What was distinctive about the Russian experience of Mongol rule? Muhammad, like Genghis, was intent on expanding his lands and had gained the submission of most of Iran. The Shah's army, having about 200,000 immediate men (mostly city garrisons), he also had a lot more people in nearby cities should they prove necessary. The Mongols invaded Armenia and Georgia in 1234 or 1236, completing the conquest of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1238. [52] A more likely number is perhaps 10,000, considering the city itself had less than 100,000 people total at the time. This further inflamed the existing divisions in the Khwarezm Empire, and probably prevented the senior commanders from unifying their forces. 1995. [3][4][5][6], The Mongol Empire developed in the course of the 13th century through a series of victorious campaigns throughout Asia, reaching Eastern Europe by the 1240s. The Mongols never invaded an opponent whose military and economic will and ability to resist had not been thoroughly and completely scouted. This was seen as a grave affront to the Khan himself, who considered ambassadors "as sacred and inviolable". Feigning retreat, Genghis drew approximately half of the garrison outside the fortifications of Samarkand and slaughtered them in open combat. Let us conclude a firm treaty of friendship and peace", or he said "I am Khan of the lands of the rising sun while you are sultan of those of the setting sun: Let us conclude a firm agreement of friendship and peace. After the Mongol campaign in Khorasan, the Shah's army was broken. During the 12th and 13th centuries the Mongols swept across Eurasia and conquered various peoples, including the Persians and Chinese. Instead the garrison remained on the walls and resisted stubbornly, holding out against many attacks. The Khan divided his armies, and sent one force solely to find and execute the Shah – so that he was forced to run for his life in his own country. The only hard evidence of the empire's potential military strength comes from a census ordered by Hulegu Khan of the same regions a few decades later. Genghis Khan had unified the Mongols, and under him the Mongol Empire quickly expanded in several directions, until by 1218 it bordered Khwarezm. With the initial Mongol onslaught, many churches and monasteries were looted and destroyed while countless adherents to the church and scores of clergy were killed; those who survived often were taken prisoner and enslaved (Dmytryshyn, 121). [50][full citation needed]. Genghis was not young when the war began, and he had four sons, all of whom were fierce warriors and each with their own loyal followers. glowingly of the golden years of Mongol rule in Persia, as does Ab Bakr al-Qu † b ¥ al-Ahar ¥ , 44 a writer at the court of the Mongol Jalayirids, succes- sors to the Il-Khans. Within just thirty years, Mongol warriors had travelled as far afield as central China and eastern Europe, and south-west into Persia, turning the Mongol empire into the largest single controlling force in history Hulegu (grandson of Genghis Khan) ruled/conquered Persia with death and destruction shown by the video "Wait For It...T Muhammad also ordered the personnel of the caravan to be executed. Cambridge University Press: 229–45. How did the Mongols affect trade? Nor does it seem likely that Genghis was trying to initiate a conflict with the Khwarezmid Empire with the caravan, considering he was making steady progress against a faltering Jin empire in northern China at that very moment. In the words of historian C. E. Bosworth: "[The dynasty was] highly unpopular and a focus for popular hatred; in none of the provinces they ruled did the Khwarazm Shahs ever succeed in creating a bond of interest between themselves and their subjects. Word of the Mongol hordes' approach spread terror and panic.[29]. The Mongol Armies in Persia. In this invasion, the Khan first demonstrated the use of indirect attack that would become a hallmark of his later campaigns, and those of his sons and grandsons. Many Mongols converted to Islam. In the grand strategy video game Crusader Kings II the "Age of Mongols" book mark starts during the invasion. [36] Not including the mortality from the Plague in Europe, West Asia, or China[37] it is possible that between 20 and 57 million people were killed between 1206 and 1405 during the various campaigns of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, and Timur. Sinor, Denis. He declared himself shah and demanded formal recognition from the Abba… Upon its surrender the Mongols broke the dams and flooded the city, then proceeded to execute the survivors. [1][2] In addition, Mongol expeditions may have spread the bubonic plague across much of Eurasia, helping to spark the Black Death of the 14th century. [18], The Mongols conquered, by battle or voluntary surrender, the areas of present-day Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus, and parts of Syria and Turkey, with further Mongol raids reaching southwards into Palestine as