Horse-mounted warrior holding a
spear and clothed in armor. “The black chiefs . . . were habited in
coats of mail composed of iron chain which covered them from the throat
to the knees . . . their horses’ heads were also defended by plates of
iron, brass, and silver….”
Overview
The Songhai tribe apparently began about 670 C.E. along the eastern banks of the Niger River, where they established the two main population centers of Gao and Koukia. The leading family and their line ruled the Songhai into the 1300s. In 1005, the current king, Kossi, converted to Islam; about the same time, Gao became the capital city and the Songhai became a vassal to Mali. When Mali’s Emperor Mansa Musa made his famous pilgrimage to Mecca in the 1320s, his return trip brought him through Gao, where he took two royal sons back to his capital as hostages. One of the boys escaped and returned to Songhai in 1335, taking the name Sonni, or savior. He established a new dynasty and began the resistance to Mali that ultimately brought independence for his people.
The rise of the Sonni dynasty coincided with the decline of Mali. When Mali’s power slipped away in the late 1300s, the Songhay threw off their vassalage, but did not come into their own until the latter half of the 1400s. King Sonni Ali, the greatest ruler of his dynasty, brought Songhay to imperial power. He captured Timbuktu from the nomads in 1468 and invaded Mali’s old empire with a strong military force based on a river fleet operating on the Niger. The major trading center of Jenne fell to Songhay forces in 74 1473, but little inland progress was made against the remains of Mali’s people. Not until 1492, when Sonni Ali died, did Songhay troops make inroads into Mali’s countryside. Under the leadership of Askia Muhammad al-Turi, founder of a new dynasty, an improved infantry became strong enough to break away from the river fleet and strike inland. Askia Muhammad drove along the northern frontier of the old empire, defeating the last of Mali’s leaders and gaining vassals for himself. He dominated the old Ghanian empire and took control of the gold trade that had made the area rich and famous. Though kings of Mali remained in control of factions deep in the rugged countryside, they ultimately surrendered to reality and recognized Songhai's control, paying them tribute. After Askia Muhammad was overthrown by his son in 1528, a series of dynastic struggles ensued. Ultimately, his grandsons Ishaq and Dawud ruled successfully from the 1530s to the 1580s.
The Askia dynasty embraced Islam much more strongly than did the Sonnis. Askia Muhammad imported Muslim scholars to Gao, Timbuktu, and Jenne, and he continued to maintain Timbuktu as the intellectual center of western Africa. He used the vast wealth of the empire to support Muslim clerics and build mosques, but the majority of the peoples he dominated remained loyal to their local gods. Under Askia Dawud, the Songhay Empire reached its intellectual and economic zenith. Trade across the Sahara became of greater importance than ever before, and Dawud supported the arts and sciences with royal patronage.
The Songhay ultimately fell to invaders from the north. After fighting upstart tribes in the southern part of the empire as well as sending forces to engage Berbers in Morocco, the empire was defeated by Moroccans with firearms. The empire broke up quickly in the wake of this defeat in 1591. In a matter of just a few years, the Songhay were reduced to their original holdings around Gao.
Millitary
Songhay conducted a draft and organized a professional army. The army–mostly made of slave battalions–lived in barracks separated from the civilian population. Mahnud Ka’ti wrote, “the great men of the Songhay were versed in the art of war. They were very brave, very bold and most expert in the deployment of military stratagems.” By 1591 the army totaled 40,000 (30,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry). Songhay warriors wore iron breastplates beneath their battle tunics, had lances, sabers and arrows with poisoned tips, and the infantry used leather and copper shields. The cavalry, like Mali, were the army’s elite unit. The army sounded long trumpets during battles.
Tradition and Trade
The majority of the Songhai people did not convert to Islam, about 97% kept their traditional religions. Some aspects of traditional religion were preserved, including the sacred drum, the sacred fire, and the old types of costume and hairstyle. As in Mali, there was a privileged caste of craftsmen, and slave labour played an important role in agriculture. Trade improved under Mohammed Ture Askiya, with gold, kola nuts and slaves being the main export. Textiles, horses, salt and luxury goods were the main imports. In 1510 and 1513, The writer and traveler Leo Africanus visited Gao, the capital of Songhai. He was amazed at the wealth of the ruling class:
“The houses there are very poor, except for those of the king and his courtiers. The merchants are exceedingly rich and large numbers of "Negroes" continually come here to buy cloth brought from Barbarie (Morocco) and Europe…
Here there is a certain place where slaves are sold, especially on those days when the merchants are assembled. And a young slave of fifteen years of age is sold for six ducats, and children are also sold. The king of this region has a certain private palace where he maintains a great number of concubines and slaves.”
Leo Africanus’s visit to Timbuktu causes him to remark on the intellectual and professional classes.
“Here there are many doctors, judges, priests and other learned men, that are well maintained at the king’s cost. Various manuscripts and written books are brought here out of Barbarie and sold for more money than any other merchandise.
The coin of Timbuktu is of gold without any stamp or superscription, but in matters of small value, they use certain shells brought here from Persia, four hundred of which are worth a ducat and six pieces of their own gold coin, each of which weighs two-thirds of an ounce.”
FALL OF SONGHAI
In the late 16th century Songhay slid into civil war. Echoing the fates of Ghana, Mali and Kanem. The wealth and power of Songhay was also undermined by environmental change, causing droughts and diseases. But Songhay might have survived all this. The decisive factor in its downfall was the determination of the Moroccans to control the sub-Saharan gold trade.
