Top 10 List: The Songhay

 

1.) Songhay was the largest empire Africa had ever seen- with thousands of cultures under their control.

2.) The empire was at it's largest under the rule of Askia Duad, and stretched to Cameroon.

3.) The Sunni King, Sonni Ali, helped the Songhay take over Mali.

4.) The kingdom of Gao, which would eventually become the Songhay Empire.

5.) The urban areas of the empire were dominantly Islamic, while the nonurban areas were not.

6.) Askia Muhammad Toure was a leader following Sonni Ali, who created a new dynasty called the Askia. He also continued the imperial expansion that Sonni Ali had begun.

7.) When standard weights, currency, and measures were introduced, the Songhay began to homogenize.

8.) Qadis, or Muslim judges, were chosen to run the legal system the Islamic way.

9.) The majority of the Songhay people did not convert to Islam, about 97% kept their traditional religions.

10.) The strong Songhay army had about 35,000 soldiers in it.

 

Quotes:

1.) "Sonni Ali aggressively turned the kingdom of Gao into an empire, the Songhay Empire."

2.) " .. .further centralized the government by creating a large and elaborate bureaucracy to oversee his extensive empire."

3.) "With literally several thousand cultures under its control, Songhay was the largest empire in African history."

 

Summary Paragraph

The Songhay Empire was important to later developments because of their accomplishments. They were the first to create standardized systems of weights and measures, which helped contribute to later developments. Even though many of the rulers tried to force Islam on their people, most did not convert, proving that the people of Songhay and all of Africa would rather stay true to their tribal roots of religion. This time period matters very much to African history, because in the Songhay Empire's highest point, it was the most powerful and important empire Africa had ever seen, even to this day. The Songhay had great rulers, a powerful army, and countless numbers of territories that were under their ruling. The amount of territory they controlled was more than any other African empire to date.

 

Lindsey Dahlman, 2006