15 Feb, 2007
The relatively unknown story of how the Jihadis tormented the Mongols and Turks leading to a fierce and vicious counter-attack by the Mongols on Islamdom from 1200 to 1258. An attack that was fiercer than the Crusades and which nearly wiped out Islam.
Reasons for the Mongol attack on Islamdom
Many Muslim historians look upon the Mongols as looters and plunderers. They tell us that the Mongols were like the Goths and Vandals, destroying everything in their way with the only aim to loot established rich civilizations. These historians allege that the civilization of the Muslims at Baghdad was the richest in the 13th century. This is wrong, while Baghdad was a rich and well endowed city, the Caliphate owed its riches to the constant looting of Persia, Central Asia, North Africa, Spain which the Muslim armies had been indulging from the beginning of Islam in 630 C.E., till they were checked by Charles Martel in France in 732 C.E. and till their brutal march across Central Asia towards China was reversed with equal brutality by the Mongols from 1200 C.E.
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The Man who almost destroyed Islam – Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan attacked the Persian Muslim Khwarazmian empire of Samarkand to avenge the attacks being launched by the Arab and Persian Muslims in to Tartary (Central Asia). 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.
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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 liberated all of Persia and most of Mesopotamia from the yoke of Islam and almost destroyed Islam.
Genghis Khan had attacked the Persian Muslim Khwarazmian empire of Samarkand to avenge the attacks being launched by the Arab and Persian Muslims in to Tartary (Central Asia). 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.
The real reason why the Mongol horsemen made their way from Mongolia and started rolling back the Muslims from areas which are today known as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, finally reaching Iran, Iraq, and Syria lay in the subterfuge, 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.
Foul tactics used by Muslims and their legendary cruelty against the Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kazaks, led to the Mongol invasion of Iran and Iraq
From the seventh to the thirteenth centuries many Persian Zoroastrians, the Persian Nestorian Christians, the Turks, Chinese and the Mongols had nursed within themselves a grievance against the savagery which Muslims used to convert the non-Muslim population of Persia and Central Asia to Islam.
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The Mongol attack on Islamdom was a collective expression of resistance to Islam from the pre-Islamic Persians who had settled in China and Mongolia, and the Turks who had been waging a struggle against Islam in the 8th to the 10th centuries. It was a result of historical wrongs committed by the Arab Muslims on the Zoroastrian Persians, and by the Arab Muslims along with the Islamized Persians on the Turks, and in turn, by the Arabs along with the Islamized Persians and the Islamized Turks on non-Islamic Turks, Mongols and Chinese.
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It was this accumulation of grievances that led to the burst of the Mongol attack on Islamdom from 1200 that culminated in the sack and slaughter at Baghdad in 1258 under Hulagu Khan who was egged on to this path by his Nestorian Persian Christian wife. Historians have failed to interpret the attack of the Mongols on Muslim Persia, and the Middle East as the Turko-Mongol counterattack on Islam as were the Crusades, which were the Christian counterattack against Islam in the 11th century.
We shall examine this in detail the chapter on the Mongol resistance to Islam, before some of the Mongols themselves succumbed Islam and carried forward the Muslim tradition of subterfuge and savagery to other non-Muslim people. Suffice it to note here that Hulagu’s attack on Islamdom was a collective expression of resistance to Islam from the pre-Islamic Persians who had settled in China and Mongolia, and the Turks who had been waging a struggle against Islam in the 8th to the 10th centuries. It was a result of historical wrongs committed by the Arab Muslims on the Zoroastrian Persians, and by the Arab Muslims along with the Islamized Persians on the Turks, and in turn, by the Arabs with the Islamized Persians and the Islamized Turks on non-Islamic Turks, Mongols and Chinese.
Humble Origins of Genghis Khan
In 1200, a Mongol named Temujin (Temüjin) rose as a khan over his and various other clans by dint of extraordinary bravery and skill at warfare. He was a good manager, collecting under him people of talent. He was vassal to Ong Khan, titular head of a confederacy that differed in its being better organized than the other, normally scattered clans of Mongols. Temujin expressed his loyalty and joined Ong Khan in a military campaign against Tatars to their east. In 1202, Temujin defeated these Tatars, and with this success, the aging Ong Khan declared Temujin his adoptive son and heir.
Ong Khan's natural son, Senggum (Senggüm), had been expecting to succeed his father, and plotted to assassinate Temujin. Someone leaked the plans to Temujin. Those loyal to Temujin defeated those loyal to Senggum, and Temujin became ruler of what had been Ong Khan's coalition. In 1206, Temujin the adopted son, took the title Universal Ruler, which translates to Genghis Khan. Genghis (Changez) Khan’s Invasion of Central Asia and Iran
The Nestorian (Persian) Christian influence on the Mongols
The Mongols had living among them a significant number of descendants from the Zoroastrian and Nestorian (Persian) Christian refugees who had fled the Muslim persecution in Persia since the 7th century and had settled in Western China and Mongolia. Among the Nestorian (Persian) Christian refugees many had intermarried with the Mongols and held powerful positions of influence within the Mongol ruling hierarchy. They had also made many Christian converts among the powerful Mongol clans.
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In the 13th century, the Mongols finally decided to repel the Muslims who had been making incursions from Kazakhstan into Western Mongolia and China for six hundred years. But in this interregnum of six hundred years, Nestorian Christianity had also made some headway among the Mongol elite at least, certainly those of Kereit clan in origin, most notably the womenfolk in the royal family. The Persian Christian religious identity and activities of Dokuz Khatun, Hulagu’s wife, is documented. Mention can be made of other notable Christian Mongols, such as Kitbugha and Il-Siban, respectively the military commander of Syria in 1260 and the governor (shihna or na’ib) of Damascus who were also Nestorian Mongol Christians.
We need to realize that the ultimate cause for the Mongol attack on Islamdom were the Muslim attacks on Tartary from Persia from 650 upto 1250.
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But the Zoroastrian Persians who lived among the Mongols were not allowed to propagate the Zoroastrian faith according to the tenets of their own faith, and so they dwindled in number over the six hundred years in their adopted homeland of China and Mongolia. It was after a six hundred year interregnum starting from the Muslim occupation of Persia in 650, up to 1250 that the Mongols finally decided to repel the Muslims who were making further incursions from Kazakhstan into Western Mongolia and China.
But in this interregnum of six hundred years, Nestorian Christianity had made some headway among the Mongol elite at least, certainly those of Kereit clan, most notably the womenfolk in the royal family. The Persian Christian religious identity and activities of Dokuz Khatun, Hulagu’s wife, is documented. Mention can be made of other notable Christian Mongols, such as Kitbugha and Il-Siban, respectively the military commander of Syria in 1260 and the governor (Shihna or Na’ib) of Damascus who were also Nestorian Mongol Christians.
The Christian and Zoroastrian influences on the Mongols to attack Islamdom, found an immediate provocation for war when a Mongol caravan of several hundred merchants approached a recently acquired Central Asian provinces of the Persian Muslim Khwarazmian empire at Samarkand. The sultan of this kingdom claimed that there were spies in the caravan. Genghis Khan sent envoys, and the sultan had the chief of the envoys killed and the beards of the others burned, and these others he sent back to Genghis Khan. This affront was the last straw and Genghis retaliated, sending his army westwards towards the Persian Muslim Khwarazmian empire of Samarkand.
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President Bush with Mongol horsemen. President Bush can as well learn a lot from the Mongols who were the only ones in History to have come nearest to destroy Islam. The failure of the Mongols to do so was due to the fact that although they hated the Muslims, they did not realize that the brutality of the Muslims originated from Islam and eventually the Mongols themselves embraced Islam to become part of the Muslim psyche they so hated to begin with.
