Latest / Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History / The Battle of Jenne 1591: Timbuktu's Last Stand Against the Saadians
Transcript
- Lucas: Last time we talked about the Battle of Tondibi in 1591, where the Songhai army was routed by Moroccan arquebusiers. But that wasn't the end of the war. The Songhai still had a massive river fleet and control of the Niger's floodplains. Luna: Wait, they lost the big battle but still had a navy? Lucas: Exactly. The Songhai fleet—called the hi-koi—numbered hundreds of war canoes, each carrying archers and spearmen. They dominated the Niger from Gao to Djenné. After Tondibi, Askia Ishaq II retreated to the river and regrouped near the island city of Jenne. Lucas: Jenne was a natural fortress. It sits on an island in the Bani River, a tributary of the Niger, surrounded by floodplains. During the rainy season, the whole area becomes a swamp. The Moroccans had no boats, no knowledge of the terrain, and their gunpowder would get wet. Luna: So the Songhai had every advantage. What happened? Lucas: Well, Judar Pasha—the Moroccan general—was a eunuch from Spain, a military slave who'd risen through the ranks. He knew he couldn't assault Jenne directly. So he waited. And he sent envoys to negotiate, offering peace if the Askia would accept Moroccan suzerainty. Lucas: Askia Ishaq II was in a strong position. He had maybe 30,000 men, the fleet, and the floodplains. But he made a critical mistake: he agreed to a parley. Judar used the truce to build rafts and scout the river channels. Luna: He bought time. Classic. Lucas: Right. The Tarikh al-Sudan records that the Songhai commanders argued among themselves. Some wanted to attack immediately; others trusted the negotiations. While they debated, the Moroccans constructed a makeshift fleet from local timber and commandeered fishing boats. Lucas: On October 26, 1591, Judar launched a surprise attack on the Songhai fleet at anchor near a village called Bara. The Moroccans used small cannon mounted on their rafts, firing grapeshot into the packed canoes. The Songhai archers couldn't match the firepower. Luna: Were the canoes destroyed? Lucas: Many were set ablaze. The Songhai tried to retreat upstream, but the Moroccans had already cut off the channels. Askia Ishaq II escaped, but the fleet was shattered. That battle—often called the Battle of Jenne—broke the Songhai's last organized resistance. Lucas: After that, Judar marched on Timbuktu unopposed. The city surrendered. And what follows is one of the great tragedies: the looting of the libraries. The Tarikh al-Sudan says Judar's men used manuscripts as fuel for their campfires. Thousands of volumes were lost. Luna: That's horrific. And familiar—we've talked about the manuscript burnings before. Lucas: Yes, but one detail we haven't covered is how the Saadian governor of Timbuktu, a man named Mahmud ibn Zarqun, actually tried to preserve some books. He personally rescued the library of the scholar Ahmad Baba, who was taken captive to Marrakesh. Ibn Zarqun had studied in Timbuktu and understood the value. Lucas: So from the start, there was a tension within the Moroccan occupation: some officers saw Timbuktu as a place to plunder, others as a center of learning worth preserving. That conflict shaped the city's fate for the next two centuries. Luna: Yeah. It's like the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs—some wanted to burn everything, others wanted to learn. Lucas: Exactly. And the Songhai never fully recovered. Small kingdoms emerged from the wreckage, like the Bambara and the Tuareg confederations, but the era of large Sahelian empires was over. Timbuktu became a backwater under Moroccan rule, its scholars scattered. Lucas: You know, it strikes me that we can trace these stories because of the manuscripts that did survive. The Tarikh al-Sudan gives us a battle-by-battle account. And that's thanks to people who cared enough to protect them. Luna: Which is a good reminder that preserving history is a choice we keep making. Lucas: Absolutely. And speaking of choices—a quick honest thing: this show is entirely listener-supported, no ads. A handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many of these episodes. Luna: Yeah, and it means we can go deep on battles like Jenne without worrying about sponsorship. It's a good system. Lucas: After the Battle of Jenne, Judar Pasha established a Moroccan garrison in Timbuktu, the Kasbah, which still stands today. But his victory was short-lived: the Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur recalled him in 1592, suspicious of his success. Luna: Wait, the sultan punished him for winning? Lucas: Ahmad al-Mansur was paranoid. He feared Judar would carve out his own kingdom. So he replaced him with a cousin, Mahmud ibn Zarqun—the same man who saved the books. The irony is that Ibn Zarqun's more scholarly approach actually stabilized the colony. Lucas: Under Ibn Zarqun, Timbuktu's Sankore mosque was reopened as a teaching center, though never at the same level. Some scholars returned from exile. But the intellectual golden age was over. The city would never again be the crossroads of learning it was in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Luna: So the Battle of Jenne wasn't just a military defeat—it was the end of an era. Lucas: Precisely. It closed the chapter on the Songhai Empire and opened a long period of decline. But the stories, the manuscripts, the memory of that learning—they survive. And that's what we keep exploring.