The Moroccan invasion of the Songhai Empire began with an expedition sent in 1590 by Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur of the Saadian dynasty, which ruled over Morocco at the time.
The Saadian army, led by Judar Pasha, arrived in the Niger valley region (in present-day Mali) in 1591 and won its first and most decisive victory against the forces of Askia Ishaq II at the Battle of Tondibi and occupied the capital of Gao shortly after.
After this victory, however, the Moroccans struggled to have their authority accepted in the region and continued to wage a protracted war with the remnants of the defeated Songhai Empire.
[2]: 214 [3][4]: 189 In the long term, Morocco's international standing was greatly increased, giving it the status of a major regional power in the western Mediterranean.
[2][3][4] Despite the practical limits of his power abroad, Ahmad officially proclaimed himself caliph during his reign and saw himself as the rival, the Ottoman sultan, and even as the rightful leader of the Muslim world.
Earlier that century the Saadians occupied the oasis area of Touat for a time and Ahmad al-'Araj had asked Askia Ishaq I (r. 1539–1549), emperor of the Songhai Empire, to grant him control of the Taghaza salt mines.
[10]: 47 In 1583 or 1584, Al-Mansur brought the Taghaza issue up again with Emperor Askia Dawud (r. 1549–1582), asking him to pay the equivalent of the mines' tax revenues.
[12] The Saadian army suffered while crossing the desert, but Askia Ishaq II was surprised when they arrived and had to assemble his forces quickly.
[12][13] Judar and his forces were disappointed by the lack of riches that they found in the emptied Songhai capital, and diseases soon beset the Moroccan army.
[12] Mahmud Pasha, in turn, won a less decisive victory against the Songhai at the Battle of Bamba in October 1591 but was unable to capture Ishaq II.
However, his brother Muhammad Gao declared himself the new Askia (king) by claiming that Ishaq II's military defeats had disqualified him as leader.
[12] He built a kasbah (citadel) to control Timbuktu, where he used draconian measures to suppress local resistance, including a city-wide revolt between October 19 and December 17.
[7] Revolts continued to erupt against the Saadian occupation, while Mahmud Pasha installed Sulayman, another brother of the former Songhai king, as Askia, attempting to create a system of indirect rule.
[12] Mahmud Pasha, in turn, attempted to conquer them in Dendi but encountered stiff resistance and difficult conditions in the unfamiliar hot and mosquito-riddled environment of the Niger region.
At one point he returned to Timbuktu in September 1593 where he became increasingly involved with a dispute with the city's ulema (Islamic scholars), some of whom had complained to Sultan Al-Mansur in Marrakesh about the brutality of the Saadian troops.
Judar, who had the support of the troops, remained more or less in command of the Saadians in the region, though other pashas were sometimes sent afterward from Morocco and many of them also quickly met untimely ends.
[15] In the end, Moroccan control had been tenuously established over a large region stretching between Kukiya (also spelled Koukya or Koukiya) and Djenné, around the northern curve of the Niger River.