Text: Han Shi's words
Edited by Han Shi's words
Preface
When you think of the Mongols in the Middle Ages, many people will think of such adjectives as barbaric, brutal, and bloody.
Indeed, at the beginning of the twelfth century, there was an unprecedented and fearsome external threat in the Islamic world: the Mongol Empire.
At the height of its power, it began to expand outward, and because of their expansion, later people blamed the Mongols for all their decline. But was that really the case? What did the Mongols do in the Middle Ages?
The conquest does not stop
In the 13th century, Genghis Khan led the Mongol Empire in a series of aggressive campaigns against the Arab region.
In 1219, the Mongol army entered the Islamic territory and captured important cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand, and occupied the entire Transoxiana region. Over the next few years, the Mongol army continued to advance westward, capturing Mulu and Nishapur, conquering the entire Iranian region.
But after Genghis Khan's death in 1227, the Mongol army temporarily halted its offensive into the Arab region, providing a brief respite for the local state.
But in 1230, the new emperor of the Mongol Empire was ready to send troops again against the remnants of the army of Khwarabizmsha.
The Mongol army launched a new assault until August 1231, when Khorizmshah was killed by a Kurdish avenger.
By 1240, the Mongol army had occupied all of Iran and invaded Georgia, Armenia, and northern Mesopotamia.
The Mongols continued their western expedition in the mid-13th century, and Genghis Khan's grandson, Hulegu, was sent to occupy Egypt.
The Mongol Empire's path of aggression was unsuccessful
The Mongol invasion of the Arab region caused great destruction and casualties, especially the fall of Baghdad, which led to the collapse of the Abbasid dynasty and the significant loss of Islamic culture.
The atrocities committed by the Mongol army and the trampling of Muslim culture left a deep mark on this history in the Islamic world, which is still talked about and commemorated today.
According to historical records, the Mongol Empire's conquest of Baghdad and Syria at the end of the 13th century had a significant impact on the Muslim world.
In 1258, the Mongol army captured Baghdad, which led to the fall of the Abbasids and the destruction of Baghdad. The Mongol invasion brought mass slaughter, destruction, and panic that had a huge impact on Muslim societies.
Subsequently, the Mongol army continued to advance into the Syrian region. They captured cities such as Aleppo and Damascus and continued to wreak havoc and destruction. During the conquest, many Muslim princes chose to surrender to the Mongols to protect themselves and their territories, while some resisted.
The conquest of the Mongol army had a profound impact on the Muslim world. Many important cultural and academic centres have been destroyed, as have many famous cultural heritages.
The Mongol invasion left Muslim societies with lasting trauma and fear, a history that is still talked about and commemorated today.
The positive impact of the Mongol Empire's conquests
Although the Mongols invaded other parts of Asia and Europe, they also brought advanced ideas and methods of general governance to other countries in the same way as they did sowing.
Under the devastation of the Mongol Empire, several major centers of power emerged in the countries of the Middle East.
The Ilkhanate was a political, economic, and cultural center established by the Mongol Empire in Western Asia. The ruler was given the title of "ruler of the people".
Although nominally subordinate to the Mongol Great Khan, in reality it has become an independent state.
The ruling class of the Ilkhanate consisted of nomadic military aristocrats and Persian monk feudal lords, and the ruled class consisted of common people and slaves. The Mongols relied on local nobility for rule, and government officials were mainly Persians.
Economically, the Mongol invasion wreaked havoc across Western Asia, but not as badly as the history books suggest. The Mongols implemented a policy of recuperation and recuperation to promote economic recovery.
The Ilkhanate's early economic policies focused more on extraction than production, and taxes were varied and often duplicated. In terms of the land system, a large amount of land was given to the nobility, and at the same time, the arable land in the north was occupied by Mongol and Turkic nomads.
Coupled with the disrepair of water conservancy facilities and the flight of farmers, a large number of arable land has been abandoned and even desertified. When the labor force was reduced, the government and landlords deprived the peasants of their right to move and levy them into forced labor.
During the period of the Ilkhanate of the Mongol Empire, due to economic backwardness and popular uprisings, the Mongol nobles had to seek a new statecraft, so there was the reform of Ghazan Khan.
His reforms included tax reform, reform of the station system, incentives for land reclamation, reform of the land system, improvement of roads and justice, and currency reform.
His reforms reduced the burden on the population and increased the revenue of the state treasury.
He settled heavily in Iraq and Baghdad, which facilitated trade and accelerated the revival of these regions.
In terms of religion and culture, Shia and Sufis gained further development during the Ilkhanate period, and astronomy and practical science were also emphasized.
Arab civilization continued under the shock
The Mongol conquests greatly damaged the civilizations of the countries along the way, and the Arab civilization was no exception.
In the centuries following the Mongol conquest and the destruction of the Caliphate, the Arab states of the Middle East experienced several major centers of power, chief among which was the rule of the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt.
