2. 11.7 The Mongol Invasion
Muslims faced the Mongols
• Nomadic people whose homeland was in the north of China
• Began wars of conquest under their leader, Genghis Khan
Mongols swept across central Asia, destroying cities and
farmland
• Hundreds of thousands of Muslims were slaughtered
• Some were carried off to Mongolia as slaves
4. Genghis Khan (Khan means king in Mongolian)
• 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 freed all of Persia and most of Mesopotamia
from the yoke of Islam and almost destroyed Islam.
• What is meant by this phrase “yoke of Islam?”
• 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.
5. Why did the Mongols attack Islam?
• Historians believe that the real reason why the Mongol
horsemen made their way from Mongolia and started rolling
back the Muslims was in response 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.
6. Islam was almost destroyed
• Under Genghis Kahn:
• the Mongols had built an empire that stretched across much
of Asia
• Defeated the Seljuk Turks and seized parts of Persia
• The Muslims were able to stop the Mongol
advance
• Led by the Mamluks, whose capital was in Cairo
7. Mamluk warriors
• The Mamluks were an elite corps of
warrior-slaves, mostly from Turkic or
Kurdish Central Asia, but also including
some Christians from the Caucasus
region of south-eastern Europe.
Captured and sold as young boys, they
were carefully groomed for life as
military men. Being a Mamluk became
such an honor that some free-born
Egyptians reportedly sold their sons into
slavery so that they too could become
Mamluks.
8. The battle of Ayn Jalut
• Defeated the Mongols at this important battle in Palestine
• Mamluks continued to Rule Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Arabia,
and parts of Anatolia for 300 years
9. Mongols began converting to Islam
• Helped bring unity to their empire
• Made Persian the language of government
• Rebuilt cities they had destroyed and encouraged learning, the
arts, and trade
• The end of the Mongol threat made possible one of the
largest empires the world has ever seen; the Ottoman Empire.
10. 11.8 Muslim Empires and the
Expansion of Islam
In the early 1300s, a Turk named Osman I started the Ottoman dynasty
in northern Anatolia. They conquered new lands in Anatolia (modern
day Turkey) and southeastern Europe
Advance was stopped for a time by a new enemy, Timur Lang
• Came from Mongol tribe
• Began building his own empire in the late 1300s
• Controlled Iraq and much of central Asia
• Invaded India, Syria, and Anatolia
• Defeated the Ottoman Empire at Ankara in Anatolia
Ottomans were on the brink of collapse, but after Timur’s death, they
regained control of their lands
11. The Ottoman Empire Expands
• Captured Constantinople, bringing an end to the Byzantine
Empire
• City was renamed Istanbul and became the Ottoman capital
• Destroyed the Mamluk Empire (who had once turned back the
Mongol invaders)
• Conquered Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Arabia
• Took parts of southeaster Europe, North Africa, Persia, and
Turkey
12. Religious Tolerance
Jews, Christians, and Muslims had their own local communities
called millets
Allowed to govern themselves
Christian men were converted to Islam
Empire declined after 1700
Muslims in Persia founded the Safavid dynasty
• Their shahs, or rulers, soon controlled parts of Iraq as well as
Persia Shi’a Muslims
13. The Mughal Empire
A third Muslim empire was founded by Babur, a descendant of
both Genghis Khan and Timur
• Invaded India and founded the Mughal Empire
• Arabic for “mongol”
• Traders brought Islam across the Indian Ocean to southeast
Asia
• Today, Indonesia has more Muslims than any other country
in the world
