Timbuktu, 1600–1660

Ahmad al-Mansur had conquered the Songhay empire in 1591 and governed the Niger through pashas sent from Marrakesh. Told that his pasha Ammar al-Fata had let the qaid al-Mustafa al-Fil rule in his name, he dismissed Ammar and ordered the new pasha to send both men to Marrakesh, al-Mustafa in chains.

Al-Mansur died of plague in August 1603 and his sons fought over Morocco. Abu Faris, proclaimed at Marrakesh, held the south of the country against his half-brother Zaydan. Once word of his accession reached Timbuktu, he recalled Sulayman and sent a new pasha across the desert, Mahmud Lonko.

Ammar al-Fata, a renegade who had come with the conquering army, had been pasha since 1599. In a little over a year he let the qaid al-Mustafa al-Fil become, in the chronicle's words, the dispenser of power. Removed in 1600, he was held with some respect and sent to Marrakesh; in 1618 he would return as the sultan's envoy.

Al-Mustafa al-Fil, says the chronicle, was tyrannical, violent and answerable to no one. Sulayman's advisers talked him out of arresting al-Mustafa on arrival for fear of a riot; instead, at his first audience, Sulayman had him seized at the door, stripped of his fine clothes, loaded with chains and sent to the sultan.

Sulayman Pasha reached Timbuktu on 19 May 1600 with 500 musketeers or more. He built himself a house outside the city, camped his soldiers round it and had any soldier found in town after sunset beaten. When al-Mansur died he hid the news for a year, until word came of Abu Faris's accession.

Al-Hasan ibn al-Zubayr, the sultan's amin, kept the royal treasure. Sulayman found him stealing from it, moved the funds into the casbah and wrote to Marrakesh; al-Mansur ordered the money handed back to his amin, after the qaid Azzuz had pleaded al-Hasan's cause at court. The treasurer kept his own line to the sultan.

Askia Nuh, a son of Askia Dawud, had kept the Songhay royal house alive downriver after Tondibi, fighting the pashas for seven years from Dendi. About 1599 his own people, tired of a king always away at war, deposed him and made his brother al-Mustafa askia.

Al-Mustafa, another son of Askia Dawud, ordered his brother Muhammad Sorko-ije to hunt down Nuh and drive him out of the kingdom, and gave him the pick of the army to do it. The force he put in his brother's hands was the one that unseated him.

Muhammad Sorko-ije led the picked troops out, then turned them on al-Mustafa, deposed him and took the throne. He did not keep it long: one night, the chronicle says, he heard children at play, took the noise for a Songhay rising against him and fled the town.

Harun Dankataya, also a son of Askia Dawud, was chosen in his place and ruled Dendi until he died in office, about 1611. Under him Dendi struck back at the pashalik: his fleet commander raided the river towns in 1608, and his Dendi-fari invaded the Djenné country in 1609.

Mahmud Lonko reached Timbuktu in July 1604 with 300 soldiers or more, most of them from the Massa country, arriving during the askia's funeral. Abu Faris soon granted Tendirma and all its revenues to the qaid Ali al-Tilimsani, and when Ali sheltered an officer at odds with the treasurer, Lonko and the treasurer made the whole army swear never to take refuge with him.

Mu'allim Sulayman al-'Arfawi was made lieutenant-general of the Fez battalion by the treasurer al-Hasan. He then did nothing but thwart Lonko. The qaid Mami ibn Barrun warned the pasha that Sulayman was a barking dog to be thrown a bone, while Ali, if called in, would want the pasha's own seat.

Ali al-Tilimsani came from Tendirma at Lonko's call and was ordered to kill Mu'allim Sulayman; on 25 April 1608 his companions cut him down at his door. Lonko gave Ali full powers. In 1609 Ali relieved Kobbi, stormed the Sorya's town and spared the Jenne-koy; in 1610 he took the Djenné command from Ahmad ibn Yusuf. For four and a half years nothing was done without his order.