far as Gaza in 1260 and 1300. As the Mongols battered their way into Urgench, Genghis dispatched his youngest son Tolui, at the head of an army, into the western Khwarezmid province of Khorasan. For example, in 1220 he passed through Nishapur and urged the citizens to repair the fortifications he had destroyed when conquering the city years earlier. Genghis Khan and his descendants launched progressive invasions of China, subjugating the Western Xia in 1209 before destroying them in 1227, defeating the Jin dynasty in 1234 and defeating the Song dynasty in 1279. There are many slmllarltles and differences In the political and economic effects of Mongol rule on the Abbasid Empire In Persia and on the Yuan Dynasty In china. [33], Another advantage for the Mongols was the fact that, compared to most of China, Korea, Central/Western Europe, and many other areas, Khwarezmia was deficient in terms of fortifications. [43][44], Series of expeditionary wars, invasions and conquests, resulting in the vast Mongol Empire, Andrew G. Robertson, and Laura J. Robertson. Genghis spent some time on the southern shore of the Indus searching for the new Shah, but failed to find him. For instance, Subutai and Batu Khan spent a year scouting central Europe, before destroying the armies of Hungary and Poland in two separate battles, two days apart.[11]. One option for the Khwarezm defense was to advance beyond the towns of the Syr Darya and block the Dzungarian Gate with an army, since it would take Genghis many months to gather his army in Mongolia and advance through the pass after winter had passed. The almost 250-year Mongol rule over Russia was precipitated by two separate invasions. [48] A break-out force was annihilated in open battle. [4] The divided Mongol forces destroyed the Shah's forces piecemeal, and began the utter devastation of the country which would mark many of their later conquests. However, the invasion of 1301 was repulsed by the Burmese Myinsaing Kingdom. Genghis had dispatched forces to hunt down the gathering army under Jalal al-Din, and the two sides met in the spring of 1221 at the town of Parwan. France, John. [53][54] As Genghis began his siege, his sons Chaghatai and Ögedei joined him after finishing the reduction of Otrar, and the joint Mongol forces launched an assault on the city. Many military tacticians regard this surprise entrance to Bukhara as one of the most successful maneuvers in warfare. In what respects did it foster Eurasian integration? Like so many of the other steppe empires, it originated in the grasslands and mountain pastures of Mongolia or Western Manchuria. With the assent of Sultan Muhammad, he executed the entire caravan, and its goods were sold in Bukhara. [49] Thus, when the citadel was taken survivors were executed with the exception of artisans and craftsmen, who were sent back to Mongolia. However, the region was far from subjugated, many major cities remained free of Mongol rule, and the region was rife with rebellion against the few Mongol forces present in the region, following rumors that the Shah's son Jalal al-Din was gathering an army to fight the Mongols. The major battles were the Siege of Baghdad (1258), when the Mongols sacked the city which had been the center of Islamic power for 500 years, and the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, when the Muslim Mamluks were able to defeat the Mongols in the battle at Ain Jalut in the southern part of the Galilee—the first time the Mongols had been decisively stopped. Like many things with the reign of the Mongols, the path to Palestine was long, terrifying and bloody. Mongolian casualties were higher than normal, due to the unaccustomed difficulty of adapting Mongolian tactics to city fighting. In this video game, however, Mongols start their invasion by assassinating the Shah. In India, the later Mughal Empire survived into the 19th century. Persia did damage Persian agriculture, the Mongols had less of an impact on Persian government, as Mongol rulers made extensive use of the sophisticated Persian bureaucracy. The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire - The Mongol Empire, which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. [17], The Mongol conquest of the Kipchaks led to a merged society with a Mongol ruling class over a Kipchak-speaking populace which came to be known as Tatar, and which eventually absorbed Armenians, Italians, Greeks, and Goths on the Crimean peninsula to form the modern day Crimean Tatar people. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 63 (2). Mongols continued to rule China into the 14th century under the Yuan dynasty, while Mongol rule in Persia persisted into the 15th century under the Timurid Empire. It was at this junction the rapidly expanding Mongol Empire made contact. [41], Meanwhile, another Mongol force under Chagatai and Ogedei descended from either the Altai Mountains to the north or the Dzungarian Gate and immediately started laying siege to the border city of Otrar. The population of the empire is estimated at 5 million people on the eve of the invasion, making it sparse for the large area it covered. Cambridge University Press: 329–48. The garrison force was similarly forced back into the city. Following the destruction of Urgench, Genghis officially selected Ögedei to be successor, as well as establishing that future Khans would come from direct descendants of previous rulers. No similarly reliable source exists for corresponding Khwarezm figures.