Rise of the Songhai Empire (1340s)

Timeline

1. 1340–1342Gao · GaoAfter Mansa Musa's death in 1337, Ali Kulun (or Ali Golom) and Sulayman Nar, held for over a decade, fled Mali and returned to Gao. They found that the Za dynasty that had formerly ruled Gao had been replaced by the Sonni dynasty. According to chronicles such as the Tarikh al-Sudan, Ali Kulun may have launched a revolt against Malian hegemony, but the dates and deeds of the early Sonni rulers remain academically disputed.
2. 1343–1350Niger River bend · SahelIn the 1340s Gao remained an important source of trade and tax revenue for the Mali Empire, controlling the transit of kola nuts, dates, ivory, slaves, and gold. The Sonni family nominally paid tribute to Mansa Sulayman but maintained considerable local autonomy. When Ibn Battuta arrived in Gao in 1353 he still found it a Malian city, describing its prosperous markets and river craft.
3. 1345–1350Kukiya · SahelBy the late 1340s the Sonni dynasty may have used Kukiya, south of Gao, as a power base, building an increasingly Islamized local society. Inscriptions from the early 15th century show an established Muslim community there. As Mali's succession crises intensified from the 1360s and it withdrew from Gao in the 1430s, only Sonni Ali (1460s) would bring Songhai to imperial heights—the 1340s were precisely the gestation period of this long rise.