Askia Sulayman, a son of Askia Dawud, had served the pashas as askia of Timbuktu, commanding the Songhay who lived under them. He died at El-Fa'-Konko in July 1604 and was buried in the Sankore cemetery; the new pasha Lonko rode into Timbuktu during his funeral and asked to see the dead man's face.

Harun ibn al-Hajj, the Balama', was made askia by Lonko. In mid-1608 he marched with Ali against the Dendi raid; at Ankaba his own Songhay rose against him, were calmed, then rebelled again back in Timbuktu and had him deposed. The treasurer kept him with honour until he died eight years later.

Bokar Kanbu ibn Ya'qub followed Harun as askia and rode with Ali's columns to Djenné in 1609 and 1610. Jealous of the Kala-sha'a Muhammad, who had more authority than he did, he kept telling Lonko that the Kala-sha'a had started the revolt and called in the Dendi-fari.

Seyyid Karay-ije, the Hi-koy or master of the fleet, came upriver in 1608 in Askia Harun Dankataya's name to attack the river peoples subject to the Moroccans. Ali marched out in July but kept away from the river, turning instead on the Fondoko of Sanqara and the lord of Masina, and came away with 6,000 head of cattle.

Bar, Dendi-fari, crossed the river with a large army and camped at Tirfoi in May 1609. Benba's own retainer Ansa-Man secretly warned him that the men of Djenné kept no promises, and Bar swung toward the Gourma. At Kobbi he drove the qaid Ahmad ibn Yusuf into the fort, took his camp and the Djenné boats, and laid siege.

Al-Amin, another son of Askia Dawud, succeeded Harun Dankataya about 1611 and ruled seven years; the chronicle praises him for feeding the poor through a famine. In 1612 he sent Seyyid Karay-ije, now Dendi-fari, at the head of a great army against Ali al-Tilimsani.

Karay-ije met Ali's army at Chirko-Chirko, deep in the Binka country; the two armies faced each other and parted without a fight. It was said Ali had sent him gold through Askia Bokar, his mother's brother. Al-Amin accused him openly of taking a bribe; Karay-ije went home, drank poison and died, and gold was found among his things.

Muhammad Benba, the Songhay Jenne-koy, was said to have invited the askia of Dendi to send an army in 1609, promising to help drive the Moroccans from the Djenné country. He drew in the Sorya Musa and, it was said, the Kala-sha'a Muhammad; the lord of Masina refused, saying a ruler was his people's shepherd.

Ahmad ibn Yusuf al-'Ilji, qaid of Djenné, shut himself in the fort of Kobbi and sent to Timbuktu for help. A Moroccan column caught Bar near Mount Kora in early June 1609 and was routed, fleeing to Lake Dabi until Ali's drums announced relief; Bar then went home. Eight years later the army would choose Ahmad as pasha.

The blind Sorya Musa had joined Benba's league. On 14 June 1609 his men attacked Ali's boats at Kouba; by sunset Ali had broken into the town, and when the Sorya's champion fell the old man said the Moroccans would now have their way. Taken in chains to Djenné, he was put to death there.

Benba dug a well in his house to stand a siege, then went to Ali's camp when summoned. Ali barely reproached him and let him go home, to the fury of the Djenné garrison. In 1610 Ali only fined him heavily, judging that his arrest would set the country ablaze; Benba's people paid at once.

The Kala-sha'a Muhammad was ruined by Askia Bokar's accusations. Lonko ordered Ahmad ibn Yusuf to put him to death; Ahmad tried to save him and offered 500 mithqal for his life, but the pasha refused. The chronicle calls it an unjust death, the work of enmity.

In 1607–08, the chronicle says, Zaydan won the throne at Marrakesh and sent Sulayman Pasha back to command in the Sudan, but Sulayman was killed soon after leaving the city. Zaydan also kept a promise made in his father's lifetime to let the exiled jurist Ahmad Baba go home, then regretted it.