Any one who wants to fight the Muslims, needs to understand Islam, and he needs to fight Islam and not just its practitioners – the Muslims. Or else, like the Mongols, after defeating the Muslims on the battlefield, that leader would end up embracing Islam, and become a part of the problem he started out to unravel.
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In the coldest of months the Mongols rode across the desert to Transoxiana with no baggage, slowing to the pace of merchants before appearing as warriors before the smaller towns of the sultan's empire. Their strategy was to frighten their opponents into surrendering without battle, benefiting the Sultan’s own troops, whose lives he valued.
Those frightened into surrender were spared violence, those who resisted were slaughtered as an example for others, which sent many fleeing and spreading panic from the first border towns upto the major city of Bukhara. People in Bukhara opened the city's gates to the Mongols and surrendered. Genghis Khan told them that they, the common people, were not at fault, that high-ranking people among them had committed great sins that inspired God to send him and his army as punishment. Subsequent to the fall of Bukhara, the Sultan's capital city, Samarkand, also surrendered. The Sultan’s army surrendered, and he fled.
Genghis Khan and his army pushed more deeper into the Sultan's empire - into Afghanistan and then Persia. It is said that the Caliph in Baghdad was hostile toward the Sultan and supported Genghis Khan, sending him a regiment of European crusaders who had been his prisoners. Genghis, having no need for infantry, freed them, with those making it to Europe spreading the first news of the Mongol conquests.
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The Mongol horsemen came as a whirlwind into Islamdom, and pierced through Islamic countries as a hot knife trough cheese, overwhelming Islam utterly. Initially the Mongols did not torture, mutilate or maim the Muslims, but their Muslims enemies did. Captured Mongols were dragged through streets and killed for sport and to entertain city residents. To begin with the Mongols did not partake in the gruesome displays that Muslim rulers often resorted to elicit fear and discourage the Mongols - none of the patented Muslim torture and mutilation practices that had been happening under Muslim rule happened initially in Bukhara or Samarkand which were overrun by the Mongols. Only after the Mongols were provoked by Muslim torture like stretching, emasculating, belly cutting and hacking to pieces, were the Mongols far more ruthless than their Muslim foes and that led to the wholesale slaughter of Muslims by the Mongols at Baghdad.
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Genghis Khan had 100,000 to 125,000 horsemen, with his Uighur and Turkic allies, engineers and Chinese doctors -- a total of from 150,000 to 200,000 men. To show their submission, some Uighurs offered food to the Mongols, and Genghis Khan's force guaranteed them protection. Some cities surrendered without fighting. In cities the Mongols were forced to conquer, after killing its fighting men, Genghis divided the survivors by profession. He drafted the few who were literate and anyone who could speak various languages. Those who had been the city's most rich and powerful he wasted no time and killed them, remembering that the rulers he had left behind after conquering the Tangut and Ruzhen had betrayed him soon after his army had withdrawn.
The Mongol Invasion marks the first successful defeat of the Islamic Caliphate by non-Muslims
Initially the Mongols did not torture, mutilate or maim the Muslims, but their Muslims enemies did. Captured Mongols were dragged through streets and killed for sport and to entertain city residents. To begin with the Mongols did not partake in the gruesome displays that Muslim rulers often resorted to elicit fear and discourage the Mongols - none of the patented Muslim torture and mutilation practices that had been happening under Muslim rule happened initially in Bukhara or Samarkand which were overrun by the Mongols. Only after the Mongols were provoked by Muslim torture like stretching, emasculating, belly cutting and hacking to pieces, were the Mongols far more ruthless than their Muslim foes and that led to the wholesale slaughter of Muslims by the Mongols at Baghdad.
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The Mongols were a peace-loving nomadic pastoral people who kept to themselves till they had been provoked by Muslim incursions in to their homeland. Before Islam, there is no record of a Mongol invasion anywhere, neither do we hear of Mongol ruthlessness. But when the Mongols were provoked by the Muslims, their instincts for self-preservation were aroused and they slaughtered their Muslim tormentors by the millions - literally at Tabriz, Shiraz and Baghdad.
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But when the Mongols were provoked, they were far more ruthless than their Muslim foes. When the city of Nishapur revolted against Mongol rule and the Genghis Khan's son-in-law was killed, it is said, his daughter asked that everyone in the city be put to death, and, according to the story, they were.
The Mongol encounter with the Crusaders
While Genghis Khan was consolidating his conquests in Persia and Afghanistan, a force of 40,000 Mongol horsemen pushed through Azerbaijan and Armenia. They defeated Georgian crusaders, captured a Genoese trade-fortress in the Crimea and spent the winter along the coast of the Black Sea. As they were headed back home they met 80,000 warriors led by Prince Mistitslav of Kiev. The battle of Kalka River (1223) commenced. Staying out of range of the crude weapons of peasant infantry, and with better bows than opposing archers, they devastated the prince's standing army. Facing the prince's cavalry, they faked a retreat, drawing the armored cavalry forward, taking advantage of the vanity and over-confidence of the mounted aristocrats. Lighter and more mobile, they strung out and tired the pursuers and then attacked, killed and routed them.
In 1225, Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia. He now ruled everything between the Caspian Sea and Beijing. He looked forward to the Mongols benefits of caravan trade and drawing tribute from agricultural peoples in the west and east. He created an efficient pony express system. Wanting no divisions rising from religion, he declared freedom of religion throughout his empire. Favoring order and tax producing prosperity, he forbade troops and local officials to abuse people.
But soon again, Genghis Khan was at war. He believed that the Tangut were not living up to their obligations to his empire. In 1227, around the age of sixty-five, while leading the fighting against the Tangut, Genghis Khan, it is said, fell off his horse and died.
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A Mongol Horseman who could be unimaginably ruthless if provoked. We have an example of this when Hulagu Khan had asked the Abbasid caliph, al-Muta'sim, to recognize Mongol sovereignty. But the arrogant Khalifah (Caliph) who called himself the prince of the faithful (Ameer-ul-Momeenin) overconfident of his own prestige, sent word to the conqueror that any attack on his capital would mobilize the entire Muslim world, from India to north west Africa (Much like the Jihadis today threaten Bush, Blair and the Western world).
Not in the least impressed by the Caliph’s boastful threats, the grandson of Genghis Khan announced his intention of taking the city of Baghdad by force. Towards the end of 1257 he led hundreds of thousands of Mongol cavalrymen who began advancing towards the Abbasid capital - Baghdad. On their way they destroyed the Assassin’s (Hashishin) sanctuary at Alamut and sacked it’s library where the Assassins had collected techniques of murder and terror, thus making it for impossible for future generations to gain any in-depth knowledge of the evil doctrine and nefarious activities of this sect. Thus the Mongol’s did a service to humankind with this one act.
The massacre of the Assassins at Alamut, presaged what to come soon thereafter at Baghdad, which was then the seat of the Islamic Caliphate (Khilafat).
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Taking opportunity of Genghis Khan’s death, the Iranians rose in revolt, overthrew their Mongol overlords and slaughtered the Mongol garrisons. In response the next Padishah (Emperor) Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis, launched the second invasion of Iran. It was now onwards that the Mongols became ferocious in their treatment of the Muslim residents of Iran and other countries they overran. (Note: The title Padishah for king was derived from the old Avestan term Pati-Kshatra which means head of the warriors. The use of this term for their King by the Mongols, displays the influence that Persian (Zoroastrian) culture had on the Mongols. This was due to the presence of a significant number of Zoroastrian and Christian (Nestorian) Persian refugees and mercenary soldiers amongst the Mongols from the 7th up to the 13th centuries)
The Mongol's besiege and capture Baghdad in 1258
Prior to his invasion of the Middle East, Hulagu asked the Abbasid caliph, al-Muta'sim, the thirty-seventh of his dynasty, to recognize Mongol sovereignty as his predecessors had once accepted the rule of the Seljuk Turks who were of a clan distantly related with the Mongols.
