Askia Muhammad the Great

Muhammad Ture was born about 1443, in the age of the rising Songhai Empire. The chronicles do not record where he first drew breath, though they hold that his father's line was Soninke and his people were woven into the Songhai world along the great bend of the Niger. He came of age in the service of the conqueror Sunni Ali Ber, under whom he rose to be a powerful general and trusted lieutenant of the western armies.

When Sunni Ali died and his son Sunni Baru took the throne in 1492, Muhammad Ture challenged the succession on the ground of faith and right. In April 1493 he defeated Baru, declared himself king, and took the title Askia — founding the Askia dynasty that would carry his name through generations. Under his hand Songhai swelled into the largest empire West Africa had known, reaching from the Atlantic marches to the Hausa cities of the east.

In late 1496 he set out upon the hajj to Mecca, journeying with a great company of horsemen and foot, giving alms along the way and returning to Gao about 1497. He came home crowned in the prestige of the pilgrimage and returned bearing scholars and counsel. He governed through Islamic law and learning, and restored Timbuktu and Jenne — with the schools of Sankore among them — to their classical age of Maliki scholarship, manuscripts, and teaching.

Deposed by his own son in 1528, the aged and blinded Askia was exiled to an island in the river, and only near the end recalled to Gao, where he died in 1538. May the founder-king who lifted cities of learning into their golden age be remembered with honor.