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The Songhai Empire was a state located in the western part of the Sahel during the 15th and 16th centuries. At its peak, it was one of the largest African empires in history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its largest ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai people.
The Tomb of Askia, a 17-meter pyramidal structure built by Askia Mohamed in 1495 in Gao, symbolizes the Songhai Empire's power and wealth from the 15th to 16th centuries. It exemplifies West African Sahel's monumental mud-building traditions, featuring two flat-roofed mosque buildings, the mosque cemetery, and an open-air assembly ground.
The Songhay Empire grew out of a polity that was formed in this region of present-day Niger. This polity flourished in present-day Mali and replaced the Mali Empire as the major West Sudanese power with its capital as Gao. After being vanquished by incursions from Morocco, the Songhay state withdrew to its original homeland which is this region.
There were many kingdoms and empires in all regions of the continent of Africa throughout history. A kingdom is a state with a king or queen as its head. [1] An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant centre and subordinate peripheries".
The Songhai Empire, c. 1500. The Songhai people are descended from fishermen on the Middle Niger River. They established their capital at Kukiya in the 9th century AD and at Gao in the 12th century. The Songhai speak a Nilo-Saharan language. [122] Sonni Ali, a Songhai, began his conquest by capturing Timbuktu in 1468 from the Tuareg.
Extent of the Songhai Empire. Askia Muhammad Ture I (1443–1538), born Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Turi [a] or Muhammad Ture, was the first ruler of the Askia dynasty of the Songhai Empire, reigning from 1493 to 1528. He is also known as Askia the Great, and his name in modern Songhai is Mamar Kassey.
Egyptian Empire. In 2002, the journal Nature published a game-changing report that revealed an incredible economic disparity in ancient Egypt. The vast majority of ancient Egyptians, it turns out ...
The Songhai Empire, c. 1500. Trade was the key to the emergence of organized communities in the savanna portions of Nigeria. Prehistoric inhabitants adjusting to the encroaching desert were widely scattered by the third millennium BC, when the desiccation of the Sahara began.