Judar Pasha
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Judar Pasha was a military leader of Morocco's Saadi Dynasty and the conqueror of the Songhai Empire.
Born a Spaniard, Judar[1] had been captured as a baby. As a young boy he joined the service of Moroccan Sultan Ahmad I al-Mansur Saadi. Like many of Ahmad's officers, Judar was a eunuch.
In 1590, Ahmad I made Judar a pasha and appointed him the head of an invasion force against the Songhai Empire of what is now Mali. In October of that year, Judar set out from Marrakesh with a force of 1,500 light cavalry and 2,500 arquebusiers and light infantry. He also carried eight English cannon in his supply train, and assembled eighty Christian bodyguards for his personal detail.
After an arduous crossing of the Sahara desert, Judar razed the desert salt mines of Taghaza and advanced on the Songhai capital of Gao.
Meanwhile, Songhai ruler Askia Ishaq II assembled a force of more than 40,000 men and moved north against the Moroccans; the two armies met at Tondibi in March 1591. Despite their inferior numbers, the Moroccan gunpowder weapons easily carried the day, resulting in a rout of the Songhai troops. Judar sacked Gao and then moved on to the trading centers of Djenné and Timbuktu.
Despite Judar's gains, sporadic battles continued with the Songhai army, leading to his replacement several years after his victory.
[edit] Notes
- ^ While Judar is the common spelling, this is based on an assumed pronunciation by French translators of the Arabic texts Tarikh as-Sudān and Tarikh al-Fettash which do not give the vowels. The name is pronounced Jawdar in the Tadhkirat an-Nisian and in the most recent English translation of the Tarikh as-Sudan by J. O. Hunwick (cited below).
[edit] References
- Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
- Hunwick, John O. Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sa`Di's Ta'Rikh Al-Sudan Down to 1613 and Other Contemporary Documents. Brill Academic Publishers, 1999. ISBN 9004112073.
- Velton, Ross. Mali: The Bradt Travel Guide. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 2000.
