Sonni Ali's Religious War: Muslims vs Traditionalists

In the late 15th century, Sonni Ali Ba founded an empire through military conquest and religious conflict. This episode dives into Sonni Ali's fraught relationship with the Muslim scholarly elite of Timbuktu—especially the Sankore madrasa—and his patronage of traditional Songhai religion. Lucas and Luna explore the accounts by Al-Sa'di and Mahmud Kati in the Tarikh al-Sudan and Tarikh al-Fattash, which portray Sonni Ali as a tyrant who persecuted Muslim scholars, but also consider counter-narratives: that he was a pragmatic ruler who balanced Islam with indigenous practices. They discuss the massacre of Sankore scholars, his refusal to adopt Islamic law, and how this religious tension shaped the empire's later trajectory under Askia Muhammad. This episode offers a nuanced look at a controversial figure often vilified in written sources. #SonniAli #SonghaiEmpire #Timbuktu #Sankore #TarikhAlSudan #TarikhAlFattash #AlSadi #MahmudKati #TraditionalReligion #Islam #WestAfrica #NigerRiver #History #FexingoHistory #ReligiousConflict #OralTradition #AskiaMuhammad #ScholarlyBias Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo