Medieval
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Conquest(s) of Iraq and Afghanistan:
1220's and 2000's
ongols began their invasion of Southwest Asia around 1216 after their successes in China.
60,000 Mongol horsemen, led by Genghis Khan himself, laid waste to the countryside.
In 1220 they conquered what is now Afghanistan. Within a couple of years, they rode
through and ravaged Mesopotamia, sacking Baghdad along the way. In 2001,
the Americans overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan. Within two years, they rode
through Mesopotamia (Iraq) and toppled the Hussein regime. The Afghans and Iraqis
should thank Allah that the Americans are not the Mongols.
By 1218, the Mongols had expanded their lands westward to the borders of
the Kara-Khitai Empire in what is now Afghanistan. This was the first Muslim state to feel
the Khan's might. Genghis Khan sent a camel caravan to Khwarizmshah, the ruler there,
to establish trade relations. But, the goods were hijacked and most of the traders and
emissaries killed. So, he sent a second caravan. With the same results. To Khan, this meant war.
In 1220, the Mongols descended. As they advanced, The Mongols destroyed almost every living thing
in their path. Wild game, livestock, fields, orchards, women and children. They tore down houses,
buildings, bridges, and irrigation canals. The few survivors had nothing, nothing remained
to sustain them, and little remained to rebuild from and restart their lives.
Cities fell. Destroyed. Left in ruins. Abandoned. Bokhara. Samarkand (legendary
since Alexander the Great's trek there). Khorezm.
The Khan's armies stretched out in a man-hunt for the leader of Samarkand and Khorezm,
Shah Muhammad, the man who had ordered the seizure of the caravans. Just as the Americans
hunted for Hussein in 2003 in Iraq. Unlike Hussein, however, Muhammad died before
the conquering armies could get to him.
In time, the Mongols kept going all the way through Persia and Mesopotamia. They conquered
and sacked Baghdad and killed the caliph there.
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Keep a tally. Contrast the Mongols'
complete destruction of the lands and people of the Kara-Khitai Empire and
Mesopotamia (read: Afghanistan and Iraq) in the Middle Ages with the conduct
of the Americans in their operations in Afghanistan and Iraq today. The
people there should thank Allah
that the Americans are not the Mongols.
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Ripples:
The devastation wrought by the Mongols brought an end to many a civilization and society or at least weakened
their power and influence. This at precisely the moment when Western European civilization was "coming
into its own." On a positive note, the Mongol conquests opened up travel and trade lines between China and
the Mediterranean (and by extension, Europe). This fueled the Westerners' desire for exploration (see "epilogue").
Slow to recover from the Mongol invasions, Central Asia appeared to have "backward" and impoverished" societies
by the time Europeans arrived there. And, Western European culture, instead of Muslim Central and Southwest Asia,
came to dominate the world for the next several centuries.
The Mongols who stayed and ruled in Central and Southwest Asia adopted many of the local customs. Clothes. Food,
The Islam religion. Islam spread eastward through Mongol lands. It will be interesting to see what happens to
the Americans who are sent there and what cultural traits are brought back to the U.S.A. Believe it, Ameican culture
will change.
Resources:
"Mongols", The History Channel, 2004.
The People’s Chronology: Year-by-Year Record . . . by
James Trager, Henry Holt and Co, New York, 1992.
"Genghis Khan," in The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages; Norman F. Cantor, general editor; Viking Press, New York, 1999.
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