Ahmad Baba, the leading jurist of Timbuktu, had been deported to Morocco in 1594 after the conquest. Freed by Zaydan, he reached Timbuktu in the spring of 1608 and taught there until his death in April 1627, the most learned man of his age in the chronicle's eyes. His son Muhammad would ride with a pasha's pilgrimage in 1631.

Ali al-Tilimsani deposed Lonko on 11 October 1612; Lonko congratulated him and died within weeks, poisoned, it was said. When the self-styled Mahdi Abu Mahalli drove Zaydan out of Marrakesh, Ali swore to the rebel and made Timbuktu and Djenné follow; only Gao stayed loyal. When Zaydan returned, Timbuktu hurried to swear to him again.

Haddu ibn Yusuf al-Ajnasi quarrelled violently with Ali in January 1617. Ali left the casbah with 83 devoted men of the Marrakesh battalion, but his support drained away, and on 13 March 1617 the troops deposed him, chained him and wrote to Zaydan listing his thefts from the treasury.

The same day the troops unanimously proclaimed Ahmad ibn Yusuf al-'Ilji pasha, the first the army chose itself. He ruled through two years of famine and plague, when people in Timbuktu ate carrion and the dead. In July 1618 the troops deposed him; the next pasha jailed him until he died.

In July 1618 the troops made Haddu pasha by unanimous vote. He spared the people a tithe that year because of the famine's damage, and the chronicle remembers his rule as a shining star. He died on 17 January 1619, after seven months.

Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Massi was chosen by the army in January 1619. He jailed the ex-pasha Ahmad ibn Yusuf for life, poisoned a nephew who plotted to kill him, and raised a mere bash-hud, Hammu ibn Ali al-Dar'i, to command the Fez battalion.

Hammu ibn Ali al-Dar'i arrested al-Massi and his vizier on 4 November 1621 and took power without the pasha's palace or, it seems, his title. In January 1622 he summoned Yusuf al-Qasri from Djenné to settle an old score; on 27 January a Massa man of al-Massi's following shot him at prayer in the mosque. The army's chiefs then killed al-Massi and his vizier.

Zaydan resolved to deal with Ali. A year after the troops' letter he sent Ammar al-Fata back across the desert with about 400 musketeers, the qaid Mami al-Turki and a new amin, carrying orders for the former pasha. They were the last soldiers Morocco sent to the Niger.

Ammar al-Fata, the pasha Sulayman had sent home in 1600, camped outside Timbuktu on 27 March 1618; days later the sultan's letter was read in the city. He did not govern; by June 1618 he had gone back to Marrakesh with the old amin, and returned, the chronicle says, rich and honoured.

Mami al-Turki demanded from Ali the money he had taken from the treasury, and tortured him until he died. The musketeers who came with him were dispersed into their battalions along the river, and Mami was sent to Gao, where he stayed until his death.

Al-Massi's first act as pasha was to dismiss Askia Bokar Kanbu after some twelve years and appoint al-Hajj ibn Bokar Kishi'a. Al-Hajj held the office exactly as long as his patron held power; when Hammu seized al-Massi, he was dismissed in turn.

Muhammad Benkan, son of the Balama' Muhammad al-Sadiq and grandson of Askia Dawud, was summoned from Tendirma by Hammu and made askia. He would hold the office, with one five-month break, until his death in 1642, serving under nine pashas.

In the spring of 1618 al-Amin's Dendi-fari marched toward Kobi, and Haddu led the troops out to Asafay to meet him; then the Hombori-koy sent word that the askia was dangerously ill, and the Dendi army turned back. Al-Amin died in July 1618, the month the troops elected Haddu.

Dawud ibn Muhammad Bano, grandson of Askia Dawud, took the throne. The chronicle remembers him as a tyrant who put kinsmen and commanders to death almost daily and never once led his army out to raid. His brother Ismail would one day flee him to Timbuktu.

