Songhai

The Songhai, who call themselves Ayneha, are a Niger-river people of the western Sahel, around Gao and Kukiya and in Niger. Historically Songhai meant the ruling caste, the Songhaiborai. Their Za dynasty ruled at Kukiya and Gao; its king Za Kusoy accepted Islam in 1009 or 1010. Gao grew rich on trans-Saharan trade before Mali absorbed it in the thirteenth century.

In the fourteenth century the Sunni line began the revolt against Mali. Under Sunni Ali Ber, who reigned from 1464 to 1492, the Songhai built an empire taking Timbuktu and Djenné.

Askia Muhammad, who seized power in 1493, carried it to its zenith, but civil wars weakened it; at Tondibi in 1591 Saadian Moroccan musketeers destroyed the Songhai army and occupied Gao and Timbuktu. The Askia court fled south to Dendi in Niger. Songhai kingdoms there kept the dynasty alive.