[15]. [6] One of these was the huochong, a Chinese mortar. Following a successful invasion of the Caucasus in 1221, the Mongols invaded a small part of Russia in 1222. Samarkand possessed significantly better fortifications and a larger garrison compared to Bukhara. [22] He then organized the Siberians into three tumens. Bamian in the Hindu Kush was another scene of carnage during the 1221 siege of Bamiyan, here stiff resistance resulted in the death of a grandson of Genghis. Sverdrup 2017, p. 148, citing Rashid Al-Din, 107, 356–362. Carl Sverdrup, using a variety of sources and estimation methods, gives the number of 75,000 for the Mongol army. In autumn 1219, A Mongol army of fifty thousand led by Genghis' sons, Chagadei and Ogedei, entered the Persian city of Utrar. The city was built along the river Amu Darya in a marshy delta area. An Historical Reinterpretation”. Mongols Essay During the thirteenth century the Mongols created the greatest empire in the world, which at its peak extended from the borders of Poland to the East Sea/Sea of Japan and from the Siberian forests to the Persian Gulf. [4] Mongol historians are adamant that the great khan at that time had no intention of invading the Khwarezmid Empire, and was only interested in trade and even a potential alliance. Mongols and Chinese soldiers stationed in the area of the former Kingdom of Qocho and in Besh Balikh established a Chinese military colony led by Chinese general Qi Kongzhi (Ch'i Kung-chih). This march can be described as the Central Asian equivalent of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, with the same devastating effects. At that point Hulegu ruled almost all the lands of the former Khwarezmian empire including Persia, modern-day Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan, only missing most of modern-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and the region had had over 40 years to recover population-wise from the initial conquest. Mongol … In between them was a series of treacherous mountain ranges that the invader would have to cross. Genghis also brought a large body of foreigners with him, primarily of Chinese origin. [32] The Mongols took full advantage of these circumstances with their network of spies, often aided by merchants who had much to gain from Mongol domination and spread rumors imploring the inhabitants of cities to surrender. The Uighur Buddhist Qocho Kingdom surrendered and joined the empire. [20] If Hulegu's census was accurate, then the bulk of the former Khwarezmian lands together could field 25,000 soldiers, lending credence to Sverdrup's estimate of 40,000 troops in total. The next day, the city's governor surrendered the city on Tolui's promise that the lives of the citizens would be spared. The new territory proved to be an important stepping stone for Mongol armies under the reign of Genghis' son Ögedei to invade Kievan Rus' and Poland, and future campaigns brought Mongol arms to Hungary and the Baltic Sea. At this point, the Mongol army was divided into five widely separated groups on opposite ends of the enemy Empire. Though they technically bordered each other, the Mongol and Khwarezm Empires touched far away from the homeland of each nation. [34] This meant that the Mongols, rather than getting bogged down in dozens of small sieges or single multi-year ones as sometimes happened in China, could simply sweep through large areas of the empire and conquer cities at will in a short time. The assault on Urgench proved to be the most difficult battle of the Mongol invasion. This attempt at an alliance with Genghis Khan was made because of a dispute between Nasir and the Shah, but the Khan had no interest in alliance with any ruler who claimed ultimate authority, titular or not, and which marked the Caliphate for an extinction which would come from Genghis' grandson, Hulegu. In contrast with later "empires of the sea" such as the British, the Mongol Empire was a land power, fueled by the grass-foraging Mongol cavalry and cattle. In the swamps of western Siberia, dog sled Yam stations were set up to facilitate collection of tribute. [44] The citadel, holding the remaining one-tenth of the garrison, held out for another month, and was only taken after heavy Mongol casualties. After the fall of Bukhara, Genghis headed to the Khwarezmian capital of Samarkand and arrived in March 1220. [43], Unlike most of the other cities, Otrar did not surrender after little fighting, nor did its governor march its army out into the field to be destroyed by the numerically superior Mongols. Western Siberia came under the Golden Horde. [30][31] The unreliability of the Shah's army was probably most decisive when his son Jalal al-Din's cavalry host simply disintegrated due to desertion as his Afghan and Turkic allies disagreed with him over the distribution of war booty. 