Yusuf ibn Umar al-Qasri, qaid of Djenné, was elected on 29 January 1622, two days after the killings. Like Hammu he kept the title of qaid and Hammu's house. The chronicle calls his five years an era of prosperity. He sent Malluk ibn Zarqun to Djenné, then replaced him with Ibrahim al-Jarrari, whose two years there yielded great revenues.

Ibrahim al-Jarrari was chosen by the whole army when Yusuf was deposed on 6 May 1627. He proved weak: the lowest soldier could plunder townspeople unchecked. He gave all the money he had raised at Djenné to the Timbuktu troops and none to Gao, and Gao's anger cost him his office within a year.

Ali ibn Abd al-Qadir, a lieutenant-general sent to reconcile Gao with al-Jarrari, was promised the pashalik there instead and was named pasha on 8 May 1628. He fell on the disorderly soldiers like a drawn sword. About 1630 he made peace with Dendi and married into the askia's family, saying he wanted peace in order to make the pilgrimage.

Muhammad al-'Arbi governed Timbuktu while his brother set out for Mecca in September 1631; raiders in the Tuat forced Ali to buy his life and turn back. Angry that Gao had refused him fifty soldiers for his escort, Ali sent his brother there as qaid to punish it. The people of Gao rose, chained him and plundered him.

Ali marched on Gao in May–June 1632. The Djenné garrison secretly agreed with Gao to revolt, and Gao routed him, taking his treasure boat and his concubine. After Askia Benkan made the peace, Ali prepared a second attack; on 20 July his troops rose at Bouri and named Ali ibn al-Mubarak pasha.

Ali ibn al-Mubarak al-Massi took the insignia of office, then had Ali ibn Abd al-Qadir arrested and beheaded in the stables on 24 July 1632, and his body dragged to the market. The chronicle says the troops chose him only because no one else dared face the old pasha. He lasted three months and was exiled to Tendirma.

Taken at Gao with the pasha's baggage, Muhammad Benkan was treated with honour by Gao's men, who asked him to live among them for his blessing. He interceded for Muhammad al-'Arbi, won his life, and made peace between Gao and the pasha before returning to Timbuktu.

Malluk ibn Zarqun, qaid of Djenné again from 1628, received 700 mithqal from Ali to buy his garrison's goodwill. But the Djenné troops had already agreed with Gao to revolt, and when a conciliatory letter from the pasha arrived on 2 July 1632 they read it as weakness, rose, and jailed his agent.

About 1630 Ali ibn Abd al-Qadir camped at Kukiya and sent gifts proposing peace and asking for the askia's daughter. Dawud accepted and gave the daughter of a kinsman; the pasha sent a boat to fetch her, and trust held between askia and pasha as long as Ali ruled.

Ahmad ibn Anda-Ag-Muhammad, qadi of Timbuktu since Lonko appointed him in 1611, led the jurists who met Ali in the Sankore mosque and urged him not to go on pilgrimage; Ali would not listen. In July 1632 the deposed pasha sent him to the mutineers at Kabara; they refused terms, and his plea for Ali's life failed.

Sa'ud ibn Ahmad 'Ajrud was elected unanimously on 17 October 1632. He replaced Malluk at Djenné, and in May–June 1634 marched to Djenné and on to Bina to punish Yusaro, who hid nearby until he left; then he squeezed the townspeople until his own bash-huds told him to go home. He fell ill on the way and died in August or September 1634.

Abd al-Rahman, son of the qaid Ahmad ibn Sa'dun, was chosen by the army on Sa'ud's death. In January 1635 he dismissed Askia Muhammad Benkan and named Ali Senba in his place. He died in July 1635, after eleven months.

