World History › Section O · Asian and African trade worlds › Topic O.5
The Songhai Empire
In the century after 1464, the Songhai kings of Gao built one of the largest states in African history, controlling the Niger bend and the desert trade, and Timbuktu became a great centre of Islamic learning. In 1591 a Moroccan army armed with guns brought the empire down.
In this topic
- From river kingdom to empire
- Sunni Ali the conqueror
- Worked example: two memories of Sunni Ali
- Askia Muhammad takes power
- Governing an empire
- Faith and power
- Timbuktu's golden age
- Worked example: reading Leo Africanus
- Succession struggles
- Morocco invades
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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