TThhee AAsskkiiaa MMoohhaammmmeedd
At the same epoch, in 1493, the Sonnidynasty was overturned at
Gao by a Sarakolle general, Mamadu or Mohammed Toure, of
the Silla group, who became invested with the sovereignty under
the title of Askia. He was the first prince of a new dynasty which
was to last a century.
The Askia Mohammed reigned from 1493 to 1529. He was a
remarkable monarch in all respects, knowing how to bring
prosperity to his States, developing there a civilisation which
aroused the admiration of Leo the African, who visited the
Songhoy under his reign, towards 1507. Indeed, he was very
well seconded by his ministers and provincial governors, notably
by his brother Amar or Omar, whom he made his kanfari, that is,
his principal lieutenant; but it is precisely in this choice of excellent
collaborators that great kings are recognised. Giving up the
system of mass levies which were practiced by the Sonni Ali the
Great and which prevented the peasants from working the fields,
he recruited a professional army among the slaves and prisoners
of war, thus leaving the farmers on their lands all year round, the
artisans at their trades and the merchants to their business.
Showing a great respect for religious personages and scholars, he
made of Gao, of Walata and especially of Timbuktu and of
Djenné intellectual centres which radiated a brilliant luster, where
the renowned writers of the Maghreb did not disdain to come to
complete their studies and sometimes to settle permanently, as did
the celebrated Ahmed-Baba. Jurisconsults of value, like the El-Akit
and the Bagayogo, the former of the white race, the latter of the
black, were educated at the schools of Timbuktu and a whole liter-
ature developed there in the 16th and 17th centuries, whose
products are being revealed to us little by little with the discovery
of very interesting works, edited in Arabic at that epoch by the
Sarakolle or Songhoy Negroes, such as the Tarikh el-fettach and
the Tarikh es-Sudan.
The askia Mohammed was in continuous relations with the
Moroccan reformer Merhili, who corresponded with him on the
Carved atal monolith (Bakor or Ekoi), 16thcentury.
Cross River, Nigeria.
Basaltic stone, height: 84 cm.
Private collection, London.