Sa'id ibn Ali al-Mahmudi followed at once and restored Benkan. Under him Ismail, the askia of Dendi's brother, came asking for an army, and Sa'id ordered Gao to give him soldiers. In April 1637 he dismissed Ahmad ibn Hammu from Djenné on the merchants' complaints. On 22 October 1637 the troops deposed him; he died a year later, poisoned it was said.

Masud ibn Mansur al-Za'ari, a counsellor of great authority, was raised by the troops in October 1637. In June 1639 he had Ahmad ibn Hammu drowned in the river near Kouna, and the same month led the army downriver against Ismail, who had insulted the soldiers and Masud himself.

On 23 November 1632 Malluk, with all the troops, arrested the Jenne-koy Bokar, accusing him of tearing up the oath they had sworn together against Ali ibn Abd al-Qadir and of betraying their plot to the pasha.

Bokar, the Songhay ruler of Djenné, was put to death in the casbah on 26 November 1632, and his head was set on a beam over the market. The Sudanese took the display as an abominable novelty; the country round Djenné rose, swearing to kill the makhzen's white men unless Malluk was handed over.

Yusaro Muhammad ibn Uthman led the rising with other followers of the dead Jenne-koy west of Djenné and besieged the merchants of Bina. He routed the column Malluk sent under two lieutenant-generals, the chiefs of the country sent him men, and for four months Djenné lived in fear.

Ahmad, son of Hammu ibn Ali al-Dar'i, reached Djenné as qaid in early January 1633 and calmed the country with gifts and good words. Later he turned to extortion against great and humble alike; the merchants moved to Bina, and he expelled the imam al-Sa'di. Dismissed by Sa'id in April 1637, he was jailed by Masud and drowned in June 1639.

Ali Senba, son of Bokar Kishi'a, was named askia on 18 January 1635 when Abd al-Rahman dismissed Benkan, and held office five months and some days, until the next pasha restored Benkan. In 1640 the deposed askia was killed at Koira-Djinou by a raiding band.

Restored by Sa'id in July 1635, Benkan was approached by Ismail, the Tira-farma, fleeing his brother Askia Dawud. Benkan first told him to give it up; when Ismail accused him of being the man who had slandered him to the makhzen, Benkan took up his cause and won him Sa'id's support.

In 1639 Benkan rode with Masud's army to Lulami and stood at the pasha's side in the askia's town, the chronicle calling him a man of skill and good counsel.

Ismail, warned that his brother Dawud meant to kill him, fled to Timbuktu about 1636 and asked for an army. With soldiers from the Gao garrison he drove Dawud out and took the throne, then sent the soldiers home with insults; their anger lasted until Masud's election.

Masud reached Lulami in mid-1639 and Ismail fled at the first fight. Masud made Muhammad ibn Anas, a son of Askia Dawud, askia over the Songhay who submitted, and carried off Ismail's goods, wives and children. As soon as the pasha had gone, the Songhay deposed his askia.

Dawud ibn Muhammad Sorko-ije, a grandson of Askia Dawud, was raised by the Songhay in place of Masud's askia. They soon turned on him too, and he fled to Timbuktu with his brother Ismail, where he waited seven years for his chance.

Abd al-Rahman al-Sa'di, born in Timbuktu in 1594, was an imam at Djenné and a go-between with the lord of Masina. Expelled from his office by the qaid Ahmad ibn Hammu, he went to Timbuktu in March 1637, where he agreed to serve as imam again after Sa'id wrote about him to Masud.

Muhammad Boryo, son of Harun Dankataya, replaced Dawud Sorko-ije. When Ismail came back with a large army to retake the throne, Boryo fled to Gao to ask for soldiers, and while he was away the Songhay chose another askia.

Mar-Shindin, a great-grandson of Askia Dawud through the Balama' Hamed and the Fari-mondzo Hammad, was chosen while Boryo was at Gao. Boryo came back with the troops he had gone to fetch and with the shaykh Al al-Dumasi and his band.

