
| Bisi Baro | 1295 | 1325 |
| Bada | 1325 | 1332 |
| Ali Konon | 1332 | 1340 |
| Salman Nari | 1340 | 1347 |
| Ibrahim Kabay | 1347 | 1354 |
| Uthman Kanafa | 1354 | 1362 |
| Bar Kaina Ankabi | 1362 | 1370 |
| Musa | 1370 | 1378 |
| Bukar Zonko | 1378 | 1386 |
| Bukar Dalla Boyonbo | 1386 | 1394 |
| Mar Kirai | 1394 | 1402 |
| Muhammad Dao | 1402 | 1410 |
| Muhammad Konkiya | 1410 | 1418 |
| Muhammad Fari | 1418 | 1426 |
| Karbifo | 1426 | 1434 |
| Mar Fai Kolli-Djimbo | 1434 | 1442 |
| Mar Arkena | 1442 | 1449 |
| Mar Arandan | 1449 | 1456 |
| Suleiman Daman | 1456 | 1464 |
| Sonni Ali | 1464 | 6 November 1492 |
| Sonni Baru | 6 November 1492 | 1493 |
| Askia Muhammad I (First Reign) | 3 March 1493 | 26 August 1528 |
| Askia Musa | 26 August 1528 | 12 April 1531 |
| Askia Mohammad Benkan | 12 April 1531 | 22 April 1537 |
| Askia Ismail | 22 April 1537 | 2 March 1539 |
| Askia Ishaq I | 1539 | 25 March 1549 |
| Askia Daoud | 25 March 1549 | August 1582 |
| Askia Muhammad II (al-Hajj) | August 1582 | 15 December 1586 |
| Muhammad Bani | 15 December 1586 | 9 April 1588 |
| Askia Ishaq II | 9 April 1588 | 14 April 1591 |
| Muhammad Gao | 14 April 1591 | 1591 |
| Nuh | 1591 | 1599 |
| Harun | 1599 | 1612 |
| Al-Amin | 1612 | 1618 |
| Dawud II | 1618 | 1635 |
| Ismail | 1635 | 1640 |
| Samsou-Béri | 1761 | 1779 |
| Hargani | 1779 | 1793 |
| Samsou Keïna | 1793 | 1798 |
| Fodi Maÿroumfa | 1798 | 1805 |
| Tomo | 1805 | 1823 |
| Bassarou Missi Izé | 1823 | 1842 |
| Boumi (Askia Kodama Komi) | 1842 | 1845 |
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