The Askia's Jewish Advisors at the Songhai Court

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the little-known story of Jewish communities in the Songhai Empire during the reign of Askia Muhammad Toure. While Askia Muhammad has been remembered for his Islamic reforms and his pilgrimage to Mecca, his court in Gao also included Jewish advisors who served as diplomats, merchants, and interpreters. Drawing on the Tarikh al-Sudan, Jewish chronicles from North Africa, and accounts by Leo Africanus, they examine the role of the Jewish diaspora from Tlemcen and the Maghreb in the trans-Saharan trade and their integration into Songhai's multicultural society. Lucas explains how the Askia's policy of religious tolerance, rooted in Maliki jurisprudence, allowed Jewish communities to thrive in Timbuktu and Gao, even as they were being persecuted in Spain and Portugal. The episode touches on the legal status of dhimmis in West Africa, the fall of the empire under the Saadian invasion, and the eventual disappearance of Jewish life from the region. Listeners come away with a nuanced view of Songhai as a complex, cosmopolitan state where faith and commerce intersected. #SonghaiEmpire #AskiaMuhammad #JewsInAfrica #Timbuktu #Gao #TarikhAlSudan #TransSaharanTrade #JewishDiaspora #LeoAfricanus #Tlemcen #Maghreb #Maliki #Dhimmi #ReligiousTolerance #Sahel #WestAfricanHistory #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo