Islam after the CrusadesCh. 11.7-11.8

11.7 The Mongol Invasion

Muslims faced the Mongols• Nomadic people whose homeland was in the north of China• Began wars of conquest under their leader, Genghis Khan

Mongols swept across central Asia, destroying cities and farmland• Hundreds of thousands of Muslims were slaughtered• Some were carried off to Mongolia as slaves

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan (Khan means king in Mongolian)

• Genghis Khan was the man who led the Mongol attack on Islamdom. He was followed by his grandson Hulagu (or Halaku) Khan. These two bold visionaries freed all of Persia and most of Mesopotamia from the yoke of Islam and almost destroyed Islam.

• What is meant by this phrase “yoke of Islam?”

• His intention was not primarily to loot, but to destroy the enemy.

• Had the Mongols been motivated purely by intentions of looting the Caliphate (which ironically was itself a center where loot was collected and stored by the Muslims), the Mongols need not have traversed some four thousand miles from their homeland in Mongolia, to reach Baghdad, they could have as well attacked nearby Japan and Korea which were hardly a few hundred miles from their homeland and were more rich and endowed than Baghdad.

Why did the Mongols attack Islam?

• Historians believe that the real reason why the Mongol horsemen made their way from Mongolia and started rolling back the Muslims was in response savage cruelty and other foul tactics which the Muslims had used to convert the Turks and Mongols to Islam. This had led to a gradual accumulation of bitterness and a desire for revenge against the Muslims amongst the Turks and their related clans the Mongols.

Islam was almost destroyed• Under Genghis Kahn:• the Mongols had built an empire that stretched across much

of Asia• Defeated the Seljuk Turks and seized parts of Persia• The Muslims were able to stop the Mongol advance• Led by the Mamluks, whose capital was in Cairo

Mamluk warriors• The Mamluks were an elite corps of

warrior-slaves, mostly from Turkic or Kurdish Central Asia, but also including some Christians from the Caucasus region of south-eastern Europe. Captured and sold as young boys, they were carefully groomed for life as military men. Being a Mamluk became such an honor that some free-born Egyptians reportedly sold their sons into slavery so that they too could become Mamluks.

The battle of Ayn Jalut• Defeated the Mongols at this important battle in Palestine• Mamluks continued to Rule Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Arabia,

and parts of Anatolia for 300 years

Mongols began converting to Islam

• Helped bring unity to their empire• Made Persian the language of government• Rebuilt cities they had destroyed and encouraged learning, the

arts, and trade• The end of the Mongol threat made possible one of the largest

empires the world has ever seen; the Ottoman Empire.

11.8 Muslim Empires and the Expansion of IslamIn the early 1300s, a Turk named Osman I started the Ottoman dynasty in northern Anatolia. They conquered new lands in Anatolia (modern day Turkey) and southeastern Europe

Advance was stopped for a time by a new enemy, Timur Lang• Came from Mongol tribe• Began building his own empire in the late 1300s• Controlled Iraq and much of central Asia• Invaded India, Syria, and Anatolia• Defeated the Ottoman Empire at Ankara in Anatolia

Ottomans were on the brink of collapse, but after Timur’s death, they regained control of their lands

The Ottoman Empire Expands• Captured Constantinople, bringing an end to the Byzantine

Empire• City was renamed Istanbul and became the Ottoman capital• Destroyed the Mamluk Empire (who had once turned back the

Mongol invaders)• Conquered Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Arabia• Took parts of southeaster Europe, North Africa, Persia, and

Turkey

Religious Tolerance

Jews, Christians, and Muslims had their own local communities called millets Allowed to govern themselves Christian men were converted to Islam

Empire declined after 1700

Muslims in Persia founded the Safavid dynasty• Their shahs, or rulers, soon controlled parts of Iraq as well as

Persia Shi’a Muslims

The Mughal Empire

A third Muslim empire was founded by Babur, a descendant of both Genghis Khan and Timur• Invaded India and founded the Mughal Empire• Arabic for “mongol”• Traders brought Islam across the Indian Ocean to southeast

Asia

• Today, Indonesia has more Muslims than any other country in the world