Songhai Empire إمبراطورية صنغاي

1430 CE – 1591 CE · West Africa

Largest empire in African history; successor to Mali; Timbuktu's period of extraordinary Islamic intellectual and scientific outputic scholarship under Askia Muhammad

Capitals

Gao, Timbuktu

Peak Era

1464–1492 CE (Reign of Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad)

Historical Significance

The largest empire in African history, the Songhai built upon Mali's foundations to create an even more sophisticated Islamic civilization. Under Askia Muhammad, Timbuktu's Sankore University hosted thousands of scholars and housed hundreds of thousands of manuscripts.