Askia Muhammad Rules Songhai
In 1493, Muhammad Ture, a general of the Songhai Empire, seized power from Sunni Baru, the son of the great conqueror Sunni Ali, and founded the Askia dynasty. Taking the title askia, he ruled until 1528 and turned a sprawling military state in the West African Sahel into a more organized, Islamic-oriented empire. Many historians regard him as the most important ruler in Songhai history, and his reign marked the empire's height.
Songhai had risen in the decades before. Centered on the middle Niger River around Gao, it had thrown off the domination of the declining Mali Empire, and under Sunni Ali (r. c. 1464-1492) it captured the trading cities of Timbuktu and Djenné. Sunni Ali was a formidable commander, but Muslim scholars, especially in Timbuktu, remembered him harshly. They accused him of persecuting them and of favoring traditional religious practice. This tradition comes largely from sources written by their successors, so it may be biased, but it helps explain why Muhammad Ture found support among Muslim elites when he challenged Sunni Baru.
Once in power, Askia Muhammad worked to build institutions that could hold together a large, diverse realm. He divided the empire into provinces under appointed governors, many of them drawn from his own circle, and created a more regular administration with specialized officials. Later chronicles, including the Timbuktu-based Tarikh al-Sudan, credit him with introducing standardized weights and measures to support trade, and with supervising markets. Because those chronicles were written well after his death, the details are best treated with caution, but the emphasis on commercial order fits the empire's dependence on trans-Saharan commerce in gold, salt, and other goods.
Religion was central to his image. In about 1496-1497 he made the pilgrimage to Mecca, traveling with a large entourage and, according to tradition, distributing generous gifts. In Cairo he reportedly received recognition as caliph of the "land of Takrur," a title that boosted his prestige. He patronized Muslim scholars, judges, and teachers, and Timbuktu's mosques and schools, including the circle around the Sankore mosque, flourished as centers of learning in law, theology, and other subjects. He also waged campaigns of expansion, extending Songhai power west toward Mali's old territories and east and north into Saharan trade zones.
His later years were troubled. Old and reportedly blind, he was deposed in 1528 by his son Askia Musa, beginning a period of succession conflicts among his descendants. Even so, the Askia dynasty endured until 1591, when a Moroccan army equipped with firearms defeated Songhai at the Battle of Tondibi. Askia Muhammad is remembered for linking political power with scholarship and trade, and his tomb in Gao, built in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, remains a monument to that legacy.