Askia Mohammad I

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Tomb of Askia

Askia the Great (c. 1442-1538, also Muhammad Toure) was a Soninke king of the Songhai Empire in the late 15th century. Askia Muhammad strengthened his country and made it the largest country in West Africa's history. At its peak under Muhammad, the Songhai Empire encompassed the Hausa states as far as Kano (in present-day Nigeria) and much of the territory that had belonged to the Mali Empire in the west. His policies resulted in a rapid expansion of trade with Europe and Asia, the creation of many schools, and made Islam an integral part of the empire.

He is reputed to be buried in the Tomb of Askia in Gao, a World Heritage Site. Rumor has it that he gained the name Askia (which means forceful one) after Sunni Ali Ber's daughter heard the news of one of his wars.^[1]

[edit] History

The successor of Sunni Ali Ber, Askia Muhammad was much more astute and farsighted than his predecessor had ever been. The intended successor of Sonni Ali was removed by rebelling Islamic factions. In 1493, one of his generals, Muhammad Toure, later known as Askia Muhammad I or Askia the Great, mounted the throne. He orchestrated a program of expansion and consolidation which extended the empire from Taghaza in the North to the borders of Yatenga in the South; and from Air in the Northeast to Futa Tooro in Senegambooties. Instead of organizing the empire along Islamic lines, he tempered and improved on the traditional model by instituting a system of bureaucratic government unparalleled in the Western Sudan. In addition, Askia established standardized trade measures and regulations, and initiated the policing of trade routes. He also encouraged learning and literacy, ensuring that Mali's universities produced the most distinguished scholars, many of whom published significant books. To secure the legitimacy of his usurpation of the Sonni dynasty, Askia Muhammad allied himself with the scholars of Timbuktu, ushering in a golden age in the city for Muslim scholarship. The eminent scholar Ahmed Baba, for example, produced books on Islamic law which are still in use today. Muhammad Kati published Tarik al-Fattah and Abdul-Rahman as-Sadi published Tarik ul-Sudan (Chronicle(history) of the Sudan(an ancient reference to Africa, not political Sudan), two history books which are indispensable to present-day scholars reconstructing African history in the Middle Ages. For all his efforts, Mali experienced a cultural revival it had never witnessed before, and the whole land flourished as a center of all things valuable in learning and trade.^[2] Askia Muhammad went blind in his old age, and was deposed (removed from the throne) in 1528 by his son Askia Musa at the age of 80. He died at the age of 96.