Latest / Timbuktu: Africa's Forgotten Center of Knowledge — Fexingo History
The Songhai Empire's Lost Legal Revolution
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore a forgotten legal and administrative revolution under Askia Dawud of the Songhai Empire. While earlier episodes covered Timbuktu's scholars and the fatwa on slavery, this one turns to the institutional reforms that made Songhai a model of Islamic governance in West Africa. Lucas unpacks Askia Dawud's creation of a formalized legal bureaucracy, his codification of Maliki jurisprudence under the oversight of qadis like al-Qadi al-Mustafa al-Kaburi, and the establishment of a hierarchical court system that spanned from the capital of Gao to…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.