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The Songhai people (autonym: Ayneha) are an ethnolinguistic group in West Africa who speak the various Songhai languages.Their history and lingua franca is linked to the Songhai Empire which dominated the western Sahel in the 15th and 16th century.
According to oral history, the Songhai nobles came to be known as "Songhai" during the reign of Sonni Ali Ber. The name was coined from his name to form a tribal name for the ruling caste. The main factions of the Songhai are the "Si Hamey" and the "Mamar Hamey".
Aside from the Songhai proper, some speakers in Mali have also adopted the name Songhay as an ethnic designation, [9] while other Songhay-speaking groups identify themselves with other ethnic terms, such as Zarma (Djerma) or Isawaghen (Sawaq). A few precolonial poems and letters composed in Songhay and written in the Arabic script exist in ...
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 title Askia [b] (Arabic: اسكيا) is of unknown origin, [10] but had been in use since the early 13th century, if not earlier. [11] It may derive from an arabic word for 'general.' [12]: 253 The Tarikh al-Sudan provides a folk etymology for the title, claiming that Askia Muhammad invented the title himself based on the lament of Sonni Ali's daughters when they had learned he had seized ...
The Songhai (also Songhay, Songhaytarey (, [soŋhajtaraj])) is an area in the northwestern corner of Niger's Tillabéri Region populated mainly by the Songhaiborai. [1] It is considered the heartland of the Songhai people and the sanctuary of their ancient pantheon and priestly class and the place in which the original lineage of the Sonni dynasty retreated after the coup d'etat of 1493 ...
The Zā dynasty (also rendered Dya, Zuwā, Zu’a, Juwā, Jā’, Yā, Diā, and Diu’a, sometimes equated with the Zaghe) were rulers of the Gao Empire based in the towns of Kukiya and Gao on the Niger River in what is today modern Mali; and rulers of the Songhai Empire through Sunni Ali, son of Za Yasibaya (Yasiboi), who established the Sonni Dynasty.
The main ethnic groups in Dendi are the Tyenga, Zarma, Songhai proper, Hausa people, Bariba and the Fulbe. In the pre-colonial era, the Songhai, who migrated from the fallen Songhai empire, held political rule while the Tyenga, who had been the older residents, mainly derived their power from their practice of Bori (a pre-Islamic traditional cult).