1999. If you mean how they ruled their subject peoples, they used client kings. [50] A new leader usually came from the old leaders family, but had to be acclaimed by the mass of the mongol tribe's elite. Earlier in the war, the generals Jebe and Subutai had travelled through the province while hunting down the fleeing Shah. After finishing off Merv, Tolui headed westwards, attacking the cities of Nishapur and Herat. At this point the Mongols split up and again maneuvered over the mountains: Jebe marched further south deeper into Khwarezm territory, while Jochi took most of the force northwest to attack the exposed cities on the Syr Darya from the east. Many Mongol elites learned to speak Persian. Wheelis M. Biological Warfare at the 1346 Siege of Caffa. Jebe and Jochi seem to have kept their army in good shape while plundering the valley, and they avoided defeat by a much superior force. Juyaini, p. 511, 518. [15], Hungary became a refuge for fleeing Cumans. [citation needed]. Militias existed in Khwarezmia's major cities but were of poor quality, and the Shah had trouble mustering them in time. By 1206, Genghis Khan had conquered all Mongol and Turkic tribes in Mongolia and southern Siberia. The Mongols crossed the Tian Shan mountains, coming into the Shah's empire in 1219. For six days, Tolui besieged the city, and on the seventh day, he assaulted the city. Conflict between the Mongols and the Khwarazmian Empire started less than a year later, when a Mongol caravan and its envoys were massacred in the Khwarazmian city of Otrar. [7] It seems unlikely, however, that any members of the trade delegation were spies. The Mongols conquered Russia but did not occupy it as they had Persia and China. [27], Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, the Pope's envoy to the Mongol Great Khan, traveled through Kiev in February 1246 and wrote:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, They [the Mongols] attacked Rus, where they made great havoc, destroying cities and fortresses and slaughtering men; and they laid siege to Kiev, the capital of Rus; after they had besieged the city for a long time, they took it and put the inhabitants to death. The Shah had fled west with some of his most loyal soldiers and his son, Jalal al-Din, to a small island in the Caspian Sea. [56] After Nishapur's fall, Herat surrendered without a fight and was spared. "[24] This resulted in him parsing them in garrisons to be commanded by local governors that acted more or less autonomously. The Mongols' greatest triumph was when Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty in China in 1271. Rashid Al-Din stated that Otrar had a garrison of 20,000 while Juvayni claimed 60,000 (horsemen and militia), though like the army figures given in most medieval chronicles, these numbers should be treated with caution and are probably exaggerated by an order of magnitude considering the size of the city. Howorth, H. H.. 1870. [47][full citation needed] Whatever Mohammed II was intending to do, Genghis's maneuver across his rear completely stole away his initiative and prevented him from carrying out any possible plans. Among many foreign invasions to which Persia has been subjected in her long history, three more than others have influenced the culture and civilisation of the people of this country. John Boyle | Published in History Today Volume 13 Issue 9 September 1963. Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty invaded Burma between 1277 and 1287, resulting in the capitulation and disintegration of the Pagan Kingdom. Frank McLynn argues that this disposition can only be explained as Genghis laying a trap for the Shah. While this is almost certainly an exaggeration, the sacking of Urgench is considered one of the bloodiest massacres in human history. The shah had both of the Mongols shaved and had the Muslim beheaded before sending them back to Genghis Khan. His forces were reduced heavily which allowed the Mongols to easily overcome them at the Battle of the Indus. But the removal of Jochi from command, and the sack of a city he considered promised to him, enraged him and estranged him from his father and brothers, and is credited with being a decisive impetus for the later actions of a man who saw his younger brothers promoted over him, despite his own considerable military skills. Harrassowitz Verlag: 1–44. However Inalchuq, the governor of the Khwarezmian city of Otrar, had the members of the caravan that came from Mongolia arrested, claiming that the caravan was a conspiracy against Khwarezmia. Chandler & Fox, p. 232: Merv, Samarkand, and Nipashur are referred to as "vying for the [title of] largest" among the "Cities of Persia and Turkestan in 1200", implying populations of