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.

[1][2] 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.

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.

[4]: 151 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.

[4]: XLII The Saadian military expedition, composed of about 20,000 men,[8]: 121  left Marrakesh on October 16, 1590, and reached the village of Karabara, near Bamba, along the Niger River in February 1591.

These included Djenné, Wandiaka, Koubi, Konna, Sebi, Tendirma, Issafay, Kabara, Timbuktu, Bamba, Bourem, Gao and Kukya.

[16]: 119 Despite Morocco's gradual withdrawal from Sudan after Al-Masur's death, the Pashas of Timbuktu remained loyal to the last sultans of the Saadi dynasty.

The Friday khutbah (sermon in a mosque) was recited every week in the name of the rulers in Marrakesh, who announced their accession to the throne to the Pashas in Timbuktu and the heads of the garrisons in Gao and Djenné.

[5]: 73  The position of the pasha rotated among three paramount fractions of the Arma, namely the Fassiyin (from Fes), the Marrakshiyyin (from Marrakesh), and the Shraqa (from Tlemcen), while the Dra'a (from the Oued Draa) represented a weaker yet highly respected regional affiliation.

[5]: 73  With the coming to power of Sultan Sidi Muhammad (r. 1757–90), Morocco's policy in the Sudan made a fresh start based on the revival of trade across the Sahara.