Internal weaknesses that impacted the Islamic Societies during the Crudades and Mongol Wars - Essay Example

? Internal Weaknesses that Impacted the Islamic Societies during the Crusades and Mongol Wars College: Introduction Crusades were a sequence of some religious expeditionary wars that were blessed by the Catholic Church’s pope with a stated goal, which was to restore Christian access to holy places in the neighborhood of Jerusalem City. These Crusades were initially launched in the response to the call from the Byzantine Empire leaders for help in the fight to expand into Muslim Seljuk Turks of Anatolia who had cut off any access to the City of Jerusalem.1 The Crusades comprised of military units from the Roman Catholics all over the Western Europe, under no unified command. The major series of Crusades took place between 1095 and 1291. Even though the early crusades were named and were quite successful in realizing the desired objectives, majority of the crusades that took place in the later years were ineffective and thus they were defeated by their counterparts, the Muslims. The Mongols on the other hand invaded Muslim land in the thirteenth century. They moved from one Islamic region to another slaughtering all the Muslims they came across. In just a single city, they slaughtered almost 2 million people. Such had immense effect on the locals in terms of their political power, economy, social life, culture, religion and population as explored in this paper. Soldiers in hundreds of thousands became crusaders through taking of vows, with the Pope granting these soldiers Plenary Indulgence. The emblem of the soldiers in the war was a cross, as the term crusade was derived from a French phrase, “taking the cross”. Most of the crusaders were from France, calling themselves ‘Franks’ that eventually became a common term among the Muslims.2 By this time, Christianity was yet to divide into large numbers of intermingled geographical regions which later formed the eastern churches of Byzantine Orthodox and the Western Roman Catholic. The Crusaders just considered themselves as Christians but not as Muslims. They had immense impact on Middle East, and particularly to Islamic religion. Crusades Background Among the powers that medieval popes had was the ability of requesting the kings and monarchs to be provided with troops as well as money to facilitate what they deemed as holy wars, such as the Crusades. The Crusades were fought because of geopolitical, economic and religious conflicts between the Muslims and the Christians.3 The spark for the initial Crusade came in year 1095, at the time when the Byzantines within the European Christians for military assistance against Turks, and Seljuk who had recently captured the city of Jerusalem. In order to increase their chances of receiving more aid, Byzantines exaggerated the rumors of Holy Land atrocities from the Turkish people. Pope Urban II immediately responded by summoning of the Council of Clermont, calling upon the European Catholics knights to recapture the city of Jerusalem because of the religious value that they placed to the Holy Land. In 1096, an army of Crusaders traveled headed to the Middle East through Constantinople, fighting the Muslim forces that they encountered along the way. The army reached Jerusalem two years later, 1099. They placed the city under siege, and they butchered almost every single Jew and Muslim within the walls of the City. In the process, the Crusaders massacred a significant number of Christians whom were mistaken for Muslims. Because of lack of unity among the Jews, Turks and Muslims, they suffered immense loss and defeat from the Crusaders.4 Crusades in Islamic Society Much of the most important works of histories of crusades are being published and the settlements that have been established within their wake are concerned with the 13th and the 14th Centuries, while the great vistas are providing an opening in the sixteenth centuries.5 The Crusades, which were launched upon the holy land of Middle East from Urban II Speech that took place in 1095 at the Council of Clermont geared towards the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, initiated a novel phase of a relationship between the Western nations and the Middle East countries. There is no doubt about the fact that the Crusaders’ brutality with not less than 9 major attacks that were initiated in the Middle East caused a pronounced shock upon the Muslims in the region that even in the contemporary intrusion to region the impact is far from being considered as a Crusade. Nevertheless, the tangible impact upon the Islamic society is not seen and it can hardly be noticed among the local inhabitants of this region in the contemporary society. Most of the impacts of the Crusades in the Middle East and particularly among the Islamic societies are just a memory that is preservation of the massacres that were conducted within the Holy land together with epics of some endless battles with some figures such as Richard the Lionhearted and Saladin. The absence of some permanent influences upon the Crusaders on Islamic societies could be attributed to the comparatively short reign on the Mediterranean east, and the return of majority of European inhabitants to Middle East. The mass of the surrounding