>>17928186
Jean Boulègue's analysis of the sizes of Sudanese armies is interesting. We can deduce that the Askias could in theory mobilize 40,000 combatants. Songhai had in fact three permanent army corps of nearly 4,600 men each, one in Tendirma under the command of the Balma'a, another in Gao under the command of Askia, and another in Dendi, the region downstream from Kukiya, the religious and historical capital of Songhai. This army corps located on the south-eastern border of the Empire being the least powerful of the three. The rest of the Songhai army was made up of the fluvial flotilla of 2,000 canoes commanded by the Hi-Koi, admiral and Minister of the Interior, one of the main dignitaries of the Empire. Contingents from vassalized kingdoms made up the bulk of the troops: Mossis, Dendis and Macinas provided the infantry. However, the arrival of the Moroccans cut the Empire in two, depriving the Askia Ishaq II of the Kurmina army corps and part of its flotilla, while the unrest at the borders prevented the Dendi army corps from coming in time.

The civil war, which had divided the Empire, had also divided the army in two, Askia Ishaq II could not mobilize the forces of the West whose headquarters were in Timbuktu and Djenné, that is to say, behind the lines of Judar. In theory, he only had the two professional army corps of Gao and Dendi, part of his fluvial flotilla and Tuareg and Gourma allies difficult to estimate. The Tarikh al-fattash which offers 18,000 cavalry and 9,700 infantry also gives a more accurate picture of a Songhai army cut off from its professional contingents and more than essentially made up of a noble knighthood.