East of the Niger bend, the Songhay state remained outside direct Almoravid intervention. Its relative political shelter did not mean isolation from the wider trans-Saharan world. Marble tombstones from Andalusia dated between 1100 and 1120 indicate closer relations with the Almoravid empire across the desert, while Gao continued to trade mainly with the central Maghrib through Wargla.

The kings of Songhay had been Muslims since the tenth century, but the available king lists contain no Muslim names before the thirteenth century. Sauvaget interpreted the Muslim names of kings who died between 1100 and 1120 as evidence of recent conversion. Al-Bakri’s account further suggested that only Muslims could succeed to the kingship, perhaps meaning that conversion occurred at the moment of election.

Islamic affiliation at court remained partial and nominal in character. Pre-Islamic customs persisted in the royal court, indicating that political succession and religious practice did not immediately conform to a fully Islamic model. During the twelfth century, most of Gao’s trade went to the central Maghrib by way of Wargla, while only a few caravans arrived from Sijilmasa.

Songhay later entered the western Sudanese imperial system through the expansion of Mali. It first became a vassal and, from the fifteenth century onward, eventually ruled a vast empire. The excerpt therefore presents the twelfth-century Songhay state as a polity connected to the Maghrib but still relatively separate from political events west of the Niger bend.