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Khasso or Xaaso is a region and former kingdom of the 17th to 19th centuries, occupying territory in what is today the Kayes Region of Mali. From the 17th to 19th centuries, its capital was at Medina until its fall.
Khasso straddles both banks of the upper Senegal River roughly from Kayes to Bafoulabe, in a strip at most 60 km wide. It is located at the transition point between the mountains to the south and the arid plans to the north, and between the Senegambia region and the Niger River valley.
Upon Demba Séga's death, however, the kingdom fell into civil war and fragmented. The neighboring kingdom of Kaarta sacked the capital of Kouniakary, and Khasso fragmented into five smaller states: Dembaya (with the capital at Médine), Séro, Almamya (Silatiguiya), Diadiéya and Guimbaya. The most powerful of these was Dembaya under Hawa Demba Diallo (r. 1810–1833). These states were built by a warrior aristocracy as a means of securing slaves and plunder, with a strong army.
In November 1854 El Hajj Umar Tall completed a lightning conquest of Bambuk, and the petty kings of Khasso quickly and peacefully submitted as well. Tall built a Koniakary Tata, whose commander functioned as regional governor. By the next year, however, the local kings were chafing under Toucouleur domination and rebelled, looking to the expanding France colonial presence for a powerful ally. In September 1855, Governor Louis Faidherbe built a fort at Medine, capital of Dembaya, and extended French protection over the so-called 'Khasso Confederation'. In reality, their control only extended to the left bank of the Senegal, and the right bank was summarily devastated by the Umarian commander, Thierno Jibi, with refugees flooding across the river.
In 1857, Toucouleur conqueror El Hadj Umar Tall attacked Khasso as part of his jihad, but was repulsed at Medina Fort with the aid of the Khasso's French allies. This conflict and the associated refugee flows exacerbated a famine that began in 1856 and extended to 1861, emptying entire villages and driving much of the surviving population into temporary exile. However, the Khasso found themselves increasingly under French control until they were assimilated into French Sudan in 1880.
Prior to the Umarian jihad, Khasso was only superficially Islamic, with most of the population still practicing some degree of traditional religious beliefs. After many leaders joined the Toucouleur in the 1850s, Islam began to make inroads among the population and gradually came to dominate.
Present-day inhabitants of this region often identify themselves as Khassonké.
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