III.] THE AFRICAN NEGRO: I. SUDANESE. 63 



first Muhammadan ruler (1009); but about 1326 the country was 

 reduced by the Mandingans, and remained throughout the i4th 

 and a great part of the i5th century virtually subject to the Mali 

 empire, although Ali Killun. founder of the new Sonni dynasty, 

 had acquired a measure of independence about 1335 6. But the 

 political supremacy of the Sonrhay people dates only from about 

 1464, when Sonni Ali, i6th of the Sonni dynasty, known in 

 history as " the great tyrant and famous miscreant," threw off the 

 Mandingan yoke, " and changed the whole face of this part of 

 Africa by prostrating the kingdom of Melle 1 ." Under his suc- 

 cessor, Muhammad Askia 2 , " perhaps the greatest sovereign that 

 ever ruled over Negroland 3 ,'' the Sonrhay Empire acquired its 

 greatest expansion, extending from the heart of Hausaland to the 

 Atlantic seaboard, and from the Mossi country to the Tuat Oasis, 

 south of Morocco. Although unfavourably spoken of by Leo 

 Africanus, Askia is described by Ahmed Baba as governing the 

 subject peoples "with justice and equity, causing well-being and 

 comfort to spring up everywhere within the borders of his exten- 

 sive dominions, and introducing such of the institutions of 

 Muhammadan civilisation as he considered might be useful to his 

 subjects 4 ." 



Askia also made the Mecca pilgrimage with a great show of 

 splendour. But after his reign (1492 1529) the Sonrhay power 

 gradually declined, and was at last overthrown by Mulay Hamed, 

 Emperor of Morocco, in 1591 2. Ahmed Baba, the native 

 chronicler, was involved in the ruin of his people 5 , and since then 



1 Earth IV. p. 593-4. 



2 The Ischia of Leo Africanus, who tells us that in his time the "linguaggio 

 detto Sungai" was current even in the provinces of Walata and Jinni (vi. ch. 2). 

 This statement, however, like others made by Leo at second hand, must be 

 received with caution. In these districts Sonrhay may have been spoken by 

 the officials and some of the upper classes, but scarcely by the people generally, 

 who were of Mandingan speech. 



3 Earth iv. p. 414. 4 Ib. p. 415. 



5 Carried captive into Marakesh, although later restored to his beloved 

 Timbuktu to end his days in perpetuating the past glories of the Sonrhay 

 nation ; the one Negroid man of letters, whose name holds a worthy place 

 beside those of Leo Africanus, Ibn Khaldun, El Tunsi, and other Hamitic 

 writers. 



