Timbuktu, located at the junction of trade …

Years: 1468 - 1479

Timbuktu, located at the junction of trade routes on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert just north of the Niger River, founded in the eleventh century by Tuaregs as a seasonal settlement, had become a permanent settlement early in the twelfth century and, after a shift in trading routes, had flourished from the trade in salt, gold, ivory and enslaved people.

It became part of the Mali Empire early in the fourteenth century.

In the first half of the fifteenth century, the Tuareg tribes had taken control of Timbuktu for a short period.

Sonni Ali annexed Timbuktu to his expanding Songhai Empire in 1468, after Islamic leaders of the town requested his assistance in overthrowing marauding Tuaregs who had taken the city following the decline of Mali.

The invasion of Sonni Ali and his forces causes harm to the city of Timbuktu, and he is described as an intolerant tyrant in many African accounts.

The Islamic historian Al-Sa'df expresses this sentiment in describing his incursion on Timbuktu: “Sunni Ali entered Timbuktu, committed gross iniquity, burned and destroyed the town, and brutally tortured many people there. When Akilu heard of the coming of Sonni Ali, he brought a thousand camels to carry the fuqaha of Sankore and went with them to Walata.....The Godless tyrant was engaged in slaughtering those who remained in Timbuktu and humiliated them.“ (The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol 5: University Press, 1977, pp 421)

Sonni Ali conducts a repressive policy against the scholars of Timbuktu, especially those of the Sankore region who are associated with the Tuareg.

Timbuktu will develop into an important intellectual and cultural center as well as a commercial hub.

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West Africa (1468 - 1479)
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West Africa (1468 - 1479)

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