Sudanic Empires 107his metaphysical knowledge far excelled the pedagogical
knowledge of Muslim scholars. He had many of the Mus-
lim clerics killed, and upon his death, civil war broke out
between the Dia dynasty and the Muslims.
Muhammad Toure, who was Sunni Ali’s close confi -
dante, protégé, and lieutenant of the Hombori region, re-
vered the emperor like a father but was disturbed by his
persecution of the Muslim scholars and eventually broke
ties with him. Upon Sunni Ali’s death, Muhammad Toure
seized power and started a new dynasty of Askias that lasted
100 years. A devout Muslim, brilliant militarist and politi-
cian, Askia Muhammad was an enlightened emperor who
carefully supervised the administration of the empire in
an eff ort to root out corruption; he introduced an accurate
system of weights and measurements, increased market
inspectors, and encouraged fair trade that brought great
wealth to the empire. Extending Sunni Ali’s territorial ac-
quisitions on all frontiers, he annexed Macina, Zara, and
Agades, controlled the Sahara as far north as the salt mines
of Teghazza, and conquered the prosperous Hausa towns
of Kano, Katsina, and Zaria. Th e national council and ju-
diciary system were reorganized and government offi cials
were replaced with Askia Muhammad’s supporters, but he
continued to build Songhai around the centralized, bureau-
cratic system instituted by Sunni Ali. Songhai reached a
peak of intellectual and religious activity under the Askia
dynasty and came to an abrupt end with the sacking of
Songhai by the Moroccans in 1591.
See also: Ghana; Mali; Sahel; Senegambia; Songhai; Trans-
Saharan Slave TradeNubia KaiBibliography
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Gomez, Michael Angelo. Reversing Sail: A History of the African
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Levtzion, Nehemiah. Ancient Ghana and Mali. London: Methuen,
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Levtzion, Nehemiah, and J. F. P. Hopkins, eds. Corpus of Early Ara-
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the Twelft h to the Sixteenth Century. London: UNESCO-
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G. D. Pickett. London: Longman Group, 1965.
Sertima, Ivan Van. Th ey Came before Columbus. New York: Ran-
dom House, 1976.through his construction of towns, schools, dykes, canals,
markets, and trading centers. He forced the Tuaregs back
to the northern Sahel and led attacks against the Mossi,
Dogon, and Bariba. At the time of his ill-fated death in
1492, Sunni Ali had gained control of the vast empire of
Songhai that extended from Dendi to Macina along the
Niger Bend and surpassed Mali in territorial acquisitions,
economic affl uence, and political authority. Mali persisted
alongside Songhai until the end of the 16th century, mainly
because the western Mandenka’s profi table trade with the
Europeans fi nanced the empire’s operations, but it was no
longer the dominant power of the Sahel.
Completing the imperial concatenation of the three
great West Sudanic empires, Songhai’s Dia dynasty devel-
oped in the royal court of Mali in the same way the Mande
had developed in the womb of Ghana, and within this con-
textual space they unravel like a historical trilogy. Sunni
Ali Ber organized the empire on the Ghana-Mande model,
establishing new provinces called koi that were the equiva-
lent of the Mandenka farin and appointing qadis (judges,
nobility) to the predominately Muslim towns, but instead of
adopting the loose-knit Mande federational system, Song-
hai centralized the imperial political structure, making
each koi directly responsible to the monarchal authorities at
Gao. Songhai’s political economy with its complex hierar-
chal structure and absolute central authority had a modern
appearance and represented a break with the confederated
states of the former Sudanic empires.
From the 11th century onward when Islam signifi cantly
penetrated the region, the Songhai dynasties were persuaded
to construct their government on the legal structure of an Is-
lamic theocracy. When a king or emperor was inaugurated,
he was given a signet ring, a sword, and a copy of the Qur’an,
symbolizing the spiritual ethical constitution on which the
laws of the empire are allegedly based. Songhai had a dis-
tinctly Sahelian Islamic fl avor and offi cially required that
every head of state must profess the Muslim religion. Sunni
Ali inherited the faith of his foreparents but had little loyalty
to the orthodoxy and narrow interpretation of the Muslim
clerics, openly practicing the esoteric tradition and mystical
sciences for which the Shi/So were famous.
Ali’s insistence on practicing the occult traditions
brought him into deep ideological confl ict with the Mus-
lim intelligentsia and jurists of Timbuktu. Refusing to be
a pawn of the Muslim jurists, Sunni Ali declared himself
the premier and absolute priest of the land who believed