Crusader’s state population, in some cases within the state itself, were consistent of indigenous Muslims, some Jews and Eastern Christians.6 After the Crusaders’ departure, the lands in which they dominated were incorporated back to immediate neighborhood Muslims without any difficulties. The impact of the Crusades on the European Muslims was significantly obvious. It was worth noting that the crusades were launched in Europe, thus their impact was not only to the Islamic societies, but also to the politics, economy and many other aspects of European people. Saunders (1965) has observed that the failures and the successes of medieval crusades had an obvious profound impact on both the Christians and the Muslims living in the East. The first Crusaders caught Arabs, Byzantines and Turks by surprise because the attack was thoroughly improbable and they were unprotected.7 In a short, though very thorough article, Steven Runcinman explored the effects of crusades upon the Byzantine Empire. The author has casted the movement as a well-intentioned effort that was geared towards helping the Greeks who quickly foundered upon mutual misunderstandings. Constantinople emperor, Alexius I Comnenus requested for some few mercenary to assist him but ended up receiving hordes of some unruly allies. Instead of bringing together the Muslims from the West and those from the East, the crusaders only succeeded in pushing them further, and finally permanently apart. 8 Just in the same way that the crusades were not for all Christians, the same thing with the Jihad, only some few Muslims participated in the war. Thousands of Muslims lived within Jerusalem Kingdom, with the Christians as the minority in their domain. The researchers on the manner in which the Muslims and the Christians were living have observed some remarkable docility between and among them, may be partly because of the military presence in their societies but primarily because of their lives were not disturbed by Christians. Mongol Invasion The region through which the Mongols invaded Egypt was known as Ayn Jalut. The battle between the Muslims and the Mongols took place within the holy month of Ramadan. Conflicts and wars have been part of human history from time immemorial. History of almost all ethnic groups, be they from the West of from the East, has been characterized by wars. Sometimes, the wars have been because of scarcity of resources, and thus even as every individual pursues for the limited resources, conflicts emerges. However, there are some other reasons as to why conflicts and wars prevail between and among people, for example, differences of ideologies, opinions or religions. Often, religious fanaticism causing imperialistic desires and ambitions influence conduct, thus propelling people to wage war against individuals of dissimilar faith. Some of the conflicts might not attract much attention among historians because they did not have much impact on the subjects involved. However, some of the conflicts and resultant wars send shiver and grief to the hearts of all who hear or read about them. This is the case in relation to Mongol invasions.9 One of the historians who witnessed the Mongol invasion of Muslims’ Kwarzim Shah Kingdom, Ibn Al-Artheer, has lamented that the situation was so dilapidating such that he found it quite challenging even to write about it. It appeared as if Islam and Muslim had been wiped out. The manner in which the massacres were done was indicative that no single Muslim was left alive. Just like the invasion of Crusaders in Muslims living in Jerusalem, where they killed every single Muslim and Christians who were mistaken to be Muslims, the Mongol invasion targeted all Islam followers that they came across. The author has wished that he was not born or he had died before not to witness what he did. He posited that no single historian has ever recorded anything related to what was witnessed during the Mongol invasion. The magnitude of the invasion was unprecedented within the human history.10 The invasion of the Mongols lasted for almost half a century, a period through which they succeeded in conquering and taking over the entire Chinese Kingdom, Poland, Russia, which was the center of Christian Orthodoxy, and majority of Eastern Europe, crushing any army that attempted to stand on their way. They defeated all the powerful entities, thus causing all the doors of Europe to be opened for them. Had it not that their leader, Great Khan Ogedei died, they Mongolians would have taken control over the whole of Europe. The Muslims’ great cities such as Samarkland, Balkh, Nishapur, Harat and Bukhara were among the first regions to be burnt by the offensive Mongols. It has been estimated that about 1.6 million Muslims were killed in Harat city and 1.747 million within the city of Nishpur. Even though the figures by historians have varied significantly, all are in agreement that the toll number was more than a million people per city. The Mongolians did not only go massacring the population, they also went on rampage, burning and destroying buildings, libraries, mosques, while turning everything they came across into a heap of ruble.11 The Mongols paused for about three decades, before appointing Great Khan, Monke to lead them into capturing the western side. They