The Khalifah (Caliph) who called himself the prince of the faithful (Ameer-ul-Momeenin as does Osama Bin Laden today) overconfident of his own prestige, sent word to Hulagu Khan that any attack on his capital would mobilize the entire Muslim world, from India to north west Africa. Not in the least impressed, the grandson of Genghis Khan announced his intention of taking the city of Baghdad by force.
Towards the end of 1257 he lead hundreds of thousands of Mongol cavalrymen who began advancing towards the Abbasid capital. On their way they destroyed the Assassin’s (Hashishin) sanctuary at Alamut and sacked it’s library where the Assassins had collected techniques of murder and terror, thus making it for impossible for future generations to gain any in-depth knowledge of the evil doctrine and nefarious activities of the sect. When the caliph finally realized the extent of the threat, he chickened out and decided to negotiate.
The Caliph’s envoy, Ibn al-Jawzi arrived from Baghdad bearing a message filled with entreaties for Hulagu to turn back, in exchange for which the caliph would remit whatever would be agreed upon to the treasury annually. The Caliph also proposed that Hulagu’s name be pronounced at Friday sermons in the mosques of Baghdad and that he be granted the title “Sultan”. But it was too late, for by now the Mongol emperor had definitely opted for force. After a few weeks of desperate resistance, the “prince of the faithful(sic)” had no choice but to capitulate.
The use of deceit by Hulagu to secure Baghdad and slaughter its defenders and residents
Hulagu Khan had ridden against Baghdad - the capital of the Caliphate from all directions and hemmed in the Abbasid caliph in an impossible position. Fearing that Baghdad would be destroyed, the caliph and his three sons, Abu'1-Fadl Abdul-Rahman, Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad, and Abu'l-Managib Mubarak, came out on Sunday the 4th of Safar 656 [February 10, 1258]. With him were three thousand Sayyids (nobles), imams (priests), and dignitaries of the city.
When the Caliph shivering with fright approached Padishah Hulagu Khan, the Padishah did not exhibit any anger but asked after his health kindly and pleasantly. This was a leaf that the Khan had taken out of the book of Muslim psychological war of playing a ‘cat-and-mouse’ game with an enemy he had ensnared. After that he said to the Caliph, “Tell the people of the city to throw down their weapons and come out so that we may make a count.” The caliph sent word into the city for it to be heralded that the people should throw down their weapons and come out.
The Muslim defenders of the seat of the Khalifah disarmed themselves and came out in droves to the Mongols.
But Hulagu had given his word to the Caliph in deceit. As soon as they were disarmed, as had been premeditated amongst the Mongols all the Muslim fighters were exterminated. After that the Mongol horde fanned out through the prestigious city demolishing buildings, burning neighborhoods, and mercilessly massacring men, women, and children.
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The way in which the victorious Hulagu Khan humiliated the defeated Last Caliph Musta'sim, was history’s ironical way of seeking retribution for the humiliation of the last Persian Emperor Yazdgard in the same city (then known as Ctesiphon) in 637 by the victorious Arab Muslims. In one full swoop the Mongol army went into Baghdad and burned everything except a few houses belonging to Nestorians and some foreigners. On Friday the 9th of Safar [February 15] Hulagu Khan went into the city to see the caliph's palace. He settled into the Octagon Palace and gave a banquet for the commanders. (In a way reminiscent of the way the Muslims had stormed the White Palace of the defeated Sassanid King six hundred years before at the same spot. History had avenged that injustice and humiliation)
Summoning the caliph, Hulagu said, “You are the host, and we are the guests. Bring whatever you have that is suitable for us.” The Caliph – the ruler of all Muslims, trembled in fear. He was so frenzied that he couldn't tell the keys to the treasuries one from another and had to have several locks broken. He brought two thousand suits of clothing, ten thousand dinars, precious items, jewel-encrusted vessels, and several gems. Hulagu Khan paid no attention and gave it all away to the commanders and others present.
Hulagu said to the trembling Caliph “The possessions you have on the face of the earth are apparent,” and added, “Tell my servants what and where your buried treasures are.” The caliph confessed that there was a pool full of gold in the middle of the palace. They dug it up, and it was full of gold, all in huge ingots. An order was given for the caliph's harem to be counted. There were seven hundred women and concubines and a thousand servants. When the caliph was apprised of the count of the harem, he begged and pleaded, saying, “Let me have the women of the harem, upon whom neither the sun nor the moon has ever shone.” Of these seven hundred, choose a hundred,” he was told, “and leave the rest.” The caliph selected a hundred women from among his favorites and close relatives and took them away. That night Hulagu Khan went to the Ordu (Mongol military camp) to ravish some of the Caliph’s most alluring wives and concubines!
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All the residents of Baghdad were slaughtered in cold blood. Howsoever, ghastly this act was, with this one act the Mongols repaid all the six hundred years of Muslim bloodshed. Nearly eighty thousand people in all were slaughtered in Baghdad in a matter of two days. Here Hulagu picked a leaf from the tactics of the Muslims and used it against them.
Only the Christian community was spared, thanks to the intercession of the Khan’s Christian wife. According to estimates, nearly 8,00,00 (Eight Hundred thousand) Muslims were slaughtered by the Mongols in and around Baghdad.
The end of the Caliphate with the slaying of the Caliph, and his family
After the carnage at Baghdad was done Hulagu ordered that the Caliph and his sons were to be taken captive and held as prisoners in tents at the Kalwadha Gate at Ket Buqa Noyan's camp. Several Mongols were set over them as guards. The caliph wept over his imminent doom and regretted having abandoned the battlefield and having rejected good advice.
The way Hulagu humiliated the defeated Last Caliph Musta'sim, which was history’s ironical way of seeking retribution for the humiliation of the last Persian Emperor Yazdgard in the same city in 637 (then known as Ctesiphon) by the victorious Arab Muslims
On Wednesday the 7th of Safar [February 13] the pillage and general massacre began. In one full swoop the Mongol army went into Baghdad and burned everything except a few houses belonging to Nestorians and some foreigners. On Friday the 9th of Safar [February 15] Hulagu Khan went into the city to see the caliph's palace. He settled into the Octagon Palace and gave a banquet for the commanders. (In a way reminiscent of the way the Muslims had stormed the White Palace of the defeated Sassanid King six hundred years before at the same spot. History had avenged that injustice and humiliation)
Summoning the caliph, Hulagu said, “You are the host, and we are the guests. Bring whatever you have that is suitable for us.” The caliph, thinking he was speaking seriously, trembled in fear. He was so frenzied that he couldn't tell the keys to the treasuries one from another and had to have several locks broken. He brought two thousand suits of clothing, ten thousand dinars, precious items, jewel-encrusted vessels, and several gems. Hulagu Khan paid no attention and gave it all away to the commanders and others present. Hulagu said to the trembling Caliph “The possessions you have on the face of the earth are apparent,” and added, “Tell my servants what and where your buried treasures are.” The caliph confessed that there was a pool full of gold in the middle of the palace. They dug it up, and it was full of gold, all in huge ingots. An order was given for the caliph's harem to be counted. There were seven hundred women and concubines and a thousand servants. When the caliph was apprised of the count of the harem, he begged and pleaded, saying, “Let me have the women of the harem, upon whom neither the sun nor the moon has ever shone.” Of these seven hundred, choose a hundred,” he was told, “and leave the rest.” The caliph selected a hundred women from among his favorites and close relatives and took them away. That night Hulagu Khan went to the Ordu (Mongol military camp) to ravish some of the Caliph’s most alluring wives and concubines.
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Hulagu Killed the Caliph, without spilling a drop of his blood on the ground.
After giving this order to cease all slaughter, Hulagu Khan decamped from Baghdad on Wednesday the 14th of Safar [February 20] on account of the foul air emanating from the rotting corpses and camped in the village of Waqaf-u-Jalabiyya. He sent one of his most fearsome commanders to conquer Khuzistan. Hulagu summoned the Caliph to Waqaf. Having been subjected to such bad commands before, he was extremely afraid.
At the end of the day on Wednesday the 14th of Safar 656 [February 20, 1258], the caliph, his eldest son, and five of his attendants were executed in the village of Waqaf. The next day the others who had camped with the Caliph at the Kalwadha Gate were also martyred. Next came the caliph’s turn. Here Hulagu faced a problem. According to Mongol ethics, no king could have his blood spilled on the ground. This would be ill omen. (The Mongols considered the Caliph to be a king of the Muslims). So Hulagu devised a novel way of killing the Caliph. He wrapped the Caliph in a thick carpet and they with his cavalry stomped the caliph to death. Thus the caliph died due to suffocation and the stomping, without his blood being spilled on the ground!
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The next morning Hulagu ordered Su'unchaq to go into the city, confiscate the caliph's possessions, and send them out. The items that had been accumulated over six hundred years, from the treasures of the Zoroastrian Persian Sassanids whom the Arab Muslims had defeated and plundered. These treasures were all stacked in mountainous piles. Most of the Muslim holy places like the caliph's mosque, the Musa-Jawad shrine, and the tombs in Rusafa were burned down.
Hulagu’s first mistake that led to the eventual defeat of the Mongols by the Muslims
While this terrible slaughter and destruction, was proceeding, the people of the city sent Sharafuddin Maragha'i, Shihabuddin Zanjani, and Malik Dilrast to request amnesty.
In response an order was given, saying, “Henceforth the killing and pillaging will cease, for the kingdom of Baghdad is ours. Let them dwell as they were, and let everyone get on with his business. Sheathe your swords, for they are granted quarter.” This was the first mistake that the Mongols did, for taking advantage of this amnesty, the Muslims began to re-organize and re-arm themselves, and waited for the day, when the Mongols would lower their guard, so that the Muslims could lunge at them when they least suspected and take the revenge that they so fervently sought against the Mongols.
How Hulagu Killed the Caliph, without spilling a drop of his blood on the ground
After giving this order to cease all slaughter, Hulagu Khan decamped from Baghdad on Wednesday the 14th of Safar [February 20] on account of the foul air emanating from the rotting corpses and camped in the village of Waqaf-u-Jalabiyya. He sent one of his most fearsome commanders to conquer Khuzistan.
Hulagu summoned the Caliph to Waqaf. Having been subjected to such bad commands before, he was extremely afraid and despaired for his life So to buy time he requested permission to go into the bath to renew his ablutions. Hulagu Khan said he could go in with five Mongols. To which the Caliphh replied “I don't want the companionship of five myrmidons of hell,” he said as he recited two or three lines from the Quran, the first line of which is as follows: We woke up in the morning in a palace like paradise, but we went to bed without a palace with which we could not dispense yesterday. Soon the Caliph’s worst fears were realized. At the end of the day on Wednesday the 14th of Safar 656 [February 20, 1258], the caliph, his eldest son, and five of his attendants were executed in the village of Waqaf. The next day the others who had camped with the Caliph at the Kalwadha Gate were also martyred. Next came the caliph’s turn. Here Hulagu faced a problem. According to Mongol ethics, no king could have his blood spilled on the ground. This would be ill omen. (The Mongols considered the Caliph to be a king of the Muslims). So Hulagu devised a novel way of killing the Caliph. He wrapped the Caliph in a thick carpet and they with his cavalry he stomped the caliph to death. Thus the caliph died due to suffocation and the stomping, without his blood spilling on the ground!
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In Iraq, the Mongols paid back the Muslims in the same coin of subterfuge, trickery and cruelty which was till then exclusively the signature of the Muslims. In fact, it was for this reason that the Mongols scored their spectacular victories against the Muslims and were the first non-Muslim power to storm the capital of the Islamic Caliphate of Baghdad. The reasons for the success of the Mongols should be a lesson for us Americans today. We realize that we Americans cannot be as gory as the Mongols were. But the point to note is that the Muslims only understand the language of blood and death, they respect only an adversary more ruthless than themselves, they despise qualities like chivalry, fair play, compassion, and forgiveness. These qualities, are for the Muslims, a signature of an adversary’s weakness and stupidity. We Americans who are the primary foes of the Jihadis today, need to realize what can succeed against the Muslims and use modern day equivalents of mass slaughter like our nuclear and neutron arsenal, to achieve what the blades of Mongol swords achieved in the 13th century.
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After the Caliph ws done in for, his other sons and relatives were stuffed into barrels which had nails protruding from the inside and they were rolled down a slope of a hill. This way even their blood was not spilled, and the hoary Mongol custom was honored. After this no Abbasid who could be found was left alive.
Hulagu’s second Mistake led to the gradual conversion of the Mongols to Islam
After this massacre of the Caliph’s family, only the Caliph's youngest son survived. Hulgau decided to spare him and he was given to Oljai Khatun, who sent him to Khwaja Nasiruddin in Maragha. He was married to a Mongol woman who bore him two sons. This was Hulagu’s second mistake. When he allowed the marriage of of Mongol women to captured Muslims and also of Muslim women to Mongol warriors, Islam made a back door entry into the Mongol camp, and influenced by their wives, the Mongol warriors slowly turned towards Islam and in a generation after Hulagu’s death, they openly started professing Islam. In fact it was these Muslim converts among the Mongols who invaded India and established the Mughal (derived from Mongol) kingdom.
By Friday the 16th of Safar [February 22] all the caliph’s sons and relatives were dispatched to their deaths and the reign of the House of Abbas, which had mounted the throne after the Umayyads, came to an end. Their caliphate had lasted five hundred twenty-five years, and there were thirty-seven Caliphs starting with Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Abu Muawiya ibn Sufyan of which Musta'sim, was the last one to be killed by Hulagu Khan.
Lessons from the Battle of Baghdad
In Iraq, the Mongols paid back the Muslims in thee same coin of subterfuge, trickery and cruelty which was till then exclusively the signature of the Muslims. In fact, it was for this reason that the Mongols scored their spectacular victories against the Muslims and were the first non-Muslim power to storm the capital of the Islamic Caliphate of Baghdad.
The reasons for the success of the Mongols should be a lesson for us Americans today.
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Hulagu’s march onwards from Baghdad and how the surrendered Muslims showed deference to the Mongols
On Friday the 23rd of Safar [March 1] Hulagu Khan left the environs of Baghdad and camped at Shaykh Makarim Dome. From there he proceeded stage by stage to the Mongol camp at Khanaqin established by the advance guard of the Mongol Cavalry. When Baghdad was besieged, several learned Alims had come from Hilla to request a Shahna (royal pardon as an instrument of surrender).
Hulagu Khan sent Tukal and Amir Nahli Nakhjiwani there, and on their heels he dispatched Oljai Khatun's brother Buqa Temiir to test the people of Hilla, Kufa, and Wasit. The inhabitants of Hilla, knowing what had happened at Baghdad, surrendered without a fight and came out to greet the Mongol army, made bridges over the Euphrates for the Mongols to cross over, and pretended to be joyous at the arrival of the Mongols.
The Shiites betrayed the Sunni ruling Caliphate and sold their loyalty to the Mongols in return for being spared their lives
In some measure this joy was real, for these Muslims were Shiites and they were happy to be relieved of the yoke of the Sunni Caliph. Much the same way as the Shiites welcome us for having overthrown Saddam.
