Asia and Africa in the 15th and 16th centuriesWars and battles
Sonni Ali takes Timbuktu
The Songhai ruler Sonni Ali drove the Tuareg out of Timbuktu, a rich city of trade and learning on the Niger; this conquest began Songhai’s rise to become the largest state in West Africa.
- Date
- between 1468 and 1469exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Timbuktutoday: Timbuktu, Mali · Africa
- Participants
- Sonni Ali, Songhai Empire
- Threads
- Asia and Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries
The Tuareg had held Timbuktu since the 1430s. According to some accounts, Sonni Ali drove them out of the city in 1468 and had fully secured it by January 1469; according to others, he took it in 1469, so the date is given as a range. Suspecting the local Muslim scholars of siding with the Tuareg, Sonni Ali persecuted them, and many fled to Walata. After a long siege he went on to take Djenné as well.
Connections
Related events
- Battle of Kirinac. 1235 · AfricaThe Mali Empire founded by Sundiata had weakened by the 15th century; Timbuktu, once subject to Mali, was taken by Sonni Ali in 1468
- Askia Muhammad’s pilgrimage to Meccabetween 1495 and 1497 – between 1497 and 1498 · AfricaAskia Muhammad, a former general of Sonni Ali, overthrew Sonni Ali’s son and restored royal patronage to the scholars of Timbuktu
Adjacent events in the thread
- Founding of the Kazakh Khanatebetween 1465 and 1471 · Central and Northern Asia
- Afanasy Nikitin’s Journey Beyond the Three Seasbetween 1466 and 1468 – between 1472 and 1474 · South Asia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Wars of the Roses22 May 1455 – between 1485 and 1487
Central and Northern Asia
- Founding of the Kazakh Khanatebetween 1465 and 1471
South Asia
- Afanasy Nikitin’s Journey Beyond the Three Seasbetween 1466 and 1468 – between 1472 and 1474
East Asia
- Ōnin War1467–1477
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Đại Việt crushes Champa: the fall of VijayaNovember 1470 – March 1471