mali was know as the dynastic state in west africa but during the regime of Sonni Ali the Songhai empire surpassed the malian empire in area, wealth and power absorbing vast areas of the mali empire and reached it greatest extent.
Songhai empire, also spelled Songhay, great trading state of West Africa (flourished 15th–16th century), centred on the middle reaches of the Niger River in what is now central Mali and eventually extending west to the Atlantic coast and east into Niger and Nigeria.