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While fighting and defeating terrorism, we realize that we Americans cannot be as gory as the Mongols were. But the point to note is that the Muslims only understand the language of blood and death, they respect only an adversary more ruthless than themselves, they despise qualities like chivalry, fair play, compassion, and forgiveness. These qualities, are for the Muslims, a signature of an adversary’s weakness and stupidity. We Americans who are the primary foes of the Jihadis today, need to realize what can succeed against the Muslims and use modern day equivalents of mass slaughter like our nuclear and neutron arsenal, to achieve what the blades of Hulagu Khan’s swords achieved in the 13th century.
Hulagu’s march onwards from Baghdad and how the surrendered Muslims showed deference to the Mongols
On Friday the 23rd [March 1] of Safar Hulagu Khan left the environs of Baghdad and camped at Shaykh Makarim Dome. From there he proceeded stage by stage to the Mongol camp at Khanaqin established by the advance guard of the Mongol Cavalry. When Baghdad was besieged, several learned Alims had come from Hilla to request a Shahna (royal pardon as an instrument of surrender).
Hulagu Khan sent Tukal and Amir Nahli Nakhjiwani there, and on their heels he dispatched Oljai Khatun's brother Buqa Temiir to test the people of Hilla, Kufa, and Wasit. The inhabitants of Hilla, knowing what had happened at Baghdad, surrendered without a fight and came out to greet the Mongol army, made bridges over the Euphrates for the Mongols to cross over, and pretended to be joyous at the arrival of the Mongols. In some measure this joy was real, for these Muslims were Shiites and they were happy to be relieved of the yoke of the Sunni Caliph. Much the same way as the Shiites welcome us for having overthrown Saddam.
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After the sack of Wasit, Hulagu Khan went to Khuzistan, taking Sharafuddin Ibn al-Jawzi as a hostage with him to get the city of Shushtar to surrender. Some of the caliph's soldiers and Turks fled and others were killed. Basra and other towns like Najaf and Karbala also surrendered without a fight. Ironically, the chief Shiite cleric, Amir Sayfuddin Bitigchi pleaded with Hulagu Khan to send a hundred Mongols to Najaf to guard the shrine of the Commander of the Faithful Ali and the inhabitants there. Imagine Muslim seeking Kafirs to protect a Muslim shrine. This was Muslim morale at its abject lowest, an ebb, which it has rarely reached ever since.
But when faced with a tolerant and liberal adversary, the hallmark of Muslim psyche is their arrogance, cruelty and brazenness, as seen in Netherlands, UK (the Al Mujahiroun) in France and even in the USA (9/11 being just its most dramatic expression). But it was the Mongols under Genghis Khan and Hulagu Khan who taught the Muslims not just humility, but also servility for the short time during which they had trashed the Caliphate into the trashcan of history.
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The Mongol commander Buqa Temi saw no threat from the people of Hilla and Kufa and on the 10th of Safar [February 16, 1258] he marched on and set out for The Sunni majority fortress town of Wasit, arriving on the February 23. The people of Wasit did not surrender, so he camped and took the city, massacring and plundering. Nearly forty thousand people were put to death at Wasit, in the same way the Muslims had done when they had ravaged the same area then held by the Zoroastrian Persians in 637.
After the sack of Wasit, Hulagu Khan went to Khuzistan, taking Sharafuddin Ibn al-Jawzi as a hostage with him to get the city of Shushtar to surrender. Some of the caliph's soldiers and Turks fled and others were killed. Basra and other town in the area like Najaf and Karbala also surrendered without a fight. Ironically, the chief Shiite cleric, Amir Sayfuddin Bitigchi pleaded with the court to send a hundred Mongols to Najaf to guard the shrine of the Commander of the Faithful Ali and the inhabitants there. Imagine Muslim seeking Kafirs to protect a Muslim shrine. This was Muslim morale at its abject lowest, an ebb, which it has rarely reached ever since. When faced with a liberal and civilized adversary, the hallmark of Muslim psyche is their arrogance, cruelty and brazenness, as seen in Netherlands, UK (the Al Mujahiroun) in France and even in the USA (9/11 being just its most dramatic expression). But it was the Mongols under Genghis Khan and Hulagu Khan who taught the Muslims not just humility, but also servility for the short time during which they had trashed the Caliphate into the trashcan of history.
The Mongol Invasion of Syria and Palestine
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An extract from Hulagu’s letter to the Governor of Damascus; “We stopped in Baghdad in the year 656 (of the Muslim Calendar which translates as 1258 of the Gregorian calendar), and an evil morning it was unto those who were warned in vain. We called upon its lord (the Caliph) to surrender, but he refused, so he suffered. We chastised him with a heavy chastisement. Now we call upon you to obey us. If you come, well and good; if you refuse, woe betide you. Do not be like one who digs his own grave or bloodies his own nose lest you be one of those whose works are vain, whose endeavor in the present life hath been wrongly directed, and who think they do the work which is right. Neither will this be difficult with God. And peace be with him who follows the right path.”
Hulagu’s letters (rather ultimatums) to the Governor of Damascus and earlier to the Khalifah (caliph) of Islam were quite reminiscent of the letters the Muslim prophet Mohammed-ibn-Abadallah sent to the Persian and Byzantine Emperors to Embrace Islam and be safe, or face a Muslim Invasion. With Hulagu sending similar letters, it was the chickens coming home to roost!
This translation of Hulagu’s letter is from Jumi'u't-Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles): A History of the Mongols, translated by W.M. Thackston(Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures 45, 1998-99).
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On the 12th of Rabi` I [March 19] Buqa Temur arrived at the camp, and on the 19th [March 26] the emissaries from Aleppo and Damascus in Syria who had come to Baghdad were sent home carrying a letter to the people of Damascus and Aleppo Khwaja Nasiruddin Tusi had written in Arabic as per Hulagu Khan's order to do so. This letter stated : “We stopped in Baghdad in the year 656 (of the Muslim Calendar which translates as 1258 of the Gregorian calendar), and an evil morning it was unto those who were warned in vain. We called upon its lord (the Caliph) to surrender, but he refused, so he suffered. We chastised him with a heavy chastisement. Now we call upon you to obey us. If you come, well and good; if you refuse, woe betide you. Do not be like one who digs his own grave or bloodies his own nose lest you be one of those whose works are vain, whose endeavor in the present life hath been wrongly directed, and who think they do the work which is right. Neither will this be difficult with God. And peace be with him who follows the right path.” Damascus surrendered soon after.
Hulagu’s letter (rather ultimatum) to the Khalifah (caliph) of Islam was quite reminiscent of the letters the Muslim prophet Mohammed-ibn-Abadallah sent to the Persian and Byzantine Emperors to Embrace Islam and be safe, or face a Muslim Invasion. With Hulagu, it was the chickens coming home to roost! This translation of Hulagu’s letter is from Jumi'u't-Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles): A History of the Mongols, translated by W.M. Thackston (Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures 45, 1998-9).
Hulagu’s return to Mongolia and the consequent defeat of the Mongols in Palestine
The Mongol armies were thought to be unstoppable after they were able to overcome the defenses of both Baghdad and Damascus. In 1260 Hulagu sent envoys to Saif ad-Din Qutuz the Mamluk ruler in Cairo demanding his surrender; Quduz responded by killing the envoys and displaying their heads on the gates of the city. But unfortunately, as Qutuz prepared for a Mongol invasion, Hulagu returned home to attempt to seize power when his brother the Great Khan Mongke died.
Qutuz allied with a fellow Mamluk, Baubars, who had fled Syria after the Mongols captured Damascus. The Mongols also attempted to ally with the remnant of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, now centered on Acre, but Pope Alexander IV forbade this. The Christians remained neutral. This was the Cardinal Christian folly for which the Crusaders were to pay dearly very soon after the defeat of the Mongols at Ayn Jalut.
