Europeans have long believed that "there has never been a civilized nation with a skin other than white". And they couldn't have been more wrong. The history of Africa knows empires that were on par with the great European kingdoms. And one of them was a real world power.
The Western world learned about the existence of the Songhai empire only in the middle of the 19th century, thanks to the German traveler Heinrich Barth. He participated in the British government-funded expedition that set out from Tripoli to Lake Chad in the early 1850s.
When the leader of the expedition, James Richardson, decided to stop for a longer vacation in the Aïr highlands in the southern part of the Sahara, Barth decided to explore the city of Agadez. There he first heard about Songhai. Soon he was able to obtain a chronicle of the history of the empire by Ahmed Baba. As he wrote in his journal, he found evidence of "great power in bygone times".
The efforts of successive generations of researchers have confirmed that this sentence was not exaggerated at all. We still know much less about this extraordinary country than we would like. What has been discovered, however, completely revolutionized thinking about African history; a continent "without history". And it makes you wonder if it was really Europe that was the center of the civilized world in the 15th century?
The greatest African empire
Songhaj was not the first great state in West Africa. Although the kingdom with its capital in Gao already existed in the first millennium AD, it did not become truly powerful until the 15th century. By this time, two great regional empires, Ghana and Mali, had already collapsed. At the expense of the latter, Songhaj grew stronger since the end of the 14th century. Then, when its rulers finally managed to free themselves from Malian domination, imposed about a hundred years earlier.
Heinrich Barth was the first to thoroughly research and describe the Songhaj. A painting by Martin Bernatz of Barth on his way to Timbuktu, one of the cities of the empire.
The reign of Sunni Ali is considered to be the beginning of the imperial Songhai era. This energetic king and talented strategist conquered Timbuktu in 1469, one of the most important commercial and cultural centers in the region.
It must be admitted that, at this stage, nothing was yet to predict the emergence of the most impressive power in the history of West Africa. Sunni Ali himself did not go down well in the history of the conquered center. Some of the scholars living in the city simply fled from him. "Sunni Ali entered Timbuktu in January 1469," wrote the 17th-century chronicler Es-Sadi, "and committed many injustices, burned and destroyed the city, and killed many people in it."
However, it does not change the fact that it is this king, as Charlie English emphasizes in his latest historical report " Smugglers of books from Timbuktu "," Turned the kingdom of Songhai into a mighty empire. " In the following years, he conquered another important city, Djenné. Then a third metropolis, Walata, fell under the rule of the Songhai monarchs. Perhaps Sunni Ali also won it; perhaps it was already the work of his successors. Regardless of when the empire builder died in 1492, he left his successors vast territory, the first force in the region.
The heyday of Songhai falls under the rule of the rulers of the next dynasty. Sunni Ali's son held the throne for less than a year before being dethroned by one of his father's governors, Muhammad Ibn Abi Bakr at-Turi. The latter was crowned in 1493, taking the title of "askii", given to the Songhai rulers over the next century. As Charlie English writes in " The book smugglers of Timbuktu ”, This is how the chroniclers from Timbuktu remembered the new monarch:
As-Sadi could not boast of Askii al-Hajj Muhammad or of Askia the Great as he was supposed to go down in history. He founded the Askia dynasty, and his predecessor's conquests laid the foundation for him to make Songhai the greatest empire in West African history.
It stretched from the Senegal River in the west to Agadez in the east, and from the Taghaz salt mines in the north to Borgou in the south, occupying an area the size of Western Europe . The rule of the Askia dynasty was to last one hundred and one years, until the Sultan of Marrakesh sent an army across the desert to take over the Songhai lands.
A modern state that Europe had no idea about
Askia the Great, if the chroniclers are to be believed, did rule in a completely different way than his predecessor. This is perfectly demonstrated by the relationship between the ruler and the Timbuktu scholars. It can be said that he beat the Islamic sages with their own weapons. The monarch, otherwise a believer, went in 1497 on a two-year pilgrimage to Mecca, from where he returned as a caliph.
With this title, as regional historian Roland Oliver notes, the monarch "became the recognized head of the community of believers in western Sudan, including the scholars of Timbuktu." In this way, he dragged the previously persecuted group of society into the imperial system and even won their support. The chronicler Es-Sadi also points to this change:
Through him, the Most High God alleviated the misfortunes of Muslims and softened their torment. He sought to establish an Islamic community and improve its fortunes. He befriended scholars and sought their advice on the nominations and dismissals he made.
Little is known about the origin of Ashia the Great, the greatest ruler of the Songhai. He was certainly one of the chiefs of the previous king's army and gained power by force by defeating his son. When he took the throne, he embarked on a program of profound reforms. The photo shows Askia's grave.
Muslim scholars did endorse many of the king's reforms. He repaid them by supporting Islam. He wanted to make this religion an empire's bonding factor that would prevail over traditional local beliefs.
The ruler's obedience and internal security were also ensured by the modernized management system. An important reform, described in the manuscripts, was the establishment of the first professional military in West Africa. While under Sunni Ali "everyone was a soldier", under Askii the army split from the civilian population. In addition, the monarch significantly developed the administration found in his areas. In very flattering words, the solutions adopted by him were characterized at the beginning of the 20th century by the British journalist, Flora Shaw:
[Askia the Great] immediately put special effort into the administrative organization of the empire, and a similar system to the one that partially adapted and partially developed (...) can be found closest in our own early administration in India.
