Pashalik of Timbuktu

The Pashalik of Timbuktu, also known as the Pashalik of Sudan, was a West African political entity that existed between the 16th and the 19th century. It was formed after the Battle of Tondibi, when a military expedition sent by Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur of Morocco defeated the Songhai Empire and established control over a territory centered on Timbuktu. Following the decline of the Saadi Sultanate in the early 17th century, Morocco retained only nominal control of the Pashalik. By the end of the 16th century, Moroccan Sultans were strengthened after the completion of the reunification of Morocco and the victory over the Portuguese at the Battle of the Three Kings, but their financial needs lead them to extend their realm southward to Saharan gold mines and Songhay territories. Saadian interest in the Sudan region preceded Ahmad al-Mansur. Ahmad al-'Araj, the Emir of Marrakesh, had asked Askia Ishaq I, Emperor of the Songhai Empire between 1539 and 1549, to grant him control of the salt mines of Taghaza . Ishaq I sent a group of 2,000 mounted men to raid a market town in the Draa valley of southern Morocco with instructions to avoid killing anyone. This was intended as a show of strength. In 1556–1557 troops of Mohammed al-Shaykh, the Sultan of Morocco, occupied the Taghaza salt mines and killed Askia Dawud's official in charge of salt extraction there. The Tuareg shifted the production to another mine called Taghaza al-Ghizlan. Soon after his accession in 1578, Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur brought the issue up again with Emperor Askia Dawud, asking the latter to pay him the equivalent of the tax revenues generated from the mines. Askia Dawud responded by sending a large quantity of gold as a gift. In 1583 Al-Mansur's forces successfully occupied the Touat and the Gourara oases. This occupation secured the Moroccan advance toward the south,and had the objective of conquering the Sudan and building up a huge empire. In 1586 a small Saadian force of 200 musketeers again occupied Taghaza, which marked the start of the gradual decline of the Songhai Empire.