Early inhabitants In ancient times, somewhere between the 9th and 3rd centuries BCE, several different groups of people collectively formed the Songhai identity, centered around the developing hub of ancient
Kukiya. Among the first people to settle in the region of
Gao were the Sorko people, who established small settlements on the banks of the
Niger River. The Sorko fashioned boats and canoes from the wood of the
cailcedrat tree, fished and hunted from their ships, and provided water-borne transport for goods and people. Another group of people that moved into the area to live off of Niger's resources were the Gao people. The Gao were hunters and specialized in hunting river animals such as crocodiles and hippopotamus. The other group known to have inhabited the area were the Do people, talented farmers who raised crops in the fertile lands bordering the river. Before the 10th century, these early settlers were subjugated by more powerful, horse-riding Songhai speakers, who established control over the area. All these groups gradually began to speak the same language, and they and their country eventually became known as the Songhai. What happened to the Zuwa rulers is yet to be recorded. The
Sanhaja tribes were among the early people of the Niger Bend region. These tribes rode out of the
Sahara Desert and established trading settlements near the Niger. As time passed,
North African traders crossed the Sahara and joined the Tuaregs in their settlements. Both groups conducted business with the people living near the river. As trade in the region increased, the Songhai chiefs took control of the profitable trade around what would later become Gao. Trade goods included gold, salt, slaves,
kola nuts, leather,
dates, and
ivory. By the 10th century, the Songhai chiefs had established Gao as a small kingdom, taking control of the people living along the trade routes. Around 1300, Gao had become prosperous enough to attract the
Mali Empire's attention. Mali conquered the city, profited from Gao's trade, and collected taxes from its kings until about the 1430s. Conflict in the Malian homeland made it impossible to maintain control of Gao. Another round of dynastic instability in the 1380s and 90s likely allowed the Songhai to formalize their independence under
Sunni Muhammad Dao. In the 1460s, Sonni Sulayman Dama attacked
Méma, the Mali province west of Timbuktu. During his campaigns for expansion, Ali conquered several territories, repelling attacks from the
Mossi to the south and conquering the
Dogon people to the north. He annexed Timbuktu in 1468 after the leaders of the town asked him to help overthrow the Tuaregs, who had taken the city following the decline of Mali. When he attempted to conquer the trading town of
Djenné, the townspeople resisted his efforts. After a seven-year siege, he was able to starve them into surrender, incorporating the town into his empire in 1473. The invasion of Sonni Ali and his forces negatively impacted Timbuktu. Many Muslim accounts described him as a tyrant, including the
Tarikh al-fattash, written by Songhai scholar
Mahmud Kati (1468-1593). According to
The Cambridge History of Africa, the Islamic historian Al-Sa'di expresses this sentiment in describing his incursion on Timbuktu: , with Arabic writings about mathematics and astronomy Sonni Ali created a policy against the scholars of Timbuktu, especially those of the Sankore region who were associated with the Tuareg. With his control of critical trade routes and cities such as Timbuktu, Sonni Ali increased the wealth of the Songhai Empire, which at its height would surpass the wealth of Mali.
Askia the Great in
Gao Sonni Ali was succeeded by
Askia the Great. He organized the territories his predecessor conquered and extended his power to the south and the east. Under his rule, the Songhai military possessed a full-time corps of warriors. Askia is said to have cynical attitudes towards kingdoms lacking professional fighting forces. Al-Sa'di, the chronicler who wrote the
Tarikh al-Sudan, compared Askiya's army to that of his predecessor: "he distinguished between the civilian and the army unlike Sunni Ali [1464–92] when everyone was a soldier." He opened religious schools, constructed
mosques, and opened his court to scholars and poets from throughout the Muslim world. His children went to an Islamic school, and he enforced Islamic practices but did not force religion on his people. Askia completed one of the
Five Pillars of Islam by taking a
hajj to Mecca, bringing a large amount of gold. He donated some of it to charity and spent the rest on gifts for the people of Mecca to display his empire's wealth. Historians from Cairo said his pilgrimage consisted of "an escort of 500 cavalry and 1000 infantry, and with him he carried 300,000 pieces of gold". Askia initiated multiple military campaigns, including declaring
Jihad against the neighbouring Mossi. He did not force them to convert to Islam after subduing them. His army consisted of war canoes, a cavalry, protective armour, iron-tipped weapons, and an organized militia. He centralized the administration of the empire and established a bureaucracy responsible for tax collection and the administration of justice. He demanded the building of canals to enhance agriculture, eventually increasing trade. He introduced a system of
weights and measures and appointed an inspector for each of Songhai's major trading centres. During his reign, Islam became more entrenched,
trans-Saharan trade flourished, and the salt mines of
Taghaza were brought within the empire's boundaries.
Decline and Saadian Invasion In 1528, Askia's children revolted against him, declaring his son
Askia Musa king. Following Musa's overthrow in 1531, the Songhai Empire went into decline. Following the death of Emperor
Askia Daoud in 1583, a
war of succession weakened the Songhai Empire and split it into two feuding factions. During this period, Moroccan armies annihilated a Portuguese invasion at the
Battle of Alcácer Quibir, but were left on the verge of economic depletion and bankruptcy, as they needed to pay for the defences used to hold off the siege. This led
Sultan Ahmad I al-Mansur of the
Saadi dynasty in 1591 to dispatch an invasion force south under the eunuch
Judar Pasha. The Moroccan invasion of Songhai was mainly to seize and revive the trans-Saharan trade in salt, gold and slaves for their developing sugar industry. During Askia's reign, the Songhai military consisted of full-time soldiers, but the king never modernized his army. On the other hand, the invading Moroccan army included thousands of
arquebusiers and eight English cannons. Judar Pasha was a Spaniard by birth but had been captured as an infant and educated at the Saadi court. After a march across the Sahara desert, Judar's forces captured, plundered, and razed the salt mines at Taghaza and moved on to Gao. When Emperor
Askia Ishaq II (r. 1588–1591) met Judar at the 1591
Battle of Tondibi, Songhai forces, despite vastly superior numbers, were routed by a cattle stampede triggered by the Saadi's gunpowder weapons. Judar proceeded to sack Gao, Timbuktu and Djenné, destroying the Songhai as a regional power. Governing so vast an empire proved too much for the
Saadi dynasty. They soon relinquished control of the region, letting it splinter into dozens of smaller kingdoms. After the empire's defeat, the nobles moved south to an area known today as
Songhai in current
Niger, where the Sonni dynasty had already settled. They formed smaller kingdoms such as
Wanzarbe,
Ayerou,
Gothèye,
Dargol,
Téra,
Sikié,
Kokorou,
Gorouol,
Karma,
Namaro and further south, the
Dendi which rose to prominence shortly after. ==Organization==