Al al-Dumasi, a shaykh with his own armed following, rode with Boryo against Ismail. Boryo fell in the battle, but then Ismail was killed and his army beaten. The Songhay deposed Mar-Shindin next. Al would reappear in 1652, rebelling against Gao and taking refuge with Askia Dawud.

Nuh, son of al-Mustafa, the askia who had been overthrown by his own brother half a century before, was raised when the Songhay deposed Mar-Shindin. They deposed him in his turn and looked to the sons of the askia Ismail had driven out.

Muhammad al-Borko, son of Dawud ibn Muhammad Bano, was the next askia. The Songhay soon replaced him with his brother al-Hajj, keeping the throne for a while in Dawud Bano's branch of the royal house.

Al-Hajj, another son of Dawud ibn Muhammad Bano, took his brother's place, until a rival branch came back from Timbuktu: Ismail, son of Muhammad Sorko-ije, returned, deposed him and took the crown.

Ismail ibn Muhammad Sorko-ije had gone to Timbuktu with his brother Dawud. Back in Dendi he deposed al-Hajj and took the crown, until Dawud won the pasha's backing, came home with an escort from Gao and deposed him in turn.

On 18 August 1646 the pasha restored Dawud ibn Muhammad Sorko-ije; four days later he left Timbuktu with the convoy taking pay to Gao, whose garrison had orders to escort him home with troops. He took back the throne he had lost seven years before.

Masud's qaids at Djenné could not pay salaries or rations through the great famine that began there in 1639 and lasted about three years. On 28 February 1643 the Djenné troops seized the pasha's property in the town to pay themselves, jailed his messengers and closed the road; in April Timbuktu rose too.

Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman, the qaid the Timbuktu rebels rallied to, routed Masud at the casbah gate; Masud's own men jailed him, and the troops elected Muhammad pasha in late April 1643. He spared Masud, saying he would not break his word as Masud had, and sent him in chains to Kirao.

When Muhammad Benkan died on 12 December 1642, his son al-Hajj Muhammad, the Binka-farma, succeeded him: the first Binka-farma raised to askia since the dynasty began. In 1644 he marched with the pasha Muhammad ibn Uthman against the lord of Masina.

On 20 May 1646 Muhammad ibn Uthman summoned al-Sa'di from Bina and made him katib, the pasha's secretary. He would write the pashas' letters and ride on their campaigns, and record them in the Ta'rikh al-Sudan, finished in 1653 and carried on to 1656.

Ahmad, son of Ali al-Tilimsani, was made pasha on 10 November 1646 when the officers, who had plotted since the Masina campaign, deposed Muhammad ibn Uthman. Generous and gentle, the chronicle says, he ruled three months and eight days and died on 14 February 1647.

Hamid al-Hayyuni was raised by the troops on their way back from Ahmad's funeral. The chronicle judges him unfit and says he left everything to his viziers. In June–July 1647, with the treasury empty, he led a gruelling raid across the Gourma to Hombori; al-Sa'di rode with him and wrote it up as a triumph. The troops deposed him on 24 October 1648.

Yahya al-Gharnati followed at once. Al-Sa'di calls him debauched and scornful of scholars and sharifs. His murder of Shaykh Ibrahim ibn al-Ra'wan in December 1649 turned the Arabs and Tuareg against him, and Djenné ignored his orders. He raided Gao in 1650 and Benba in 1651, was deposed on 15 October 1651 and spent three years in prison.

Ahmad, son of the pasha Haddu, was chosen with the army's assent on 16 October 1651. Courteous to scholars but without great aims, he had the treasury taken out of his hands and given to a qaid-amin. Under him, al-Sa'di wrote, the gates of revolt opened on every side. The troops deposed him on 18 August 1654.

