Pashalik of Timbuktu
1591–1833 Moroccan polity in West Africa
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.
Background
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.
The public source identifies “Pashalik of Timbuktu” as 1591–1833 Moroccan polity in West Africa. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pashalik, Timbuktu and Moroccan.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3360048. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1539, 1549, 1556 and 1557.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pashalik of Timbuktu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.