The native rulers still held high positions and were quasi-independent, and it seems that in some cases they could even be allowed to enlist troops if, of course, they provided regular contingents to the army imperial. But [besides] the representatives of the Songhai held supreme power in all parts of the empire, dominating the local rulers.
The Songhaj family at the beginning of the 16th century.
Shaw's praise does not end there. Among the achievements of the king, he mentions, inter alia, reforms of the army and the church, and the adjustment of management to "the vastly diverse peoples over whom he ruled." During his time, trade developed significantly, the system of measures and weights was unified, the operation of banks and loans was improved, and even the way of resolving local disputes was improved. Askia appointed Muslim judges in smaller cities. Previously, the quarreling parties could count, at best, on the services of local scribes or conciliators.
Security, prosperity and… bibliophilia
The reports of the delighted journalist discovered in the chronicles of the empire are certainly somewhat exaggerated. There is no doubt, however, that the rule of Asia ushered in a nearly 100-year period of wealth and relative peace that led the African state to flourish . "Songhai appears to have been economically prosperous, at least during the reign of Ashia Muhammad," even recounts Roland Oliver, with moderate judgment, "[Arab traveler and geographer] Leo of Africa reported abundant supplies of food that was produced in the southern savannah and delivered to Timbuktu via Niger ”.
Indeed, the cities in particular benefited from the stable rule of successive askias. Their importance as trading centers grew. Songhaj traded in gold, salt, ivory and other luxury goods. He also exported a large number of slaves every year. Mainly, horses, weapons, valuable fabrics, metal products and… books were imported.
Moreover, Shaw adds, the cities of the empire were eagerly visited because of their security. "It is said that the markets were so fair that a child could go to the market and it would bring goods of a value equal to what it was shipped with," he says. An equally enthusiastic opinion of the sixteenth century Timbuktu is issued by "Tarich al-Fattash", a chronicle from the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries quoted by Charlie English in " Smugglers of books from Timbuktu ":
(...) no other city was more famous for the solidity of its institutions, for political liberties, for impeccable morality, for the safety of its inhabitants and their property, compassion and mercy towards the poor and strangers, out of friendliness towards students and people of science , to help students and scholars.
During the reign of the Aski family, however, this regional metropolis reached its peak not only in terms of trade development. "It was a heyday, a period when Timbuktu became known as the most important city of scholars," reports English. He is echoed by John Hunwick, a scholar of Songhai history and translator of the Chronicle of Esadi, who wrote that prosperity allowed scholars to study, teach and import books.
No wonder that the city is overwhelmed by a real "bibliophilia". Numerous Koranic schools flourished, including the famous "Sankore University" near the mosque of the same name. As Hunwick writes, private collections also began to appear, of considerable size:
Outside the curriculum, scientists built their own, often extensive, libraries. When Ahmad Bābā was arrested in 1593, his library of 1,600 volumes was seized; his collection, he claimed, was the smallest of his contemporaries.
Once within the Songhai Empire, Timbuktu became a veritable city of scholars. The photo shows the famous manuscripts saved in the 21st century by some brave librarians from jihadists.
An empire more enlightened than European?
The Songhai Empire only survived for a hundred years. At the end of the 16th century, it fell victim to the attempts of the Moroccan rulers. In 1591, Sultan Ahmed el-Mansur defeated the troops of Ashia the Great's successors at Tondibi, which sealed their defeat. The story of the heyday of West Africa, however, is preserved in chronicles such as Al-Sadi's Tarich al-Sudan and Mahmoud Kadi's Tarich al-Fattash.
The first readers of the manuscripts got carried away by reading Songhaj as a state that had already achieved a level in the fifteenth century similar to that of many later European empires. Flora Shaw compared the Askii administration to the British one for a reason. However, it should be remembered, as the researcher of chronicles, Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias, first noticed, that these messages should be read critically. "In fact, the authors wrote a story about the history of Songhai with the political task of uniting the people in mind," says Charlie English in his new historical report " Book Smugglers from Timbuktu ”.
The Songhai Empire was certainly not an ideal country. Many traditional, very harsh penalties were kept, including burying it alive. The system relied heavily on slavery . Women did not participate in the freedoms received by citizens. They were still dependent on men. They were also expected to cover their faces, in line with the current interpretation of Islam. Although there was a relative religious tolerance in the state - there was no other option with such a wide variety of subjects - persecution did occur, especially among the Jewish communities.
While Europeans believed that blacks would not be their equal in terms of civilization, at the same time they created an empire in Africa that in many respects surpassed many European kingdoms.
Perhaps, however, one does not need to look for unusual features in this country to simply recognize that Songhaj was a huge, efficiently and modernly managed country, in which trade and science developed on a scale unprecedented in the region. It was the center of a civilization different from those developed on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, but equally resilient and able to compare itself without complexes with the European kingdoms. And in many ways to embarrass them. And this is much more than Europeans until recently were ready to admit.