Sonni Ali Conquers Djenne

1459

The Songhai warrior-king besieged the wealthy trading city of Djenne on the inland Niger Delta for seven grueling months before its defenders capitulated. The city's Great Mosque, built of banco mud-brick and replastered annually by its citizens, had been a center of Islamic learning and trans-Saharan commerce for generations. Under Songhai rule, Djenne became the empire's essential second city, rivaling Timbuktu in both scholarship and commercial importance.