Oral History and The Tarikh Al-Sudan
Al-Sadi's seventeenth century chronicle, the Tarikh al-Sudan, provides a early history of the Songhay as handed down by oral tradition. The chronicle reports that the legendary founder of the dynasty, Za Alayaman, originally came from the Yemen and settled in the town of Kukiya. The town is believed to have been near the modern village of Bentiya on the eastern bank of the Niger, north of the Fafa rapids, 134 km south east of Gao. Tombstones with Arabic inscriptions dating from the 14th and 15th centuries have been found in the area. Kukiya is also mentioned in the other important chronicle, the Tarikh al-fattash. The Tarikh al-Sudan relates that the 15th ruler, Za Kusoy, converted to Islam in the year 1009-1010 A.D. At some stage the kingdom or at least its political focus moved north to Gao. The kingdom of Gao capitalized on the growing trans-Saharan trade and grew into a small regional power before being conquered by the Mali Empire in the early 13th century.
Read more about this topic: Za Dynasty
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