The Mongol Invasion and the Destruction of Baghdad
The 1200s started out looking good for the Islamic world. The Crusaders had been defeated and
Jerusalem liberated in 1187,
the Ismaili Fatimids had finally been removed from harassing the Muslim
world in the mid-1100s, and a powerful Khwarazmian Empire had emerged
in Persia. However, all that would soon turn around when the ruthless
Mongols would make their way into Southwest Asia. The destruction and
devastation they left in their path has scarcely been seen anywhere else
in history.
Who Are The Mongols?
The Mongols were a tribe of nomads from Central/North Asia. They
lived on the steppe of that region, relying on a nomadic lifestyle of
constant movement as a way of life. They were forever dependent on and
attached to their horses, which was their main mode of transportation.
Religiously, they were polytheistic animists. They never established a
large, organized empire, and instead stayed as a loose coalition of
tribes north of China.
Throughout history, they were usually at war with their neighbors.
China to the south in fact built the Great Wall of China during the
reign of Emperor Shi Huang (247-221 BC) as a means to keep the Mongols
and others away from their villages. The Mongols also feuded with other
tribal groups in Central Asia such as Turkic tribes and the Tatars.
Genghis Khan
Mongolian (and world) history changed forever during the rule of
Genghis Khan. He was a tribal chief for the Mongols from 1206-1227.
During his reign, he managed to unite the many Mongol tribes along with
numerous Turkic tribes as well. With a large, unified group, he set
about conquering any and all land the Mongol horsemen could reach.
He conquered most of Northern China in the 1210s. In doing so, he
destroyed the Xia and Jin dynasties, as well as conquered Beijing. He
also managed to conquer most of the Turkic tribes of Central Asia,
leading all the way into Persia. This led him to send armies into
Eastern Europe as well, attacking Russian lands and even the borders of
Central Europe’s German states.
By the 1220s, Genghis Khan’s armies had ravaged much of Asia and even Europe
More important than
what Genghis Khan conquered was
how
he conquered. He deliberately used terror as a weapon of war. If a city
he was besieging gave up without a fight, its people would usually be
spared but would have to go under Mongol control. If the city fought
against the Mongols, everyone, including civilians, would be massacred.
This reign of terror is a large part of why he was such a successful
conqueror. People were more willing to give up than to suffer massacres
at his hand. For example, when he besieged the city of Herat, in
present-day Afghanistan,
he killed over 1,600,000 people.
The Invasion of the Muslim World
Besides some raids and massacres on the borderlands of Islam, Genghis
Khan did not invade far into the Muslim world. Under his successor,
Ogedei, the Muslim world continued to be spared Mongol wrath. However,
in 1255 that peace would end. The Great Khan, Mongke, put his brother
Hulagu Khan in charge of an army whose goals were to conquer Persia,
Syria, and Egypt, as well as to destroy the Abbasid Caliphate. The
campaign’s goal appears to be a complete destruction of Islam. Hulagu
himself even had a very deep hatred for everything attached to Islam.
Much of this came from his Buddhist and Christian advisors who
influenced his policies.
The Muslim world at this time was in no position to resist the Mongol
attacks. The Abbasid Caliphate was nothing but a shell of its former
self, having no power outside of Baghdad. Most of Persia was disunited
as the Khwarazmian Empire had mostly deteriorated by then. The Ayyubid
state established by Salah al-Din was only in control of small parts of
Iraq and Syria. In Egypt, a recent revolution had overthrown Salah
al-Din’s descendants and brought to power the new Mamluk Sultanate. With
his giant army of hundreds of thousands, Hulagu did not encounter much
resistance.
The Destruction of Baghdad
Baghdad had been established in 762 by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur.
Throughout its history, it had been the capital of the Muslims, as well
as the world in general. The libraries of Baghdad were unrivaled. The
House of Wisdom, established soon after the city was built, was a magnet
for the most intelligent scientists, thinkers, mathematicians, and
linguists of the world. The caliphs were patrons of literature, science,
and the arts.
Although by the mid-1200s much of the glamour and importance of
Baghdad was gone. The caliphs were figureheads more interested in
worldly pleasures than serving God through serving the people. The
Abbasid army was effectively non-existent, and only served as bodyguards
of the caliph. And the scientific achievements of the Muslim world were
now centered in places such as Cairo, Muslim Spain, and India.
The Mongol army besieging Baghdad
It was at this historic and landmark city that the Mongols arrived in
1258. Their army, estimated at over 150,000 soldiers, stood before the
city that was just a shadow of the great capital of the Muslim world of
the 800s. The siege began in mid-January and only lasted two weeks. On
February 13th, 1258, the Mongols entered the city of the caliphs.
A full week of pillage and destruction commenced. The Mongols showed
no discretion, destroying mosques, hospitals, libraries, and palaces.
The books from Baghdad’s libraries were thrown into the Tigris River in
such quantities that the river ran black with the ink from the books.
The world will never truly know the extent of what knowledge was lost
forever when those books were thrown into the river or burned.
More important than the books, however, was the loss of life. It is
estimated that between 200,000 and 1,000,000 people were butchered in
that one week of destruction. Baghdad was left completely depopulated
and uninhabitable. It would take centuries for Baghdad to regain any
sort of prominence as an important city.
Defeat and Aftermath
After Baghdad, the Mongols continued on westward. They conquered
Syria from the Ayyubids, with help from the Armenians and neutrality
from the Crusaders. In Palestine they reached the extent of their
conquests. The new Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, under the leadership of
Baibars defeated the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260. This
prevented a Mongol invasion of the Holy Lands of Makkah, Madinah, and
Jerusalem. This also ensured the safety of the only remaining powerful
Muslim empire of the time, the Mamluks.
Despite ultimately being unsuccessful in their attempt to destroy
Islam, the Mongols left a deep political, economic, and military scar in
the heart of the Muslim world. Entire regions were depopulated.
Irrigation canals, fields of crops, and economic infrastructure were
destroyed beyond repair. The political institutions, such as the
caliphate, that held the Muslim world together for centuries were simply
abolished.
The empire established by Hulagu stretched over most of Muslim Southwest Asia
The Mongol Il-Khanate established by Hulagu’s descendants would rule
over Persia, Iraq, and Anatolia for over 100 years. Over decades and
centuries, the Mongols in Southwest Asia slowly converted to Islam and
became absorbed in a Persian/Turkish culture. But there is no denying
the immense negative effect the Mongols had on the Muslim world in the
1200s.
The Mongol invasion is one of the most demoralizing times of Islamic
history. The death and destruction of the 1200s has not yet been seen
again in the Muslim world. While most articles on this website
illustrate the great achievements of Islamic history, it is similarly
important to be aware of the negatives, particularly what causes them to
occur. The Muslim world was largely unable to repel the Mongol invasion
due to disunity and weak political and military institutions.
Throughout Islamic history, disunity has always led to invasion and
defeat, while unity has led to great Islamic empires that benefited the
entire world.
Bibliography:
Frazier, Ian. “Invaders: Destroying Baghdad.”
New Yorker. 25 2005: n. page. Web. 17 Nov. 2012.
.
Ochsenwald, William, and Sydney Fisher.
The Middle East: A History. 6th. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Print.
Saunders, JJ.
A History of Medieval Islam. London: Routledge, 1965. Print.
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