The Mali and Songhay Empires

Abstract This chapter situates the Songhay Empire (ca. 1464–1591) within a wider framework of African state formation, highlighting the importance of symbolic authority to the projections of power by Songhay rulers. The Songhay Empire was one of a series of early (medieval and early modern) commercially oriented polities that arose in the West African Sahel and Savannah and were known in North Africa and the Middle East because of the activities of Muslim traders. The case of Songhay is especially interesting in African history because of the richness of Arabic written sources that describe its history, and because of the importance of Islamic identity for its rulers. Destroyed by an expeditionary army sent across the Sahara Desert from Morocco in 1591, the demise of the Songhay Empire marks the beginning of a new period in West African history in which the influence of North Africa and Europe grew in scale and scope.