Askia Muhammad (1493-1528): The Songhai Empire at Its Height

Askia Muhammad, often called Askia the Great, ruled the Songhai Empire of West Africa from 1493 to 1528. A general who seized the throne in a civil war after the death of Sunni Ali, he made a celebrated pilgrimage to Mecca, rebuilt the state’s administration on Islamic lines and pushed its frontiers outward until Songhai became the largest empire in the history of West Africa. His reign, centred on the Niger River city of Gao, is remembered as the high point of Songhai power, trade and scholarship.

Background: Songhai before the Askias

The Songhai people lived along the middle Niger River, where the river bends north towards the Sahara. Their town of Gao had been a trading centre since at least the 9th century, when Arab geographers described it as a market for goods crossing the desert. For much of the 14th century Gao was under the authority of the Mali Empire, whose most famous ruler made the hajj of 1324.

As Mali weakened in the 15th century, a Songhai dynasty known as the Sunni (or Sonni) broke free. Its greatest ruler, Sunni Ali (r. c. 1464-1492), was a brilliant and ruthless soldier. He seized Timbuktu in 1468, took the trading city of Djenne after a long siege in the 1470s, and fought the Mossi, the Tuareg and the Fulani. By his death Songhai controlled most of the Niger Bend.

Sunni Ali’s relations with Islam were uneasy. He was nominally Muslim but also drew on traditional Songhai religion and royal rituals, and he persecuted some of the Muslim scholars of Timbuktu, whom he suspected of siding with his enemies. The later Muslim chronicles of Timbuktu portray him as a tyrant, a picture that historians treat with caution because it was written by the descendants of the scholars he had harmed.

The seizure of power in 1493

Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, also known as Muhammad Ture, was one of Sunni Ali’s senior commanders. His exact origins are debated: the chronicles connect his family with the Soninke or with the Songhai, and his birth date is unknown, though he was probably born in the 1440s.

Sunni Ali died in November 1492, by tradition drowning while returning from a campaign. His son Sunni Baru (also called Abu Bakr Dao) succeeded him. According to the chronicles, Muhammad urged the new king to profess Islam openly, and Sunni Baru refused. Whether the conflict was mainly religious or simply a struggle for power is still discussed, but religion gave Muhammad a powerful cause.

Muhammad raised an army, with support from Muslim merchants and scholars in the towns, and defeated Sunni Baru at Anfao, near Gao, in April 1493. Sunni Baru fled, and Muhammad took the title askia, a Songhai military or royal title. He became the founder of a new dynasty, the Askias, which would rule Songhai until the Moroccan conquest a century later.

The pilgrimage to Mecca

Once his power was secure, Askia Muhammad made the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. He set out around 1496 and returned around 1498; the chronicles give dates that historians convert slightly differently. Like the Mali rulers before him, he travelled with a large escort and great wealth.

The Ta’rikh al-Sudan, written in Timbuktu in the 17th century, says he took 300,000 mithqals of gold (a mithqal was a unit of about 4.25 grams), gave around a third of it in alms in the holy cities, and endowed property there for pilgrims from West Africa. These figures come from a later chronicle and should be read as approximate, but they show how his journey was remembered.

The most important result was political. According to the Songhai chronicles, in Cairo or Mecca he was formally recognised as caliph’s deputy (khalifa) for the lands of Takrur, the Arabic name for Muslim West Africa. Back home, he could present himself not only as a conqueror but as a legitimate Muslim ruler, which helped him win the loyalty of the scholars and merchants of Timbuktu and Djenne.

Islam, law and government

Askia Muhammad worked closely with Muslim scholars and sought advice on how an Islamic ruler should govern. His best-known adviser by letter was Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Maghili, a North African jurist who visited West Africa. Al-Maghili’s written “Replies” to the askia’s questions survive. They discuss what made a ruler legitimate, how to treat Muslims who mixed Islam with older practices, and when war against them could be justified. The texts also argued that Sunni Ali’s rule had been illegitimate, which conveniently supported Askia Muhammad’s own claim.

The askia also corresponded with the Egyptian scholar Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti. At home he appointed qadis (Islamic judges) in the main towns, and he respected the authority of the leading scholarly families of Timbuktu. Mahmud ibn Umar Aqit, who became qadi of Timbuktu in 1498, held the post for half a century.

Under this patronage Timbuktu flourished as a centre of learning. Students gathered around teachers at the city’s mosques, including Sankore, and copied and collected manuscripts on law, theology, grammar and astronomy. The traveller Leo Africanus, who visited the Niger region around 1510, described Timbuktu’s many judges, doctors and scholars and the high value placed on books.