reached continued to massacre all that they came across, especially the Muslims. In the Old Abbasid dynasty, they massacred between 0.8 to 1 million people, and then headed for Baghdad. The impact that they had on the region of Baghdad was so disastrous that even today, the impact is still being experienced. Being the center of civilization and knowledge for many centuries, the strike of Baghdad caused loss of some essential books, treasures and artifacts that could not be found anywhere else in the world. According to historians, the river Euphrates turned dark and red from the ink and the blood from books and Bagdad people respectively. In the history of humanity, never had Muslims been subjected to such destruction. The psychological effect of the invasion was devastating such that it took centuries for Islamic to recover. People feared even being members of the religion out of trauma.12 The invasion of the Mongol on Islamic heartland had some mixed implications: On one hand, Islamic world was never able to regain the previously possessed power over the Middle East and the attempt of Gaykhatu to introduce different type of money (paper money) towards the end of thirteenth century destroyed trade within the region. Much of the 6 centuries of Islamic culture, infrastructure and scholarship, was destroyed by the invaders. They destroyed and burned libraries, replacing the mosques across the region with Buddhist temples, while destroying the region’s intricate irrigation systems. The destroyed trade was difficult to recover. The invasion of the Mongol, despite its destructive impact, especially in relation to massacres, was not entirely off-putting for the Islamic societies. Perhaps the most important achievement of the Muslims under the Mongol rule was the acquired ability to absorb the invaders into their cultural system, rather than permitting their destructiveness to cause their downfall. In some regions, the Muslims opted to surrender even before the fights emerged, thus making the invaders opt for occupation in the land without necessarily destroying the cities and killing the locals. The feat is observable in the triumph of Islamism in the region over Buddhism that died off after the war was over; even the invaders themselves converted to Islamic religion. Similar trend was observable in language. Majority of inhabitants of Central Asian prairieland were Turks. The Mongol administration and army often hired a greater number of Turks than the Mongols. However, it did not take long before Turkish language triumphed over Mongol’s within certain regions of II-Khanate. Azerbaijan province in northern Persia for example has remained under the influence of the invasion, with the people continuing to speak Turkish many centuries later. Even though Turkish was quite influential in the region of Golden Horde, it did not become an official language for Il-Khanate. Internal Weaknesses of the Islamic World According to an article on crusaders warfare, there were some pronounced political, social and economic weaknesses within the Islamic society that brought about their defeat by the Crusade invaders. By the time of the attack, the Islamic circle had not been militarized. By this time, the Islamic society was committed only to the service of their god with less concern on issues of politics, war, military and power. Knightly vassals were in existence with enough numbers for protecting the Latin territories: These knights were generally obedient and loyal, and their services were not limited to the common West. However, they had one major weakness that provided a loophole for the crusaders attack; they were required to provide their services throughout the year, which made them generally weak in providing the necessary defense against the Crusades.13 Moreover, during the course of the 13th century, the military problems in Syrian Franks had become more challenging, further weakening the security of the Syrian Islamic society. The earlier successes of the Crusaders against the Islamic societies were made possible by political weaknesses and divisions of the Islam, thus creating a loophole for the attack. Muslims in Syria were the first to reunite, and later were joined by the Egyptians. On the other hand, the Franks required increased strengthening of the military in the maintenance of the conquest of the predecessors. However, the feudal servitium debitum never expanded enough with a possibility of having been contracted. The rulers were obliged to be more reliant on mercenaries, with their cost imposing some intolerable strains upon the insufficient financial resources as well as upon the military Orders that they were not able to control fully.14 Similar sentiments were shared by Pfeiffer (2011) who explored the first Crusade economic and social factors in the eleventh century. The author observed that although the victory of the Turks at Manzikirt as well as the call for assistance and help from the Alexius Comnenus acted as a catalyst to the summoning by Urban II to fight in the name of Christianity. Moreover, the division and the weaknesses among the Muslims contributed to the victory of Christianity. The fighting in the name of religion before the crusaders had been happening and continued for a number of centuries, with the first crusaders