~ Long live the Great Khan! Long live Genghis Khan!
~ Hail, Hail, Hail!
- Do you know why I would give my life for the Great Khan?
> Because he gives us lots of spoils.
= Because he is the son of the Blue Wolf whom God takes care of.
- What else?
>> Because he does not discriminate between the sons of the Mongols
And he gives jobs to those who deserve them,
from both leaders and soldiers equally.
- Well done!
- And do not forget that he united the Mongol tribes,
established a great empire,
and avenged the killing of our ancestors by the kings of China
And today, we are conquering the world and no one can stand against us
> Long live the Great Khan!
~ Long live Genghis Khan!
~ Hail, Hail, Hail, Hail!
- To you a greeting of peace and Allah's mercy and blessings
The Mongols were nomadic people of the ancient Turkic tribes
They settled in the plains of East Asia in what is now the State of Mongolia
They traveled in pursuit of water and pastures
Disputes and invasions were ravaging them
Until Temujin was able to unite them by force and cunning
So they transformed from fragmented peoples fighting among each other
to an empire stretching from the far end of China to the borders of Europe
The Mongols conquered large areas of The Islamic world under the reign of Temujin,
nicknamed Genghis Khan, or the vanquisher of the kings of the world,
with his children and grandchildren
The massacres perpetrated by their armies were beyond description and imagination
In the fifth century AH, the Islamic Khwarazmian Empire was established
But it did not last long. Though it was at the peak of its expansion
during the reign of Sultan Ala'addin Muhammad
Army leaders were loyal to his mother, not him
As she generously bestowed money upon them without limits
Meaning the princes' loyalty was to money, not the Sultan
They also had a tendency for comfort and to impose exorbitant taxes on people.
Thus, injustice and discontentment spread
And that was the beginning of the end
which paved the way for the Mongols to sweep across it from east to west several times.
- M..m..my lord, your cousin, Prince Enal ha'em
> What about him?
- He murdered three hundred Mongol merchants
who were sent by Genghis Khan to our lands.
> Damned fool! How could he do that? Who gave him orders?
> What to do now, Viziers?
~ Damn him, damn him, damn him!
> Answer me!
= We get ready for war, sir.
>> We offer him peace.
- Your Majesty!
The Great Genghis Khan, king of the world, commands you
to either hand us over the murderer or fight.
> Cut off the head of this disbeliever!
> And you, tell your uncle he will face an army that will put an end to his arrogance
= Of course.. of course.. of course!
- Are you ready, brothers?
> Certainly, certainly, my great master.
= We, Mongols, do not feed on our mothers' milk
but on the blood of knights and warriors.
>> Yes.
- Attaaack!
Although this battle ended in a draw,
it was the beginning of the end
The Khwarazmian army was dispersed across several cities
such as: Samarkand, Bukhara, Ojanda and Jurjania, the capital of the state
This made them an easier target for the Mongols
who believed that excessive brutality
forces people to surrender
Thus, they brutally attacked these cities one by one
and annihilated all their inhabitants without exception
Their principle was: "Either surrender or be exterminated".
The Khwarazmian Sultan kept fleeing from one city to another
and from one fortress to another,
until he died alone in an abandoned fort
In those moments, one of his sons heard him say:
- We have lost everything we had
of the territories we once ruled except a few feets' length
to be dug for us to be burried in. "This earthly life is no home for its inhabitant"
> But brother, we know that the Mongols
lived in plains and tents as tribes and nomadic shepherds
How were they able to conquer China and the Khwarazmian kingdom,
which then had militarily advanced armies, so quickly?
> What is the secret to their strength?
- Hmm, good question.
Genghis Khan used several clever military tactics
that enabled him to defeat his enemies
even when they outpowered and outnumbered him.
He, for instance, united the Mongol tribes under his command
and established a strong express postal system
and a security service to gather intel and penetrate enemies
He sent out spies to different surrounding states
and took advantage of their vulnerability to finish them
He even used prisoners of war and traitors to fight their own people.
This strategy was successful in China
which he occupied in two years.
This was on the general level
As for the army;
he made sure to build and devise it in an organized manner
and assigned each battalion
to a competent commander with expertise in the art of war
And he obliged his people, even children,
to be trained in horse riding and archery.
The Mongols used to kill their battle survivors
after defeats, charging them with treason
Which reminds us of the military system in Sparta,
the most powerful Greek military system.
He also established diplomatic relations with the Crusaders
and allowed Christian missionaries
to roam freely in his territories.
All these measures turned them into an all-devouring beast,
and hardly any power on earth could stand against him
> Did it continue like this even after the death of Genghis Khan?
- The Mongol Empire continued to rise rapidly
as Oktay took command after the death of his father, Genghis Khan,
and continued his expansion plan by occupying the Islamic world
He fought against Sultan Jalal Aldin Mankoberti
until the collapse of what remained of the Khwarazmian state
Then, he expanded to reach Seljuk territories in Anatolia
and Caliph Al-Mustansir's territories in Iraq
But this expansion was put on halt temporarily because of Oktay's death,
and his children's preoccupation with dividing the empire's possessions.
