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Link :
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The Mongol Invasion and the Destruction of Baghdad

Nov. 17 Uncategorized 54 comments

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, unif ied 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 Europes German states.

By the 1220s, Genghis Khans 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 campaigns 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 alDins 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 scientif ic 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 Baghdads 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 Hulagus 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.
<http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/25/050425fa_fact4>.
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.