Muhammad I Askia

or Muhammad Ture

died March 2, 1538, Gao, Songhai empire

West African statesman and military leader.

In 1493, after wresting power from Sonni ‘Alī's son Sonni Baru, Muhammad created an Islamic state whose civil code was the Qurʾān and whose official writing was Arabic. He set up an exemplary administration and remained in power until overthrown by his son, Askia Mūsā, in 1528.

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▪ Songhai ruler

Introduction

also spelled  Mohammed I Askiya,  also called  Askia Muḥammad, or Muḥammad Ture,  original name  Muḥammad Ibn Abī Bakr Ture,  Ture also spelled  Towri, or Turée 

died March 2, 1538, Gao, Songhai Empire

      West African statesman and military leader who usurped the throne of the Songhai empire (1493) and, in a series of conquests, greatly expanded the empire and strengthened it. He was overthrown by his son, Askia Mūsā, in 1528.

Rise to power.

      Both Muḥammad's place and date of birth are unknown. For a long time, he was thought to be a Silla (a Tukulor clan of Senegal) or a Touré of Sarakole (Soninke) origin, but it now seems that his name, as spelled in Arabic by 18th-century Timbuktu chroniclers, was Moḥammed Towri, or Moḥammed of the Toro (Fouta-Toro of Senegal). It is thus believed that he was probably of Tukulor origin, from a Senegalese family that had settled in Gao. The name of his clan was probably Kan, or Dyallo. Oral tradition, however, which is still very much alive, makes Mamar (Muḥammad's popular name) out to be Sonni ʿAlī's (Sonni ʿAlī) nephew, his sister Kasey's son by a jinnī.

      After the death of Sonni ʿAlī Ber, the ruler who had solidified the Songhai Empire from 1464 to 1492, Muḥammad tried, as early as February 1493, to wrest power from Sonni ʿAlī's son Sonni Baru, who had been elected by acclamation on January 21. In the Battle of Anfao on April 12, 1493, Muḥammad's forces, though inferior in number, were victorious. Paganism tinged with the esoteric Songhai Islām (Islāmic world) of the Sonnis gave way to an Islāmic state whose civil code was the Qurʾān and whose official writing was Arabic. After conquering the enemy, Muḥammad assumed the title of Askia (Askia Dynasty) (or Askiya) in order to ridicule, it is said, the daughters of the fallen Sonnis who said of him a si tya, or “he will not be.” The name Askia became the name of the dynasty that he founded and the name of its leaders.

      While Sonni ʿAlī had been a warrior, Muḥammad was above all a statesman. He set up an efficient administration of the regions conquered by his predecessor. He began by dividing Songhai into provinces and placed each under a governor. A standing army and a fleet of war canoes were organized under the command of a general and an admiral. Moreover, Muḥammad created the positions of director of finance, justice, interior, protocol, agriculture, waters and forests, and of “tribes of the white race” (Moors and Tuaregs who at that time were vassals of the Songhai and furnished them with squadrons of dromedary-mounted troops). All these officials were for the most part chosen from among the nobles and were brothers, sons, or cousins of Muḥammad.

Organization of the Songhai Empire.

      This exemplary organization of an African state was completed by a religious organization. Although a faithful believer, Muḥammad was not very well informed in matters of religious orthodoxy and therefore took as an adviser the Moroccan reformer el-Mehrili, persecutor of the Jews of Touat, to help him put his realm in order, in particular to recover the possessions belonging to the descendants of the defeated Sonnis and to “servile tribes” not converted to Islām. Establishing Islām as the official religion of the nobles was without doubt the only error of this statesman. From then on, it was no longer a popular religion but an imported one that later was to justify the conquest of the Songhai by Moroccan Muslims.

      And yet it was to receive the necessary counsel directly from “God's House” that in 1495, two years before his accession to power, Muḥammad undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca. This pilgrimage has remained famous as much for the pomp with which it was carried out as for the marvelous tales to which it gave rise. The chronicler Mahmud Kati, who accompanied Muḥammad, wrote in Taʾrīkh al-fattāsh that the jinnī of Mecca had had Muḥammad named caliph and had told him what his rights were over the former vassal tribes of the Sonnis. By the time he returned in 1497, he was a leader deeply converted to Islām. Next he would proceed to consolidate and enlarge Songhai.

      Militarily he met with uneven success. Although between 1498 and 1502 he was victorious over the Mossi of Yatenga and the inhabitants of the Aïr (Niger), a few years later (1505–06) he undertook an unsuccessful campaign against Borgu (the present boundary region of Niger and Nigeria). And similarly, although during 1507 and 1514 he reduced the insurgent Fulani factions in Senegal and the Bornu factions near Agadez, one of his lieutenants, the Karta of Kabi, revolted against him in turn and, despite his efforts during 1516 and 1517, remained independent. As an organizer of an effective administrative system he was more successful.

      During the course of his lengthy sojourns in the capital, Gao (1502–04 and 1506–07), he set up with rare talent the system of tithes and taxes, the regulation of agriculture and fishing, and the recruitment and training of his administrators and governors.

      The extent of the Songhai Empire of this period remains conjectural. Sadi, the Timbuktu chronicler, has said that the territory that Muḥammad conquered “by fire and sword” extended west as far as the Atlantic Ocean, northwest to the salt mines of Teghaza (on the northern border of present-day Mali), southwest as far as Bendugu (Segu), southeast to Bussa, and northeast to Agadez. It is certain that the influence of Songhai during Muḥammad's time was considerable and extended even beyond these boundaries. All the surrounding states, whether allies or enemies, experienced its civilizing ferment.

      This influence was reinforced by an indirect, though nonetheless profound, Islāmic propaganda. Muslim scholars went into areas they would not have been able to penetrate without the Gao ruler's support. And for several centuries to come, the small African states and the neighbouring leaders would take as their model the Islāmic empire of Songhai and its prestigious leader, Muḥammad. Even today, according to oral tradition, Muḥammad appears as a supernatural being, a jinnī, who either took after his father or after those with whom, by a special gift, he was able to consult during his pilgrimage to Mecca.

Fall from power and death.

      The end of his reign was, however, tragic. Little by little his dream of an Islāmized Sudan, whose emir he would be, evaporated. Even during his lifetime, his children were quarreling over the spoils. After the death of his commander in chief, Kanfari Omar, one of his brothers, in 1519, Muḥammad was no longer safe even in Gao, and the Songhai people seemed to him “as crooked as the course of the Niger River . . .” Embittered, half blind, the old man had no one left but his friend and adviser, his servant Ali Folen. The almost religious fear that he inspired gave way to contempt. Musa, his eldest son, plotted against him and in 1528 killed his new general in chief, Yaya, another of Muḥammad's brothers, who had remained faithful to him. Musa then dispossessed his father, taking the name Askia Mūsā. He kept this title for three years before being assassinated himself by one of his brothers. Now deposed, the old Askia Muḥammad was banished to an island in the river, a place “infested with mosquitos and toads.” There, from 1528 to 1537, he was a blind and despairing witness to the murderous quarrels of his children over the territory of Songhai.

      In 1537 his third successor, his son Askia Ismaïl, recalled his father to Gao. To reward him, Muḥammad bequeathed to him his green turban and his caliph's sabre. In 1538, during a period of temporary calm, this founder of a dynasty died. He was buried in Gao, under a pyramid of earth surmounted by wooden spikes. His tomb is still standing and has become one of the most venerated mosques in all of West Africa.

Jean Pierre Rouch

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