When Hulagu Khan departed from Syria, he sent a Mongol emissary with forty liege men on a mission to Egypt, saying, “God the great has elevated Genghis Khan and his progeny and given us the realms of the face of the earth altogether. Everyone who has been recalcitrant in obeying us has been annihilated along with his women, children, kith and kin, towns, and servants, as has surely reached the hearing of all. The reputation of our innumerable army is as well known as the stories of Rustam and Isfandiar. If you are in submission to our court, send tribute, come yourself, and request a Shahna (royal pardon as an instrument of surrender) otherwise be prepared for battle.”
The Mongol march towards Egypt
After sending this ultimatum, the Mongols overran Damascus and Aleppo, without much of a fight, they began to their march towards Egypt though Palestine. The Egyptians trembled at the thought that they would be the next to be slaughtered by the unstoppable Mongols. They decided to meet the Mongols before the enemy reached Egypt. So they sent out an army in Palestine. Both Muslim and Mongol armies encamped in Palestine in July of 1260.
At that time in Egypt had been ruled by a Muslim dynasty called the Kamilites. But in 1260 there was no one left of Kamilite lineage worthy of ruling, and a Turcoman upstart named Quduz had become ruler when the last Kamilite king had died. The king had left an infant child named Muhammad, who was elevated to his father's position with Quduz as his Atabeg (regent’s protector). But the child prince Muhammad was murdered by Quduz, who proclaimed himself the ruler of Egypt. He curried favor with the people through largesse. Most of the soldiers of the Muslim armies in Syria were the defeated troops of Sultan Jalaluddin who had fled from the gates of Baghdad and fled to Syria and then to Egypt ahead of the advancing Mongols. Their leaders and commanders were Barakat Khan and Malik Ikhtiyaruddin Khan.
When Hulagu Khan set out for Syria, they went into hiding in the surrounding areas, and after he pulled out, they reassembled and headed for Cairo in Egypt, where they told their sad story to Quduz of the merciless Mongol massacre of the Muslims in Baghdad and Damascus. Quduz showed them favor, sympathized with them, and gave them largesse in the form of resources and money. In turn they became wholehearted supporters of the upstart Quduz's rule.
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When the Mongol and Muslim armies finally met at Ain Jalut (in today’s Israel)on September 3, with both sides numbering about 20 000 men (the Mongol force was originally much larger, but Hulagu took most of it when he returned home). The Mamluks drew out the Mongol cavalry with a feigned retreat, and were almost unable to withstand the assault. Quduz rallied his troops for a successful counterattack, along cavalry reserves hidden in the nearby valleys. Quduz had stationed his troops in ambush and, himself mounted with a few others, stood waiting. When the unsuspecting, Ket Buqa arrived with the main Mongol cavalry, Quduz pounced on him clashed with him and his several thousand cavalry, all experienced warriors, at Ayn Jalut.
The Mongols attacked, raining down arrows, and Quduz pulled a feint and started to withdraw. Emboldened, the Mongols lit out after him, killing many of the Egyptians, but when they came to the ambush spot, the trap was sprung from three sides. A bloody battled ensued, lasting from dawn till midday.
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When the Mongol emissaries arrived, Quduz summoned the Muslim refugees from Baghdad and Damascus and consulted with them on what to do. They told him; “Hulagu Khan has proceeded from Turan with a huge army into Iran, and no one, caliph, sultan, or malik, has the ability to withstand his onslaught. Having conquered all lands, he has come to Damascus, and were it not for the news of his brother's death he would have added Egypt to his conquests too. In addition, he has stationed in this area Ket Buqa Noyan, who is like a raging lion and fire-breathing dragon lying in ambush. If he attacks Egypt, no one will be able to contend with him.”
In reply Quduz said, “At the present time, everywhere in Diyarbekir, Diyar Rabi'a, and Greater Syria is filled with lamentation. The land from Baghdad to Anatolia lies in ruins, devoid of farmers and seed. If we don't make a pre-emptive strike and try to repulse them, soon Egypt will be destroyed like the others. Given the multitudes with which he is proceeding in our direction, one of three things must be done: we must make a truce, offer resistance, or go into exile. Exile is impossible, for there is nowhere we can go other than North Africa, and a bloodthirsty desert and vast distances lie between us and there.” “A truce is also imprudent,” said Nasiruddin Qaymari, “for their (Mongol’s) word is not to be trusted.” The other commanders said, “We do not have the power to resist either. You must say what you think the best plan is.” ”My opinion,” said Quduz, “is that we go out to battle together. If we win, fine; otherwise, we will not suffer blame from the people.”
After that, the amirs agreed, and Quduz consulted with Bunduqdar, his chief amir, in private. “My opinion,” said Bunduqdar, “is that we should kill the Mongol emissaries and ride as one to attack Ket Buqa. Win or die, in either case we will not be blamed, and we will have people's gratitude.” Quduz approved this plan, and by night he had the emissaries beheaded and stuck their heads on poles at the gates of his capital city Al Fustat (Cairo).
Amir Baidar, who was the leader of the Mongol yazak [advance troop], sent a man to Ket Buqa Noyan to inform him of this outrage and of the movement of the Egyptian troops.
The Battle of Ayn Jalut (September 3, 1260)
When Ket Buqa heard of this he ordered his troops to prepare for battle and commended them to “Stay where you are and wait for me.” But before Ket Buqa arrived, Quduz attacked the Mongol advance guard and drove them to the banks of the Orontes. Ket Buqa Noyan, his zeal stirred, flared up like fire with all confidence in his own strength and might. The two armies finally met at Ain Jalut on September 3, with both sides numbering about 20 000 men (the Mongol force was originally much larger, but Hulagu took most of it when he returned home). The Mamluks drew out the Mongol cavalry with a feigned retreat, and were almost unable to withstand the assault. Quduz rallied his troops for a successful counterattack, along cavalry reserves hidden in the nearby valleys. Quduz had stationed his troops in ambush and, himself mounted with a few others, stood waiting. When the unsuspecting, Ket Buqa arrived with the main Mongol cavalry, Quduz pounced on him clashed with him and his several thousand cavalry, all experienced warriors, at Ayn Jalut.
The Mongols attacked, raining down arrows, and Quduz pulled a feint and started to withdraw. Emboldened, the Mongols rode out after him, killing many of the Egyptians, but when they came to the ambush spot, the trap was sprung from three sides. A bloody battle ensued, lasting from dawn till midday. The Mongols were powerless to resist, and in the end they were put to flight. Ket Buqa Noyan kept attacking left and right with all zeal. Some encouraged him to flee, but he refused to listen and said, “Death is inevitable. It is better to die with a good name than to flee in disgrace. In the end, someone from this army, old or young, will reach the court and report that Ket Buqa, not wanting to return in shame, gave his life in battle.
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After the battle of Ayn Jalut, the Muslim armies surged throughout Syria as far as the banks of the Euphrates, overthrowing everyone they found, plundering Ket Buqa's camp, taking captive his wife, child, and retainers, and killing the tax collectors.
Only those Mongols who were warned escaped, and when the news of Ket Buqa Noyan's death and his last words reached Hulagu Khan, he displayed his grief over his death and the fire of zeal flared up to avenge this defeat. But another Mongol invasion of the Muslim world was not to take place. Hulagu remained confined to the affairs of his homeland and could never bring himself to launch another invasion. After his death, the Mongol Golden Horde did rule the largest empire till then, that stretched from China to Muscovy (modern Moscow).
