sonni ali

Sonni Ali was a West African monarch who ruled Songhai from 1464 to 1492, expanding a small kingdom along the Niger River into one of medieval Africa's greatest empires. His date of birth is unknown but it is identified that his year of death was in 1492. Ali was educated in the traditional African arts of the region and was well versed in the forms and techniques of war when he came to power in 1464 in the small kingdom of Songhai, which was centered around its capital city of Gao on the Niger River. His first major conquest occurred in the year of 1469 when the Muslim leaders of Timbuktu, one of the great cities of the Mali Empire, asked for help against the Tuareg, the nomadic desert Berbers who had occupied the city since 1433. Sonni Ali took the opportunity not only to strike decisively against the Tuareg, but also against the city itself. Timbuktu became part of Songhai Empire in 1469. An other important thing that Ali made was that he could mixed an unorthodox observance of Islam with traditional African religion, mix that no one cant made before him. He was known as a man of the people rather than the elite class of Muslim, clerics and scholars, and he is regarded as a great military commander who carried out a strategic campaign of conquest along the Niger River. But he is principally recognized by the way he controlled, in 1476, the delta region of the Niger to the west of Timbuktu, and the lakes region to the south. Regular patrols by his 'navy' kept the trade routes open and tribute paying kingdoms peaceful. This is an extremely fertile region of West Africa, and because of this it became a major producer of grain under his rule.