During the period of the Mamluk dynasty (1250-1571), a military regime was established by "slaves" of different races and nationalities.
These slaves were mainly from Central Asia, Persia, and Asia Minor, such as the Turkic, Kurd, and Mongol, who served in the court and army of the Aeyubid sultans.
The Sultan introduced this system in order to counter frequent wars. These slaves underwent several stages of training, including religious and scientific education, Xi the military system, and the art of war, and eventually became the personal guards or janissaries of the Sultan.
The Mamluks were also an independent class that, unlike the local population, rarely intermarried with the locals, initially speaking their own language, which was later changed to Arabic.
But in the end, these slaves eventually betrayed the Sultan, stole power, and imitated the Sultan's way of rule.
The Mamluk dynasty ruled at its peak in medieval Egypt, with the Behri and Burgi Mamluk slave sultans ruling over the vast part of Egypt.
The Berhairi Mamluks originated from the Janissaries of the Ayyub dynasty and consisted mainly of Turks and Mongols. The Berhairi Mamluks, numbering about 4,000 people, became a closed group of military aristocracy, holding important military and political positions in the sultan.
Culture of the Mamluk dynasty
The political system of the Mamluk dynasty was a semi-military dictatorship and semi-feudal system modified from the Seljuk system. The political power was controlled by Mamluk officials and was divided into two parts, civil and military, each with civilian and military officials in charge.
This system was heavily influenced by the Mongol paradigm and the Mongol immigrants who came to Egypt from the East, including weapons, tactics, clothing, and etiquette.
The economic system of the Mamluk dynasty was distinctive. The Waqf system originated during the Abbasid period, when Egypt and Syria reached a huge scale. Waqf helps to protect large amounts of property from state interference, providing a certain amount of income for the founders and descendants of the fund.
This system also resulted in many people living the life of religious chiefs without having to earn a living.
Land sub-feudalism was a form of feudal land tenure in Egypt during the Mamluk dynasty.
The state owned palace lands, fiefdoms and wastelands of the Mamluk guards, while mosques and nobles owned private domains. On the contrary, the peasants lived in great poverty, burdened with heavy taxes, depended on the officials of the fiefdom, and were bullied by the owners of the fiefdoms.
During the Mamluk dynasty, the socio-economic situation gradually improved. Agriculture has developed, attention has been paid to the construction of water conservancy facilities in the Nile River Basin, and cultivated land has continued to expand. Rice, sorghum, cotton, date palm, citrus and other crops have also been introduced, and date palm has become one of the important sources of people's livelihood.
The development of agriculture laid the foundation for the flourishing of handicrafts, especially flax weaving and glass manufacturing, which became important handicraft sectors in Egypt.
Textiles are marketed all over the world in Islam, and the glassware is exquisitely crafted. Commerce was very prosperous, it occupied an important position in the economy of the East, controlling the commercial routes of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and became an important hub for overland trade between Asia and Europe. These trade activities brought lucrative tax revenues that allowed the Cairo market to flourish.
In terms of architecture, the Mamluk sultans were able to build on a large scale due to their economic prosperity, and the scale of Egypt's architecture rivaled that of the most glorious eras in Islamic history.
Influenced by the Syrian and Mesopotamian schools of architecture, the building uses stone and maintains the Indian style of timber construction, with the domes in the buildings being particularly beautiful and towering. Architectural masterpieces of the Mamluk dynasty include mausoleums, mosques, and seminaries.
In terms of cultural knowledge, Egypt became a center of art and knowledge, and many rich works emerged. In fields such as linguistics, history, and medicine, scholars have conducted extensive research and collation. In the field of medicine, the Arab medical tradition has been inherited and developed, and many medical scientists have emerged. Ophthalmic medical technology is particularly well-known, and many academic works on ophthalmology have been published.
The Mamluks enjoy sports such as equestrian and polo, which also become a recreation in their daily lives.
During the Mamluk period, Sunnis were the dominant religion, and their four major schools of jurisprudence, Shafiyi, Hanaifi, Malik, and Hanbury, were all officially recognized, with the Humbyans being the most influential.
Sufism is also widely believed by the Egyptian people, who desire spiritual liberation and invoke the blessing of Allah.
Sufi thought has become the sustaining force of Islamic unity, the expression of religious sentiment and loyalty, and the source of ideology and culture.
The decline of the Mamluk dynasty
Due to the incompetence of the successor's rule, corrupt governance, natural and man-made disasters, and other reasons, the country began to decline.
Coupled with the invasion and influence of external forces such as the Timurid Empire and the Portuguese, the Mamluk dynasty gradually lost its dominant position in international trade, and its national power continued to decline, and was finally wiped out by the Ottoman Empire.
epilogue
The early Arab conquerors integrated the civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean and Iran, ushering in a new era of social and cultural exchange with fruitful results.
The later Mongols, who united the civilizations of the Middle East and the Far East under a single dynasty, also had an immediate positive impact on trade and culture.