But a tendency that had started to gain hold among the Mongols was the creeping conversion to Islam. This was to put paid any further Mongol attempts to threaten Islamdom. Meanwhile the truculent Muslim armies did not stop at ejecting the Mongols from the Middle East, but they also give the final push to the Crusaders who were in occupation of Acre and Antioch, by capturing the last Crusader bastion in 1291. While they had the chance the Crusaders scorned the Mongols and did not form an alliance with them against the Muslims. Now the Muslims defeated their enemies one after the other, and both the Mongols and Crusaders became history in the Middle East.
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Ket Buqa Noyan's last words were “Tell my Padishah Hulagu Khan that he should not grieve over lost Mongol soldiers. Let him imagine that his soldiers' wives have not been pregnant for a year and the mares of their herds have not folded. May felicity be upon the Padishah. When his noble being is well, every loss is compensated. The life or death of servants like us is irrelevant.” Hulagu was told about Ket Buqa Noyan that although many Mongol soldiers left him, he continued to struggle in battle like a thousand men. In the end his horse faltered, and he was captured. Near the battlefield was a reed bed in which a troop of Mongol cavalrymen was hiding. Quduz ordered fire thrown into it, and they were all burned alive. After that, Ket Buqa was taken before Quduz with his hands bound.” Despicable man,” said Quduz, “you have shed so much blood wrongfully, ended the lives of champions and dignitaries with false assurances, and overthrown ancient dynasties with broken promises. Now you have finally fallen into a snare yourself.”
When the one whose hands were bound heard these words, he reared up like a mad elephant; and replied, saying, “O proud one, do not pride yourself on this day of victory.” “If I am killed by your hand,” said Ket Buqa, “I consider it to be God's act, not yours. Be not deceived by this event for one moment, for when the news of my death reaches Hulagu Khan, the ocean of his wrath will boil over, and from Azerbaijan to the gates of Egypt will quake with the hooves of Mongol horses. They will take the sands of Egypt from there in their horses' nose bags. Hulagu Khan has three hundred thousand renowned horsemen like Ket Buqa. In me you may take only one of them away.” Quduz said, “Speak not so proudly of the horsemen of Turan, for they perform deeds with trickery and artifice, not with manliness like us Muslims(sic).” As long as I have lived,” replied Ket Buqa, “I have been the Padishah's servant, not a mutineer and regicide like you! Finish me off as quickly as possible.” Quduz, in typical Muslim style, ordered his head severed from his body and displayed to the retreating Mongol soldiers.
With Ket Buqa dead, the Mongols were forced to retreat, into Syria and then towards Baghdad. But Quduz did not live long to savor his victory. On the way back to Cairo, his troops who were loyal to the old royal dynasty killed Quduz.
After the battle of Ayn Jalut, the Muslim armies surged throughout Syria as far as the banks of the Euphrates, overthrowing everyone they found, plundering Ket Buqa's camp, taking captive his wife, child, and retainers, and killing the tax collectors. Only those Mongols who were warned could escape, and when the news of Ket Buqa Noyan's death and his last words reached Hulagu Khan, he displayed his grief over his death and the fire of zeal flared up to avenge this defeat.
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The Lost Opportunity for a Mongol-Crusader Alliance. After the Mongols had destroyed the Muslim Empire of Khwarazmian in Central Asia, they sent feelers to the Crusaders and thru them to the Pope for a broad anti-Muslim alliance. On being informed that the Mongols were well-disposed towards Christianity, Pope Innocent IV sent them Giovanni di Pianocarpini, a Franciscan, and Nicolas Ascelin, a Dominican, as ambassadors. Pianocarpini was in Karakorum 8 April, 1246, the day of the election of the great Khan, but nothing came of this first attempt at an alliance with the Mongols against the Muslims.
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But another Mongol invasion of the Muslim world was not to take place. Hulagu remained confined to the affairs of his homeland and could never bring himself to launch another invasion. After his death, the Mongol Golden Horde did rule the largest empire till then, that stretched from China to Muscovy (modern Moscow). But a tendency that had started to gain hold among the Mongols was the creeping conversion to Islam. This was to put paid any further Mongol attempts to threaten Islamdom.
Meanwhile the truculent Muslim armies did not stop at ejecting the Mongols from the Middle East, but they also give the final push to the Crusaders who were in occupation of Acre and Antioch, by capturing the last Crusader bastion in 1291. While they had the chance the Crusaders scorned the Mongols and did not form an alliance with them against the Muslims. Now the Muslims defeated their enemies one after the other, and both the Mongols and Crusaders became history in the Middle East.
The Lost Opportunity for a Mongol-Crusader Alliance
After the Mongols had destroyed the Muslim Empire of Khwarazmian in Central Asia, they sent feelers to the Crusaders and thru them to the Pope for a broad anti-Muslim alliance. On being informed that the Mongols were well-disposed towards Christianity, Pope Innocent IV sent them Giovanni di Pianocarpini, a Franciscan, and Nicolas Ascelin, a Dominican, as ambassadors. Pianocarpini was in Karakorum 8 April, 1246, the day of the election of the great Khan, but nothing came of this first attempt at an alliance with the Mongols against the Muslims.
However, when St. Louis, who left Paris on June 12, 1248, had reached the Island of Cyprus, he received there a friendly embassy from the great Khan and, in return, sent him two Dominicans.
Many other kings, especially that of Hayton, King of Armenia (1307, ed. Armenian Documents, I), considered an alliance between the Christians and the Mongols who had then overrun Persia and Mesopotamia, before making their way into Syria and Palestine. A Christian-Mongol alliance was indispensable for success against the common enemy - the Muslims.
In fact, from the end of the thirteenth century many missionaries had penetrated into the Mongolian Empire; in Persia, as well as in China, their propaganda flourished. St. Francis of Assisi, and Raymond Lully had hoped for the conversion of the Mongols to Christianity. Some of the Mongols who were also members of the Nestorian Church, received these delegations willingly.
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By thus leading up to an alliance between Mongols and Christians against the Muslims, the crusade had produced the desired effect; early in the fourteenth century the future development of Christianity in the East seemed assured. Unfortunately, however, the Mongols met with a defeat at the Battle of Ayn Jalut (Eye of the Goliath) in Palestine (today’s Israel). This led to a gradual ceasing of contacts between Christendom and the great Khan of the Mongols. And so finally, the contemplated alliance with the Mongols was never fully realized and most of the Mongols ultimately turned to Islam making Central Asia a Muslim land.
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During the pontificate of John XXII (1316-34) permanent Dominican and Franciscan missions were established in Persia, China, Tatary and Turkestan, and in 1318 the Archbishopric of Sultanieh was created in Persia. In China Giovanni de Monte Corvino, created Archbishop of Cambaluc (Beijing), organized the religious hierarchy, founded monasteries, and converted to Christianity men of note, including the great Khan himself. The account of the journey of Blessed Orderic de Pordenone (Cordier, ed.) across Asia, between 1304 and 1330, shows us that Christianity had gained a foothold in Persia, Central Asia, and Southern China.
By thus leading up to an alliance between Mongols and Christians against the Muslims, the Crusades had produced the desired effect; early in the fourteenth century the future development of Christianity in the East seemed assured. Unfortunately, however, the Mongols met with a defeat at the Battle of Ayn Jalut (Eye of the Goliath) in Palestine (today’s Israel) and internal changes which occurred in the West, the weakening of the political influence of the popes. This led to a gradual ceasing of contacts between Christendom and the great Khan of the Mongols and the only Turko-Mongol people to embrace Christianity were the Bulgar Turks (Not many of us know that the Bulgars were Turkic in origin and the word Bulgar is derived from the Turkish word Bulgha which means to mix).
