Eunuchs and the Practice of Power in the Early Songhay Empire

Abstract Eunuchs were central to court life in many parts of precolonial West Africa, nowhere more than the Songhay Empire. This article argues that eunuchs were institutionalized there by the askia Muḥammad I in the late 1490s as part of his broader project of Islamic legitimation. Eunuchs, who served many practical functions, were also symbols of imperial splendor, placing the Songhay court on the same footing as its peers elsewhere in the Dār al-Islām. Once implanted in Songhay, the eunuch institution would develop a life of its own, culminating in the empire's legendary 4,000-strong eunuch cavalry in the 1580s. Yet until now, the traditional chronicle sources of imperial West African history—the Tārīkh al-Sūdān and the Tārīkh al-fattāsh—have not been read for what they can tell us about this understudied institution, one that significantly affected the construction of gender and authority in the region.