تاريخ الفتاش (Timbuktu Chronicles 1493-1599)

son of al-Mukhtār Gombele, who married one of Kati’s granddaughters.

The Ta’rikh al-fattāsh records the history of the Songhay Dynasty from al-hājj Mahmūd Kati’s perspective as a prominent member of the Wakurī nobility, the ruling elite of Soninke origin. Kati was also an important participant in many of the events that shaped the history of the Songhay Dynasty, especially during the reign of the Askiya Muhammad, which lasted from 1493 to 1528. As we learn in the Ta’rikh al-fattāsh, the Askiya Muhammad handpicked Kati as his spokesman in the civil war that broke out following the death of Sonni Ali Ber (or Shi Ali), the fierce Songhay leader who preceded the rise to power of the Askiya Muhammad. The victory of the Askiya Muhammad over Sonni Ali Ber’s oldest son, Shi Baru, signaled a turn toward more orthodox Islamic practices across the Sahel and the expansion of Timbuktu as a regional power rivaling Gao.

As a devout Muslim, Kati was invested in securing the rule of the Askiya Muhammad, who—unlike Sonni Ali Ber—was sympathetic to Timbuktu’s Muslim population. Kati also accompanied the Askiya Muhammad on his hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, recording what he observed along the way and testifying to the divine election of the Askiya Muhammad as the eleventh Caliph, anointed in Mecca to rule over the Sudan. The Ta’rikh al-fattāsh also documents the diverse careers of the Askiya Muhammad’s many sons who followed their father in assuming the mantle of Askiya (or "King") of the Songhay Dynasty. Among the events recorded in the Ta’rikh al-fattāsh, Kati documents the prosperous and peaceful reign of the Askiya Dāwūd, who ruled the Songhay from 1549–1583, and the fratricidal wars that later broke out as the dynasty eventually fell into decline. If Hunwick is correct, it was Kati’s oldest son, rather than Kati himself, who was present at the fall of Gao, after the Pasha of Fez dispatched an army of renegade Spanish Christian mercenaries who invaded the empire from Morocco. In the aftermath of the Moroccan invasion, the Songhay Dynasty never regained the prestige it had once enjoyed under the Askiyas and was transformed into a vassal state ruled from the north.

In modern-day Mali, the legend of the Askiyas has lost little of its luster over the centuries, although interpretations vary regarding its historical meaning and importance. Yambo Ouologuem famously parodied the Askiyas in his novel Le devoir de violence (1968), calling them “Saifs” and depicting them as pre-European oppressors of the African peasantry, whom he called the négraille a disparaging term for the black masses; literally "blackrabble". However, most who live in the Sahel today regard the era of the Askiyas as a stellar moment in African history and a deep source of cultural pride.

Islamic and animist traditions depicted in the Ta’rikh al-fattāsh, emanating from the capital cities of Timbuktu and Gao, continue to influence how modern-day African peoples view the historical legacy of the Askiyas, with some seeing them as Islamist reformers and others as men with occult power who merely happened to be Muslim. In the early 1980s, Thomas Hale recorded and transcribed The Epic of Askia Mohammed, as recounted by the modern griot a West African historian, storyteller, and praise-singer Nouhou Malio. The narrative of the Askiyas as told by the griot differs in many ways from that of the Timbuktu scribe, a topic explored in considerable detail in Hale’s Scribe, Griot, Novelist: Narrative Interpreters of the Songhay Empire (1990).

However, both versions of Songhay history demonstrate the importance of the Niger River, or the Djoliba (“River of the Griots”) as it is known in West Africa. Like the ancient civilization of the Pharaonic Egyptians, the Songhay Dynasty of the Askiyas is essentially a river culture, made possible by the thoroughfare of the Djoliba and its life-sustaining qualities. The accounts of both the griot and scribe allude to the pre-Islamic ruler of the region, who is described as a powerful djinn and enormous fish who rules the Songhay from Kukiya. Each morning, the great fish swam up from the depths of the Djoliba to sit upon the Songhay throne, before returning at nightfall to its underwater kingdom. In the Ta’rikh al-fattāsh, the fish ruled the Songhay for untold ages until it was killed by two brothers from Medina, the beloved city of the Prophet Muhammad. The death of the great fish marked the beginning of the Islamic era for the Songhay peoples, although there are many today who maintain that the