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The Mongol Crusader alliance had the potential of wiping off the Islamic threat to civilization in the 13th century itself. But both the Crusaders and mainly the Pope failed to see beyond their immediate interests. The leaders of the Crusade and especially the Pope, insisted on the conversion of the Mongols to Christianity, before an alliance could be formed. This was the main hurdle for the Crusaders joining forces with the Mongols in 1260 at the Battle of Ayn Jalut (Eye of the Goliath). The fallout was that both the Mongols and the Crusaders were individually defeated by the Muslims. At the end both the Mongols and the Crusaders lost to the beastlike Muslims and civilization continued to be under the threat of Islam, as it is up to this day.
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So finally, the contemplated alliance with the Mongols was never fully realized. It was in vain that Argoun Khan of Persia, sent the Nestorian monk, Raban Sauma, as ambassador to the Pope and the princes of the West (1285-88); his offers elicited but vague replies from the Pope and most of the Mongols turned to Islam making Central Asia a Muslim land.
Prominent amongst those Mongols who had been converted to Mohammedanism, was Timur the lame who showed his hostility to the Christians by taking Smyrna from the crusaders for the Muslims. This was the final break between the Christians and the pagan Mongols and henceforth most Mongols (except those of Mongolia proper) became Muslims. The Muslim Mongols comprise the Kazaks, Ughirs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Khirgiz of today. When the Mongols lost to the Muslim enemy, the Crusaders lost their last possible ally and thus by the end of the 13th century, the Crusades came to an end.
Lessons from the Lost Opportunity of a Mongol-Crusader Alliance
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A resolute Mongol Warrior.
Today we Americans should realize that apart from mending fences with Russia, a powerful ally in the battle against the Jihad, we need to join up with the Chinese who have been able to tame the Jihad in China. The Chinese symptomatically represent the Mongols of yore. The Chinese come from the same ethnic stock and carry in their genes, the art of war as propounded by Sun Tzu. They along with the Russians, can become our valuable allies in the War against Terror.
We need to remember that after the Crusader and Mongol invasions of Islamdom, the Muslims took only one century to regroup, and they launched their renewed invasion of Europe which culminated in the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and eventually took the Muslims to Vienna in 1683 and up to the borders of Poland and Prussia
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The Mongol Crusader alliance had the potential of wiping off the Islamic threat to civilization in the 13th century itself. But both parties failed to see beyond their immediate interests. The leaders of the Crusade and especially the Pope, insisted on the conversion of the Mongols to Christianity, before an alliance could be formed. This was the main hurdle for the Crusaders joining forces with the Mongols in 1260 at the Battle of Ayn Jalut (Eye of the Goliath). The fallout was that both the Mongols and the Crusaders were individually defeated by the Muslims. At the end both lost and civilization continued to be under the threat of Islam, as it is up to this day.
Today we Americans should realize that apart from mending fences with Russia, a powerful ally in the battle against the Jihad, we need to join up with the Chinese who have been able to tame the Jihad in China. The Chinese symptomatically represent the Mongols of yore. The Chinese come from the same ethnic stock and carry in their genes, the art of war as propounded by Sun Tzu.
We need to remember that after the Crusader and Mongol invasions of Islamdom, the Muslims took only one century to regroup, and they launched their renewed invasion of Europe which culminated in the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and eventually took the Muslims to Vienna in 1683 and up to the borders of Poland and Prussia.
Fortunately it was the valiance of the Polish king Jan Sobeiski that kept the Turks from overrunning Vienna. And the unnamed Serb, Croat, Greek, Spanish, Frankish (French), Italian, Bulgar, Romanian, Hungarian Austrian, Russian and Prussian heroes turned back the Muslims from Europe in a struggle lasting over four hundred years from 1350 to 1918.
The Mongol Spirit is personified today in Islam Karimov
Today the Mongol spirit that once expressed itself in the person of Changez Khan and Hulagu Khan expresses itself in the person of is Excellency Islam Karimov, the President of Uzbekistan.
Islam Karimov has terminated the Islamist insurgency in Uzbekistan with an iron hand In Uzbekistan (as in the world over) the Hizb-ut-Tahirir (HUT) wants to unseat the secular regime of Mr. Karimov and replace it with an Islamic Emirate like that of the Taliban. But in Uzbekistan, the HUT develops Cold Sweat, when they realize that they have been and would be vaporized into extinction if they faced the boiling rage of Mr. Karimov (no pun intended on “boiling” here).
Many liberal commentators would castigate Mr. Karimov’s tactics as savage, but all of them would have to grudge Mr. Karimov his success against the beasts of the HUT. This is the only successful way forward the world over with Islam, if we are to win the War on Terror. This is one lesson that we should learn from Hulagu’s sack of Baghdad in 1258 and the policies of Islam Karimov today.
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Select Bibliography
Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict, by Obadiah Shoher
Jihad in the West: Muslim Conquests from the 7th to the 21st Centuries (Hardcover) by Paul Fregosi
The Sword of the Prophet: History, Theology, Impact on the World by Srdja Trifkovic
Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith by Robert Spencer
Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam) by David Cook
Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq
Onward Muslim Soldiers by Robert Spencer
Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye'Or
Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Yeor
What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary by Ibn Warraq
Islam and Terrorism: What the Quran Really Teaches About Christianity, Violence and the Goals of the Islamic Jihad by Mark A. Gabriel, Mark A. Gabriel
A Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas F. Madden
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) by Robert Spencer
The Great Divide: The failure of Islam and the Triumph of the West by Marvin Olasky
The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims by Robert Spencer
Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith by Robert Spencer, David Pryce-Jones
The Koran (Penguin Classics) by N. J. Dawood
Don't Keep me Silent! One Woman's Escape from the Chains of Islam by Mina Nevisa
Christianity And Islam: The Final Clash by Robert Livingston
Holiest Wars : Islamic Mahdis, Their Jihads, and Osama bin Laden by Timothy R. Furnish
The Last Trumpet: A Comparative Study in Christian-Islamic Eschatology by Samuel, Ph.D. Shahid
Unleashing the beast: How a fanatical islamic dictator will form a ten-nation coalition and terrorize the world for forty-two months by Perry Stone
Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature (Religion and Politics) by David Cook
Islam and the Jews: The Unfinished Battle by Mark A., Ph.D. Gabriel
The Challenge of Islam to Christians by David Pawson
The Prophetic Fall of the Islamic Regime by Glenn Miller, Roger Loomis
Prophet of Doom : Islam's Terrorist Dogma in Muhammad's Own Words by Craig Winn
The False Prophet by Ellis H. Skolfield
The Approach of Armageddon: An Islamic Perspective by Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God by George Weigel
Infiltration : How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Penetrated Washington by Paul Sperry
Unholy Alliance : Radical Islam and the American Left by David Horowitz
Unveiling Islam : An Insider's Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs by Ergun Mehmet Caner
Perfect Soldiers : The Hijackers: Who They Were, Why They Did It by Terry McDermott
Islam Revealed A Christian Arab's View Of Islam by Anis Shorrosh
Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out by Ibn Warraq
The Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book by Ibn Warraq
The History of Jihad site is brought to you by a panel of contributors. This site is co-ordinated by Robin MacArthur with Mahomet Mostapha and Naim al Khoury, New Jersey.
Other contributors to this site include professors and members of the faculty from the Universities of Stanford and Michigan (Ann Arbor), Kansas State University, Ohio State University, and the London School of Economics. We strongly suggest that this site be recommended as additional reading for students of Islamic History.
History of Jihad is against all forms of fanaticism – religious and non-religious. But the emotional appeal of non-religious fanaticism like Nazism, Fascism or Communism is not as pervasive as that of the religious fanaticism. When fanaticism and religion are mixed, we have a very potent and dangerous brew that can sustain itself for centuries unlike non-religious fanaticisms like Nazism and Communism which die out when the ringleaders are defeated.
While all forms of religious fanaticism are negative, Islam is the most vicious and the most pressing danger we face today. This site is dedication to expose the danger of Islam. We support other people taking similar efforts against other religion posing smaller threats.
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