less than 70,000 for the other cities (Otrar and others do not have precise estimates given). The “Storm from the East” arose from Jochi's mother was the same as his three brothers': Genghis Khan's teen bride, and apparent lifelong love, Börte. John Andrew Boyle describes how, in the early thirteenth century, the Mongol hordes devastated Turkestan and Persia, where the grandson of Genghis Khan founded a dynasty. The Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia, or the Mongol invasion of Iran (Persia) (Persian: حمله مغول به ایران), from 1219 to 1221[2] marked the beginning of the Mongol conquest of Central Asia. Next was the city of Toos. [7] Thus most Mongol conquest and plundering took place during the warmer seasons, when there was sufficient grazing for their herds. Halperin, Charles J.. 2000. However, it is known that Genghis rejected the notion of war as he was engaged in war with the Jin dynasty and was gaining much wealth from trading with the Khwarezmid Empire. To do this, they traversed 300 miles of the seemingly impassable Kyzyl Kum desert by hopping through the various oases, guided most of the way by captured nomads. Therefore, the Shah dispatched his elite cavalry reserve, which prevented him from effectively marching anywhere else with his main army. Ultimately, a number of Mongols turned to farming, married local people, and were assimilated into Persian society. While Genghis Khan chose to acknowledge him as his oldest son (primarily due to his love for Börte, whom he would have had to reject had he rejected her child), questions had always existed over Jochi's true parentage. However, the garrison beat back the assault and launched their own counter-attack against the Mongols. Bukhara was not heavily fortified, with a moat and a single wall, and the citadel typical of Khwarezmi cities. Page 263. "Turkestan" seems to refer to Central Asian Turkic countries in general in this passage, as Samarkand, Merv, and Nishapur are located in modern Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and northeastern Iran respectively. The seeds of that battle began in the conflict with Khwarezmia when their fathers struggled for supremacy.[50]. Journal of the American Oriental Society 115 (2). The Mongols arrived at the gates of Bukhara virtually unnoticed. During the Mongol expedition, Azerbaijan and the southern Persian dynasties in Fars and Kerman voluntarily submitted to the Mongols and agreed to pay tribute. After Genghis Khan. “The Ethnogenesis of the Crimean Tatars. [39] With collective populations of around 700,000, the major cities probably had 105,000 to 140,000 healthy males of fighting age in total (15–20% of the population), but only a fraction of these would be part of a formal militia with any notable measure of training and equipment. Cambridge University Press: Sinor, Denis. By the time the conquest was complete, the Persian population was decreased to barely 1/4 of what it was Heavy taxation by the Mongols kept the Persians in perpetual poverty and destroyed the economy Ghazan Khan ascends to the throne in 1295, marking the beginning of an effort to rebuild Persia Mongols and Persia. The number of its chief men rivaled the drops of April rain, and its earth contended with the heavens. [21] While Genghis Khan was conquering Transoxania and Persia, several Chinese who were familiar with gunpowder were serving with Genghis's army. Large areas of Islamic Central Asia and northeastern Iran were seriously depopulated,[10] as every city or town that resisted the Mongols was destroyed. [55] Indeed, at the time of his death, the Khan was contemplating a march on his rebellious son. The mere shock of the force and size of the Mongol army was devastating. The Khwarezm decision makers believed they would have time to further refine their strategy, but the Khan had struck first. The Safavids were just the last of a long list of foreing dinasties (Arabs, Turks and Mongols) who ended up being Persianized after conquering Iran. [8] This led Genghis Khan to attack the Khwarezmian dynasty. Genghis Khan forged the initial Mongol Empire in Central Asia, starting with the unification of the Mongol tribes Merkits, Tartars, and Mongols. [25] Ogedei's grandson Kaidu occupied portions of Central Siberia from 1275 on. While often portrayed as a strong and unified state, most of the Shah's holdings were recent conquests only nominally sworn to him, to the point that the Shah didn't feel like he could trust most of his troops. “On the Westerly Drifting of Nomades, from the Fifth to the Nineteenth Century. As the Mongol soldiers looted the city, a fire broke out, razing most of the city to the ground. The fortress of Ashiyar held for 15 months of besiegement before falling (requiring the attention of a significant chunk of the Mongol army) while Saif-Rud and Tulak took heavy casualties for the Mongols to subdue. The estimates for the sizes of the opposing armies are often in dispute. [18] Genghis brought along his most able generals, besides Muqali to aid him.