Askia Muhammad I · Politics
How the chronicles built Askia into the model of the just, pious reformer - and the honest gap between that image and the politics: a general who seized the throne by force in 1493, was idealized by the scholars he patronized, and was deposed by his own son in 1528. A study in how legitimacy is made in memory.
You learned that the chronicles idealize Askia as the just, pious, learned reformer, and that this image was shaped by the scholarly class he patronized; that the harder politics include his seizure of the throne by force in 1493 and his deposition by his son Musa in 1528; and that source-critical history recovers a d…
Leads to Abd al-Rahman al-Sa’di.
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