OLLI Workshop: Critical Historical Periods in the Middle East

Leader: Theo Pavlidis (t.pavlidis@ieee.org)

Handout No. 9 - April 12, 2010

Chapter 8: Turks, Crusaders, and Mongols

Time span: mainly from 1000 to 1400

The first Turks: Slave Soldiers (Mamluks or Mameluks) converted individually to Islam. This practice started around 830 and eventually Mamluks became very powerful establishing their own sultanate in Egypt (1250-1517). Even after the Ottomans took over Egypt, Mamluks continued to be present until the 19th century. However, at some point the slaves were not taken from Turkish lands but from Georgia and other regions in the Caucasus.

The Seljuk Turks: Converted to Islam as a nation. Name derives from that of their leader. Established major empire and defeated the Byzantines in 1071. The map shows their empire near the end of the 11th century.(Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Seljuk_Empire_locator_map.svg) Eventually the empire broke up with the part in Asia Minor forming the Sultanate of Rum.

The Crusaders: Several crusades during 1095-1291 with the goal of liberating the Holy Land from the "Infidels". Established several crusader states along Syria and Palestine but eventually were defeated and expelled from the region. They also inflicted significant damage on the Byzantine Empire. Major Muslim opponent was the Kurdish general Saladin who founded the Ayyubid dynasty over Syria and Egypt ((1171-1246). Map shows (in dark gray) Saladin's domain and (in black and barely visible) the crusader states along the Mediterranean coast. (Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ayyubid_Dynasty_1171_-_1246(AD).PNG)

Gibbon's opinion of the Crusades: The major effect of the crusades was "not so much in producing a benefit as in removing an evil." The crusades weakened the oppressive European feudal structure. He writes "The estates of the barons were dissipated ... Their poverty extorted from their pride those charters of freedom which unlocked the fetters of the slave, secured the farm of the peasant and the shop of the artificer ...". He concludes the section with a metaphor: "The conflagration which destroyed the tall and barren trees of the forest gave air and scope to the vegetation of the small and nutritive plants of the soil." [EG, Chapter LXI, vol. 6, pp. 205-208]. It is worth adding in this context that the king of England signed the Magna Carta in 1215, toward the end of the period of the crusades. And the start of the Renaissance is usually placed around 1300, right after the crusades.

The Assassins: Persian part of a Shi'ite sect (Ismailis) based in mountain fortresses. For about 200 years (starting in 1090) they terrorized the region but they did not achieve any of their political goals.

The Mongols: Two invasions, one under Genghis Khan and his successors (1220-1250) and the other under Tamerlane (1370-1405). They caused major destruction in the region and some Arab historians blame them for the decline of Arab civilization. Their only good deed seems to be the destruction of the Assassins by a grandson of Genghis Khan. The first invasion ended with a defeat of the Mongols by the Mamluks and the second invasion ended with the death of Tamerlane. However, by inflicting damage upon the Ottomans, they delayed the end of the Byzantine empire by about 50 years.

The Ottoman Turks became the major state in the Middle East region (and beyond) and their empire lasted until the 20th century. They started humbly (circa 1299) as one of the Turkish principalities that arose after the break up of the Seljuk empire. In 1326 they captured Bursa from the Byzantines and made it the capital of their state, an event that Gibbon considers as the founding of the Ottoman empire. A few years later they crossed into Europe and by 1400 they controlled most of the Balkans and Asia Minor. They were about to put an end to the Byzantine empire when they suffered a major defeat by the Mongols. The picture on the right is of the first Ottoman sultan Murad I and underneath it is his official signature (Tuğra) [Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Murad I]