establishing the stage for the crusades that followed and had great victories.15 The success of the Mongol invasion could be accredited to the weaknesses in the Islamic army. One of the Islamic leaders, Al-'Alqami, who was a minister within the Caliph al-Musta'sim court wrote a number of letters to Hulagu Khan, a Mongol leader, inviting them to attack the land and promising them his support. Al-'Alqami played a very significant role of revealing the weaknesses and the strengths of the Islamic army, thus guiding the enemies into areas and how to strike. He encouraged the Mongol leaders that the invasion would be nothing more than a cakewalk, thus it would not take them long before they extended the empire to the Muslim Caliphate core.16 The division of the Muslims during the Mongol invasion that led to their defeat had been explored by OUNE and Unesco (2000). The books has observed, “During the reign of Tolui’s eldest son Mongke, the Mongols, led by Hulegu, attacked the Abbasaid caliphate. Weak and fragmented, and on its last legs, the caliphate was unable to withstand the Mongol invasion: the capital Baghdad fell to the Mongols in 1258 and was largely destroyed and Iraq became part of the Mongol Empire”.17 David Nicolle (2001) has observed that one of the primary reasons behind the success of the Crusades against the Muslims was the division that existed in the Islamic societies. The pursuit of leadership positions led the leaders to divide their people, which resulted to failure to work as one unit against one enemy, the Christians. The leaders tried to use their wealth, status in the society or the size of the military contingencies in suppressing each other, which resulted to failure to protect themselves and their subjects from the invading Crusaders. At these particular crucial moments, the Muslims should have been united in fighting the Crusaders, but most of them chose to fight as individual groups, thus giving the enemies an upper hand in their advances.18 In some other works by Nicolle and Hook on the first Crusades, it was observed even as the first victory, it was quite easy for the few crusaders who were left in the Islamic societies to govern and secure the region. According to these authors, after the victory of the crusaders, majority of them left for their homes back in Europe and only a few thousands were left in these Islamic regions. They were able to control amidst the fact that they were surrounded by enemies from all sides and they had no enough human resources to defend themselves because they encountered very little organized and unified opposition. Within the Crusaders states as well as in the surrounding regions, the Muslims were sharply divided on political and religious factions. The Muslims from Egypt were in hatred with Turk Muslims who were constantly attempting to make up with the Christians. The pursuit of maintenance power locally played a very significant role in separating these Muslim subgroups, thus enhancing their weaknesses and making it easier for invaders to have an easy ride.19 Conclusion The history of Muslim and Islamic religion can never completely told without exploring their experiences in the hands of Crusaders and Mongol invaders. The Crusaders were Christian combatants from Europe who came to rescue the city of Jerusalem from Muslims who had captured it. They passed through various regions of Islam and destroyed the cities killing all the Muslims they came across. In the city of Jerusalem, they massacred al Islam followers and some Christians who were mistaken to be Muslims. Such had immense effect on Islamic religion, as it ceased existence within Jerusalem and neighboring regions. The Mongol invasion on Islamic regions under the leadership of the Great Khan led to massacre of millions of Muslims. In a single city, the invaders could slaughter as many as 2 million people, majority of them being Muslims. The invasion has immense destructive effect on Muslims and Islamic religion. In majority of the struck regions, Islam almost became extinct, because not even a mosque, a Quran or a Muslim could be speared during the destruction. Bibliography Hodgson, Marshall, Rethinking world history: essays on Europe, Islam, and world history, Cambridge University Press, 166-168, 1993. Hodgson, Marshall, The secret order of assassins: the struggle of the early Nizari Ismailis ilis against the Islamic world, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 212-223, 2005. Kennedy, Hugh, The Byzantine and early Islamic Near East, New York, NY: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 65-72, 2006. Nicolle David & Hoo Christa, The First Crusade, 1096-99: conquest of the Holy Land, Osprey Publishing, 2003. Organization United Nations Educational, Scie, Unesco, History of Humanity, UNESCO, 2000. Pfeiffer Abigail, The First Crusade: Social and Economic Factors of the Late Eleventh Century, 2011, Exploring Military History and Humanity. Pfeiffer Abigail, The First Crusade: Social and Economic Factors of the Late Eleventh Century, Exploring Military History and Humanity, 2011. Saunders, John Joseph, A history of medieval Islam, New York, NY: Routledge, 158, 1965.  Umich.edu, Crusader warfare: The society and army, n.d, derived from http://www.umich.edu/~eng415/topics/war/Crusader_Warfare.html Read More