That's when the relations were further strengthened with the kingdoms of Europe
which sent many delegations to foster the relations with the Mongols
and incite them to invade Baghdad and the Levant,
such as the mission of Pope Innocent IV and the mission of King Louis IX of France.
Finally, his grandson Manku Khan took command
and commissioned his brother Hulagu to carry on
with taking control over Europe and the Islamic world.
Hulagu's army then marched from Karakorum,
at the center of the Mughal Empire,
destroying the forts of the Order of Assassins in Central Asia
Then besieged Baghdad from all its four sides
After five days of siege,
the Caliph surrendered and the Mongols entered Baghdad
destroying, killing, and raping for a whole week
until the roads were blocked by piled up corpses
Dozens of mosques, Palaces, and hospitals were demolished
and the great libraries Baghdad was famous for were burnt down.
> Oh my God, all this was in few years?
Why? Where did the Caliph's army go?
Where were the Muslim armies?
- Unfortunately,
in Hulagu's own army,
there were many battalions of the Seljuks' and Ayyubids' armies,
because the greedy and cowardly rulers,
and the soldiers and army leaders who were weak in faith
were the first to aid the invading occupier.
Naturally, he invaded their own territories
in Aleppo, Damascus and Anatolia
immediately after the fall of Baghdad.
> Where was the Caliph's army?
- Two years before the Mongol invasion,
the Caliph had an army of one hundred thousand soldiers
But he neglected its development and training,
discharging two-thirds of the army upon the advice
of his Karmatian Vizier Al-Mu'ayyad Ibn Al-Alqami,
who was plotting with the Mongols to overthrow the Abbasid Caliphate
The remaining third was merely names on paper.
When it was time for battle, they were too weak
to face even a single battalion of the Mongol army.
- The Caliph himself was a squanderer who spent extravagantly on his lusts,
and left administration and governance to the competing Viziers
whose only concern was power and amassing wealth
So, it was not a surprise that most of his Viziers
wanted to surrender to the Mongols from the beginning.
Baghdad was one of the most fortified cities on Earth
Its walls were among the strongest
So, no wonder it was once the world's destination for knowledge
But alas, it was no longer the same fortified city!
Because fortresses need men to protect them,
but the majority of its men at that time were oppressed,
facing injustice, poverty and tyranny. Others were blinded by greed
indulging in pleasures and wrongdoings
So they chose safety over dignity
> If this is how things were in Baghdad, how then did the Mongol invasion stop?
- It stopped by holding steadfastly to the bond of Allah,
rejecting separation, seizing opportunities,
and confronting the Mongols with strength and fortitude,
with a well-trained army that doesn't fear death
- We are Allah's soldiers in his land! We are a fraction of His wrath!
and we are sent out against those who Allah's wrath shall befall
Then learn from others, and surrender to us
We do not spare those who weep, nor do we relent against those who complain
If you show obedience as our servants do,
then pay us the tribute or be prepared to fight!
> Cut their heads off,
and tell Hulagu that we do not fear death
- Sultan Qutuz gathered his armies despite opposition from some leaders
He insisted on fighting, even on his own; so they were compelled to obey him.
He also reconciled with Al-Zahir Baybars, the skilled leader,
and asked him to return with his soldiers to the army to confront the Mongols.
- Victory in the battle of Ain Jalut was not easy
The Sultan had prepared a lot of for it
and took advantage of the return of Hulagu with his main army to China
to counter the internal strifes that ravaged the empire
Only a few mercenaries and Mongol battalions remained in Damascus.
Scholars also encouraged people to fight
Imam Al-Izz Ibn Abd Al-Salam
called out to the people, urging them to volunteer for the sake of Allah,
to defend their land and religion.
The army was regrouped,
and necessary intel to put a proper war tactic was collected
- The Sultan incited Muslim battalions In the Mongol army
to turn against it, which is what happened
As the Prince of Homs withdrew with his army from the battle before it had begun.
More importantly, the Sultan himself
was at the front line, fighting fearlessly
which boosted the morale among Muslims
who thought the Mongol army was invincible.
The battle was a clear implementation of Allah's saying in the Quran:
(Indeed, Allah does not change the condition of a people...
...until they change what is in themselves) [AL-RAD:11]
The Mamluks' triumph in Ain Jalut
enabled them to control Damascus, Aleppo,
and Mosul, all the way to Anatolia,
while the Mongols stationed in Iraq,
Persia, and Transoxiana.
Hulaku tried to launch a new campaign
with Europe against Muslims
He sent a letter to King Louis IX
offering him an alliance to conquer Jerusalem
in return for Louis attacking Egyptian shores with his fleet,
but internal conflicts tore the Mongol Empire apart.
The Mamluk Sultanate expanded to comprise Egypt, the Levant,
Hejaz, and parts of Iraq and Yemen.
Allah has put clear laws through which history takes its course
Whoever overlooks them loses to the rising powers.
So start by making a change, even on your own. As Allah says in the Quran:
(Say: Not equal are the evil and the good, although the abundance of evil might impress you.
So fear Allah, O you of understanding, that you may be successful) [Al-Ma'idah:100]