Unfortunately for Songhay it was to be its very size that would lead to its downfall. A vastly spread empire, it encompassed more territory than could actually be controlled. After the reign of Askia Duad, subject peoples began to revolt. Even Songhay’s massive army, said to be over 35,000 soldiers, archers and cavalry, could not keep order. The first major region to declare independence was Hausaland; then much of the Maghreb (Morocco) rebelled and gained control over crucial gold mines. The Moroccans defeated Songhay in 1591 and the empire quickly collapsed. In 1612, the cities of Songhay fell into general disarray and one the greatest empires of African history disappeared from the world stage forever. Not since this time, has any African nation rose to prominence and wealth as did mighty Songhay.
Morocco won the war but lost the peace. The Sultans of Morocco eventually lost interest. The Moroccan garrison stayed but took to freelance looting and pillaging. The old empire split up, with the Bambara kingdom of Segu emerging as an important new force.
Ahmad al-Mansur and the Songhay Campaign
Ahmad al-Mansur (1549-1603) was an important figure in both Europe and Africa in the sixteenth century, his powerful army and strategic location made him an important power player in the late renaissance period. He was also the Muslim hero of one of most memorable battles in the centuries-long struggle between Christians and Muslims. Becoming ruler of Morocco after his elder brother Abd al-Malik died in the Battle of Alcazar or Wadi al-Makhazin, which occurred in 1578 and would once and for all end Portugal’s domination in Morocco. Alcazar is remembered as one of the famous battles in the long struggle between the two faiths.
Ahmad al-Mansur was suddenly a national hero, the living representation of Morocco’s strength and pride. The door for his reign opened and he charged through. He began by leveraging his dominant position with the vanquished Portuguese during prisoner ransom talks, the collection of which filled the Moroccan royal coffers. Shortly after, he began construction on the great architectural symbol of this new birth of Moroccan power and relevance; the grand palace in Marrakesh called al-Badi, or “the marvellous.”
Eventually the coffers began to run dry due to the great expense of supporting the military, extensive spy services, the palace and other urban building projects, a royal lifestyle and a propaganda campaign aimed at building support for his controversial claim to the Caliphate. In reality, Morocco’s standing with the Christian states was still in flux. The Spaniards and the Portuguese were still popularly seen as the infidel, but al-Mansur knew that the only way his regime would survive was to continue to benefit from alliances with the Christian economic powers. To do that Morocco had to control sizable gold resources of its own. Accordingly, al-Mansur was drawn irresistibly to the trans-Saharan gold trade of the Songhay in hopes of solving Morocco’s economic deficit with Europe.
The Songhay, was a pre-colonial African state centered in eastern Mali. From the early 15th to the late 16th century, it was one of the largest African empires in history. Its base of power was on the bend of the Niger River in present-day Niger and Burkina Faso. At its greatest extent (c. 1498), the Songhay sphere of power reached far down the Niger river into modern day Nigeria, all the way to the Northeast of modern day Mali, and even to a small part of the Atlantic coast in the West. Songhay trans-Saharan trade consisted primarily of gold, salt, and slaves.
It is pretty clear that al-Mansur’s designs in the Songhay campaign were economic, but he had other considerations as well. At home he sought support from powerful religious leaders by accusing the Songhay of being lax in their practice of Islam and thus a target for proper moral purification. He also sold the action domestically as being a vital step in establishing an African Caliphate. Geo-politically al-Mansur claimed his interests within the region were strictly part of a defensive jihad to halt further Ottoman expansion. The Sa’di ruler could point to the increasingly provocative Ottomans operating next door in Algeria to make his case for taking Songhay in order to create a buffer zone on Morocco’s southern flank.
At the time of al-Mansur’s incursion, a civil war over succession had weakened the Songhay power structure. Al-Mansur dispatched an invasion force under the leadership of Judar Pasha (a Spaniard by birth, who had been captured as a baby and educated at the Moroccan court). In 1591, after a cross-Saharan march, al-Mansur’s army appeared on the Niger. Though confronted by a much larger Songhay force, the firearms of the Moroccans won the day at the Battle of Tondibi. The cities of Gao and Timbuktu on the Sudanese trade route were captured, thus providing needed gold revenue to the central treasury.
However, as has often happened to victorious armies in unfamiliar lands, the Moroccan occupation force had great difficulty stabilizing and maintaining its power over the Songhay. Governing such a vast empire across such long distances proved too much for them. The occupation would continue to drain away blood and treasury as the situation deteriorated and they soon relinquished control of the region, letting it splinter into dozens of smaller kingdoms. The Sa’dis lost final control of the cities shortly after the death of Ahmad al-Mansur in 1603. The taking of the Songhay territories had been a strategic gamble for Ahmad al-Mansur, one that had not paid off in the long-run.
In short, through masterfully astute diplomacy, sometimes reminiscent of Machiavelli, al-Mansur resisted the demands of his nominal ruler, the Ottoman sultan, to preserve Moroccan independence. By playing the Europeans and Turks against one another al-Mansur excelled in the art of “balance of power” diplomacy. Eventually though he repeated the age-old error, he spent far more than he collected. To fix the problem, like many he attempted to expand his holdings through conquest. And though initially successful in their military campaign against the Songhay Empire, the Moroccans found it increasingly difficult to maintain control over the conquered locals as time went on. Meanwhile, as the Moroccans continued to struggle in the Songhay, their power and prestige on the world stage declined significantly. By the time of his death al-Mansur, who was a contemporary of Galileo and Shakespeare*, had lost not only most of the Songhay but his reputation and legacy was also reduced. In fact, the memory of the great Gen eral who was victorious at Alcazar and who built the greatest palace in Morocco has faded largely from view.
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