Timbuktu's Salt Wars: The Battle for Taghaza

In the heart of the Sahara, a single commodity was worth its weight in gold: salt. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the brutal 16th-century struggle for Taghaza, the salt mines that fueled the Songhai Empire and sparked a war with the Saadian sultanate of Morocco. We follow the story of the Tarikh al-Sudan, the chronicle that recorded how Moroccan sultan Ahmad al-Mansur sent an army across the desert to seize the mines, leading to the fateful Battle of Tondibi. Along the way, we meet the Tuareg nomads who controlled the salt caravans, the silent trade that exchanged gold for salt, and the Moroccan pasha Judar Pasha, whose invasion reshaped West Africa. We also examine the legends of Taghaza's buildings made of salt blocks and the grim reality of life in this remote, inhospitable outpost. This is a story of empire, greed, and the surprising ways a humble mineral changed history. #SaltWars #Taghaza #SonghaiEmpire #SaadianSultanate #AhmadAlMansur #JudarPasha #TarikhAlSudan #AlSadi #Tuareg #TransSaharanTrade #BattleOfTondibi #WestAfrica #Sahara #Mali #Morocco #16thCentury #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo