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238 PERIOD 2 • The Early Modern World, 1450–1750

AP ® EXAM TIP imported from further north played a major role in the cavalry forces that enabled the
Know examples of the creation of this huge state. A trans-Saharan commerce in enslaved people took thou-
variety of states that sands of Africans across the desert to new lives in Islamic North Africa. Songhay’s major
developed in Africa cities of Gao and Timbuktu had populations numbering around 40,000 to 50,000
between 1450 and 1750.
people and were cosmopolitan centers of both commerce and Islamic learning.
®
AP Like the Mughal Empire, Songhay was on the frontier of an expanding Islamic
COMPARISON world. North African Muslim merchants and Sufi religious teachers had introduced the
Compare the effects of new faith to West Africa in the centuries after 1000 c.e. (See “Islam in West Africa” in
Islam on Songhay with its Chapter 3.) But Islam in Songhay was largely limited to urban elites — rulers, merchants,
effects on Mughal India.
and scholars — while the majority of the population in the countryside remained loyal
to older ways of living and religious practices. Thus conversion in the Songhay and
Mughal empires was less widespread than in the Ottoman and Safavid empires.
The modest penetration of Islam created a dilemma for Songhay’s rulers. The
founder of the empire, Sonni Ali (r. 1464–1492), had to walk a political and cultural
tightrope. On the one hand, he had to retain the loyalty of his rural subjects, who
regarded him as a magician and warrior king. In this role he took part in traditional reli-
gious ceremonies and consulted with traditional religious officials. On the other hand,
he needed to accommodate the Muslim merchant class, whose international trading
activity was so important for the economy of the empire. And so he declared himself
a Muslim, funded the building of mosques, observed Ramadan, and offered prayers,
though not always at the prescribed times. But the violence of his conquests and his
lukewarm embrace of Islam incurred the hostility of Muslim scholars, who regarded
him as tyrannical, cruel, and impious and labeled him an infidel or unbeliever.
Later rulers assumed a more solidly Islamic posture. One of them, Askiya
Muhammad, allied closely with the Muslim scholars of Timbuktu. He also made the
pilgrimage to Mecca and returned with the prestigious title of “caliph” (successor
to the Prophet) granted to him by Egyptian religious officials. Nonetheless, tensions
remained between the court and Muslim scholars. When one of the Timbuktu
scholars visited the court of Askiya Dawud (r. 1549–1582), he was appalled to find
pre-Islamic customs still being practiced.
Despite these tensions, Islam flourished in the major cities of the empire,
especially Timbuktu. By 1550, the city housed several large mosques, many libraries
holding huge manuscript collections, over 150 Quranic schools, and a major center
of higher learning. Teaching focused largely on the Quran and Islamic law but
also included medicine, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, philosophy, the study
of languages, and history. Many thousands of students from all over West Africa
and beyond flocked to this highly prestigious center of Islamic learning. Writing in
1526, a North African observer commented on Timbuktu: “Here are great numbers
of [Islamic] religious teachers, judges, scholars and other learned persons, who are
bountifully maintained at the king’s expense.” 29
By the early 1590s, the Songhay Empire was weakening. Political instability,
succession conflicts, rebellion in outlying regions, and continued tension between
Muslims and traditionalists made Songhay vulnerable to external invasion. The end
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample.
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