Askia Ishaq I

Askiya Ishaq I
Emperor of the Songhai Empire
Reign	1539 – 1549
Predecessor	Askia Isma'il (ruled 1537–1539)
Successor	Askiya Dawud (ruled 1549–1582 or 1583)
Died	1549 (died a natural death) Kukiya
Issue	Abd al-Malik
Dynasty	Askiya dynasty
Father	Ashiya al-hajj Muhammad
Mother	Kulthūm Barda

Askia Ishaq I, also known as Ishaq Ber (Ishaq the Great), was the ruler of the Songhai Empire from 1539 to 1549, elected Askia following the death of Askia Isma'il. He was the fifth ruler of the Askiya dynasty.

Rise to Power

Ishaq was born the son of Askia Mohammad I and a Tuareg concubine from Dirma Kulthūm Barda.[1]

When Askia Isma'il died on campaign, the leading men in the empire peacefully agreed that Ishaq would be the next ruler.[2]

Reign

Askia Ishaq was a ruthless and paranoid ruler, inspiring fear and anxiety among the Songhai people. Despite being a devout Muslim, he sent agents to Timbuktu on a regular basis to demand enormous sums of money from the merchants, which is against Islamic law.[2][3] This damaged the economy of the empire and made him unpopular, thus gaining him many enemies.[2] Askiya Ishaq I was completely ruthless as a ruler and executed any official whom he considered as a threat. The Tarikh al-Sudan gives this description: "If he imagined anyone was making the least move against the throne, he would, without exception, have him killed or banished. This was his consistent practice."[4]

In the early 1540's, Askia Ishaq invaded Bendougou (modern-day Segou region), looking to root out Askia Muhammad Benkan, a predecessor who had taken refuge there. Benkan died during Ishaq's invasion of unknown causes.[3] Soon thereafter he exiled a conspiratorial Kurmina-fari and replaced him with his half-brother Dawud, who later invaded the Mali Empire, briefly occupying the capital in 1545 and 1546.[5]

After a request from the Moroccan sultan Mohammed al-Shaykh, to cede the salt mines of Taghaza, Ishaq I sent a group of 2000 mounted men to raid a market town in the Dara valley of southern Morocco with instructions to avoid killing anyone. This was intended as a show of strength.[6]

Askiya Ishaq I died in the town of Kukiya[7] and was buried there.[8] He was succeeded by his brother Askiya Dawud.[2]

Notes

1. Gomez 2018, p. 329.
2. David C. Conrad (2010). Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. New York: Chelsea House. ISBN 9781604131642. Archived from the original (Hardcover) on 2018-07-11.
3. Gomez 2018, p. 330.
4. Hunwick 2003, p. 137.
5. Wilks,Ivor. Wangara, Akan, and Portuguese in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (1997). Bakewell, Peter (ed.). Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas. Aldershot: Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Limited. p. 28.
6. Hunwick 2003, p. 142.
7. The town of Kukiya is believed to have been near the modern village of Bentiya on the eastern bank of the Niger, north of the Fafa rapids, 134 km south east of Gao. Bentiya is located at 15.349°N 0.760°E / 15.349; 0.760
8. Kâti 1913, p. 175.

References

• Gomez, Michael (2018). African dominion : a new history of empire in early and medieval West Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691177427.
• Hunwick, John O. (2003), Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-12822-4.
• Kâti, Mahmoûd Kâti ben el-Hâdj el-Motaouakkel (1913), Tarikh el-fettach ou Chronique du chercheur, pour servir à l'histoire des villes, des armées et des principaux personnages du Tekrour (in French), Houdas, O., Delafosse, M. (ed. and trans.), Paris: Ernest Leroux. Also available from Aluka but requires subscription.