Askia Muhammad also reorganised the state. Songhai was divided into provinces, each under a governor appointed from the royal family or trusted officials. The two great regional commands were Kurmina in the west, given to his brother Umar Komadiakha, and Dendi in the south-east. Ministers at the court in Gao were responsible for areas such as the treasury, the river fleet, agriculture and relations with foreigners.

He is credited with creating a more permanent, professional army rather than relying only on levies raised for each campaign. This force included cavalry and a large fleet of canoes on the Niger, which moved troops and supplies along the river. Captives taken in war often worked on royal estates that fed the army and court.

Trade underpinned the empire’s wealth. Songhai controlled the southern ends of the trans-Saharan routes, where gold from mines to the south was exchanged for salt from Saharan mines such as Taghaza, as well as cloth, horses and copper from North Africa. The askia’s officials supervised markets and, according to tradition, standardised weights and measures.

Wars and expansion

Askia Muhammad spent much of his reign at war. Around 1498 he launched a campaign against the Mossi, probably of the kingdom of Yatenga, which he presented as a holy war after the Mossi ruler refused to accept Islam. An expedition against Borgu, to the south, in about 1505 ended with heavy Songhai losses.

In the west, campaigns against Diara, Galam and other lands extended Songhai power towards the upper Senegal River. In the east, he attacked the Tuareg sultanate of Agadez in the Air Mountains around 1500 and again in about 1515, placing it under tribute. The chronicles also record a campaign against the Hausa city of Katsina in about 1513-1514; how far Songhai actually controlled the Hausa states is debated.

Not every war ended well. After the Agadez campaign of about 1515, Kanta Kotal, ruler of Kebbi and one of the askia’s allies, quarrelled over the division of booty and broke away. Kebbi successfully defended its independence, and Songhai never fully controlled the lands to its east.

Decline and fall from power

In his last years Askia Muhammad was old and losing his sight, and real power slipped to his sons and officials. The Askia family was large, and rival brothers competed for position. In 1528 his son Musa, then a leading commander, rebelled and forced him from the throne.

The deposed ruler remained at Gao for a time. After further upheaval, a later askia, Muhammad Bunkan, sent him to live on an island in the Niger. His son Askia Ismail brought him back to Gao, and Askia Muhammad died there in 1538. He was buried in the Tomb of Askia, the pyramidal mud-brick monument that still stands in the city.

Myths and facts

Myth: “Askia” was a nickname meaning a usurper. The Ta’rikh al-Sudan tells a story that Sunni Ali’s daughters cried out a Songhai phrase meaning “he shall not be it” when they heard of Muhammad’s seizure of power, and that he took this as his title. Historians regard this as a popular explanation; askia was probably an existing Songhai title.

Myth: Songhai was simply a continuation of Mali. Songhai had its own language, capital and traditions. It grew out of Mali’s decline but was a separate state with its own institutions.

Fact: his reign is documented by African writers. Much of what is known comes from the Timbuktu chronicles, the Ta’rikh al-Sudan and the Ta’rikh al-Fattash, written in Arabic by West African scholars in the 17th century.

Timeline

• 1492, November: Death of Sunni Ali; his son Sunni Baru succeeds.
• 1493, April: Muhammad defeats Sunni Baru at Anfao near Gao and takes the title askia.
• c. 1496-1498: Pilgrimage to Mecca; recognised as caliph’s deputy for West Africa.
• c. 1498: Campaign against the Mossi.
• c. 1500: First expedition against Agadez in the Air Mountains.
• c. 1505: Costly campaign against Borgu.
• c. 1515-1516: Second Agadez campaign; Kanta of Kebbi breaks away.
• 1528: Askia Muhammad deposed by his son Musa.
• 1538: Death of Askia Muhammad at Gao.

Legacy

Askia Muhammad left Songhai larger, richer and more firmly Islamic than he found it. The institutions he built survived the quarrels of his descendants, and under rulers such as Askia Dawud (r. 1549-1583) the empire remained powerful. It finally fell after the Battle of Tondibi in 1591, when a Moroccan army armed with firearms defeated the Songhai forces.

His alliance with the scholars of Timbuktu helped make the city one of the great centres of Islamic learning in Africa, and the manuscript traditions it nurtured survive today. In Mali and Niger he is remembered as a national hero, and streets, schools and monuments bear his name.

Why it matters

Askia Muhammad’s reign shows that West Africa was home to large, organised states linked to the wider Islamic world by trade, pilgrimage and scholarship. His Songhai Empire was one of the largest in African history, and its story challenges older European views of a continent without history or government.