Songhay Flashcards
(18 cards)
What made Timbuktu economically and intellectually important to Songhay?
- hub for trans-Saharan trade (gold, salt, slaves)
- Islamic scholarship (Sankore University, 25,000 students, 180 Quranic schools under Askia Mohammed)
How did Timbuktu contribute to Songhay’s cultural legitimacy?
projected Islamic cultural influence, enhancing ideological authority across the Sahel
What limits Timbuktu’s importance in Songhay’s success?
reliance on broader imperial stability and leadership - Sonni Ali’s violent capture of Timbuktu in 1469 alienated Muslim scholars and merchants
How did military strength complement Timbuktu’s role?
- Sonni Ali’s army of 40000 captured Timbuktu (1469) and Djenne (1473) secured control over Trans-Saharan trade routes
- Askia Mohammed expanded empire to Taghaza salt mines & Hausa states, increasing revenue to fund Islamic institutions in Timbuktu
How did Askia Mohammed improve upon Sonni Ali’s religious policies?
- syncretism -> Islam
- 1496 Hajj to Mecca, received title “Caliph of Sudan”
- appointed qadis (Islamic judges) to enforce Sharia law
— gained respect of ulema and North African states
How did Askia M’s religious policies backfire?
- alienated non-Muslim subjects who practised their traditional religion, especially in newly conquered/rural areas
- Mossi (from the South) refused to convert, launched military raids into Songhay
What were Askia Mohammed’s key administrative reforms?
- established an efficient meritocratic bureaucracy
- ministries for Treasury, Army, Navy, Foreign Trade - Chancellor managed diplomacy and imperial law
- Sounna invested new emperors with power - linked governance to Islamic legitimacy
- built canals
- taxation system e.g. tithes on harvests
- standardised measurements, inspectors for each trading centre
How did the ulema (Islamic scholars) legitimize Askia Mohammed’s rule?
- Sharif of Mecca granted him title “Caliph of Sudan” during his Hajj to Mecca (1496) - recognising AM as spiritual leader of West African Muslims
- appointed qadis (Islamic judges), made Timbuktu the centre of Islamic legal training
What was the ulema’s role in governance under Askia Mohammed?
- enforced Sharia law, especially in urban centres like Timbuktu, Gao & Djenne
- Islamic judges (qadis) such as Mahmud Kati
- advised the court, giving religious legitimacy to imperial decisions
- strengthened diplomacy with Islamic states in North Africa
What were the limits to the ulema’s importance?
power depended on military and economic strength:
- capture of cities like Timbuktu and Taghaza, whose prosperity enabled the patronage of scholars
- trade revenue and taxation funded Islamic institutions - ulema was only powerful during wealthy and stable empire
How did Sonni Ali contribute to Songhay’s rise?
- capture of Timbuktu in 1469 - centre of Islamic scholarship and trade
- capture of Djenne in 1473 - commercial hub
- secured access to ports along Niger River for trade
- river navy led by Hi-Koi
- defeated Mossi & Fulani (border security)
What were Sonni Ali’s main administrative reforms?
- divided into 8 provinces, each with govenors (farma) who enforced SA’s influence - leading families made loyal when made govenors
- ruled from Gao with help from a military council (Sounna)
- key roles e.g. tax overseer, governor of Djenne
- trade concessions to Portuguese to prevent alliances with the Mandinka - diplomatic & commercial advantage
What were the issues of Sonni Ali’s rule?
Religious syncretism and brutality alienated Islamic scholars and traders - 1469 sack of Timbuktu caused a brain drain
What other factors contributed to the rise of the Songhay Empire besides Sonni Ali’s leadership?
- decline of the Mali Empire in 1400s, allowed Songhai to expand westwards
- early Sonni rulers like Sonni Mohamed Da’o and Sonni Madawu launched attacks on Mali territory and incorporated tributary peoples like the Bambara and Fula.
-sacking of Niani and destruction of Mema (c. 1460) showed Mali’s declining control - Niger River bend, enabling riverine trade
- use of Sorko boatmen in military campaigns
- irrigation and agriculture
- positioned just south of the Sahara Desert, ideal for controlling trans-Saharan trade routes.
How did the Askia dynasty enhance learning in Timbuktu?
- rebuilt Sankore University (25000 students)
- supported scholars e.g. Ahmed Baba
- appointed qadis, turning Timbuktu into a centre of legal scholarship
Why is Timbuktu’s scholarship seen as the Askia dynasty’s most lasting legacy?
- Ahmed Baba authored more than 80 books, helped found manuscript libraries to preserve African-Islamic intellectual heritage
- Sankore University taught Greek philosophy and Islamic law
What were the limits of scholarship?
- literacy confined to the urban elite e.g. the ulama and merchant class
- overexpansion of empire & succession crises post-Askia Mohammed
–> Askia Mohammed deposed by his son Askia Musa, leading to internal power struggles - imperial patronage of scholars declined
- worsened after 1591 Moroccan invasion
How did Mali’s adoption of Islam influence its political and cultural legacy, and how does this compare to Songhay?
- Mansa Musa’s Hajj in 1324, built mosques, invited Islamic scholars
- BUT Islam not fully integrated into Mali’s bureaucracy, no role for ulema in governance
symbolic & diplomatic in Mali vs institutionalised Islam in Songhay under Askias