Muhammad ibn Musa, a counsellor, was proclaimed at once and freed the ex-pasha Yahya. A quarrel split the Cheraga division and drove half of it out of Timbuktu. When Djenné asked for help against its Jenne-koy in May 1655, the eighty men sent mutinied at the port, and on 15 May the troops deposed him.

Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Sa'dun had been sent that same day by Muhammad ibn Musa to make peace with the mutineers; they seized him and made him pasha against his will. He reconciled the Cheraga. In 1656–57 he campaigned against Faraman, and on the way back changed the askia. He was deposed on 20 March 1657.

Dawud, son of the askia Harun and formerly Kurmina-fari, was made askia of Timbuktu by Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Sa'dun on the march back from Faraman, in place of al-Hajj Muhammad, and the Songhay accepted him.

In late 1652 Al al-Dumasi rebelled against Gao and fled to Askia Dawud with the herd-owners, Arabs, Tuareg and Fulani. In April 1654 Gao wrote that the Tuareg who had followed him had come back to submit; Al alone stayed in the askia's land.

Mansur ibn Mubarak al-Sawwaf, qaid of Gao, went after the rebels in December 1652, reinforced by fifty soldiers from Timbuktu. Askia Dawud abandoned his capital before them; Al could not be caught, and his followers harassed the withdrawing column with arrows every night as far as Kukiya.

Dawud ibn Muhammad Sorko-ije died on his throne in May or June 1654. A letter received at Timbuktu on 11 August told Askia al-Hajj Muhammad that Dawud's son Ibrahim had succeeded him.

Ibrahim, son of Dawud ibn Muhammad Sorko-ije, succeeded his father in 1654. His accession, reported to Timbuktu by letter that August, is the last change of askia in Dendi that al-Sa'di's chronicle records.

In August 1653 the Jenne-koy Bokar, called Ankaba'la', rebelled against the Djenné garrison and fortified himself at Chiou with three strongholds. Eight attacks failed, even with reinforcements from Timbuktu. He refused a peace offered through the lord of Masina, cut the roads into Djenné, and in March 1656 attacked Kanba'a and was beaten off.

Yusaro Muhammad ibn Uthman, who had led the rising of 1632, carried Bokar's messages in 1654: first that the Jenne-koy wanted peace, then that he would never return to Djenné. In September a lieutenant-general went to Bina at Yusaro's invitation; Bokar would not settle in Djenné but stopped blocking the roads.

Muhammad Buya ibn al-Hajj al-Shatuki became pasha after Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Sa'dun in 1657. Under him a great plague killed, the chronicle says, a number only God knows, and lasted two years. The troops deposed him about 1659; in 1666 he became the first man to hold the pashalik twice.

Allal ibn Sa'id al-Harusi, who had governed Benba under Yahya, was named pasha when Buya fell, and deposed on the very day of his appointment. The biographies of the pashas record nothing else of his rule.

Al-Hajj al-Mukhtar was elected after Allal and deposed three months later. In Muharram of AH 1070, September or October 1659, the troops elected Hammu ibn Abdallah al-'Ilji in his place.

Hammu ibn Abdallah dismissed the commander of the Marrakesh division, Muhammad al-Shatuki, in November or December 1659, and the division fought him. That year, after seventy-one years, the Friday sermon from Kukiya to Bina stopped naming al-Mansur's descendants. From 15 March 1660 it prayed for "Hammu, our lord".

Muhammad al-Shatuki, rich and masterful, had made his own soldiers hate him; they let him hope to be pasha, then refused him the insignia. He declared he would be sultan and Commander of the Faithful. The qadi, imams and merchants swore to him, but all the troops except the Fez division turned on him. He fled by boat from Kabara and was killed at Urakus.

In 1655 and 1656 letters reached Timbuktu announcing that Sultan Muhammad al-Shaykh had died and that his son Ahmad al-Abbas had succeeded; the sermon was still said in the Saadi name. In 1659 al-Abbas was murdered by his maternal uncle when he left Marrakesh to meet him, and the Saadi line ended.