CHAPTER 7: UPHEAVEL
CHAPTER 7: UPHEAVAL
Key points from this chapter:
The rise of the Ismāi’īlīs severely weakened the Abbasids and for the first time, the capital city of the Caliphate was at risk of capture
The Crusades exposed the underlying weaknesses of the disunited Muslim World
The Mongol invasions brought the Islamic world to the brink of extinction
By the 9th century, the Muslims ruled a large part of the world and were ushering in an intellectual golden age. It seemed that this unstoppable force would go on to conquer the rest of the world. However, “the year 900 marks the beginning of a turbulent few hundred years for the Muslim world”. (p113). The summary of this chapter will be split into the three different case studies of upheaval that the author explores:
The rise of the Ismāi’īlīs and the Fātimid Caliphate
The Crusades
Mongol invasions
The Isma’īlīs, who were a Shi’a sect, gathered support from those who resented Abbasid rule throughout the empire. The Abbasids took stern measures to eradicate this threat. However, this only pushed the Ismāi’īlīs further underground. The Isma’īlīs struck their first major blow when they roused up bedouin tribes in the eastern Arabian Peninsula to attack Syria. These tribes formed a group known as the Qarmatians who conquered Damascus in 903, albeit for a short while. After being driven back by Abbasid armies, the Qarmatians took a different approach in which they terrorised Muslim lands with raids. In 906, they massacred 20,000 Muslim pilgrims on their way to Makkah. In the 920’s, they began to raid major Abbasid cities and even came close to the Abbasid capital of Baghdad. The most horrific of their crimes was when they attacked Makkah and took the Black Stone. However, the mainstream Muslim population viewed them as extremists. Visitors to Qarmatian camps related that they did not see any masjids or anyone praying there. Therefore, the Abbasids did not view them as an existential threat to their power
The Ismāi’īlīs were more successful in North Africa where they ignited tensions between the Arabs and non-Arabs. This led to many Sunni leaders being overthrown and the establishment of the Shi’a Fātimid Caliphate. The Fātimid Caliphate went on to conquer all of North Africa, the Hejaz and Palestine. This coupled with disunity amongst Sunni rulers meant that the Fātimid Caliphate was the most powerful Muslim state in the 10th and 11th centuries and it was feared that they may even conquer Baghdad. However, a new Byzantine threat and attacks by the Qarmatians and others soon distracted the Fātimids. The author says “The capital of the caliphate thus escaped conquest by the unorthodox Fātimids and the Sunni world had time to recover and build strong political and military institutions under the Seljuk Turks in the eleventh century.” (p118). Although the Fātimid Caliphate may not receive much mention in the annals of history, the author has successfully demonstrated the grave threat it posed to the Sunni world.
Like all empires and states, the Fātimids also developed their own policies. They had a large focus on education but this was to promote their Shi’i teachings and not the development of other sciences. To achieve this, the Azhar University in Cairo was built in 970CE and served as a beacon of Shi’i education until the 12th century. However, Shi’i or more specifically, Ismāi’īlī teachings were not widely accepted by the masses and so remained confined to the Fātimid Elite. The Fātimids did not develop a complex legal system. Laws were radically changed from caliph to caliph and this was uncontested by the Fātimid hierarchy who believed the caliph to be semi-divine. Freedom of non-Shi’as also depended on the caliph with some extending tolerance and others imposing a total crackdown on all non-Shi’a practices. Perhaps the cruellest of them was Caliph Al-Hakim who was known as the Mad Caliph. He ordered the destruction of many churches, including the Holy Sepulchre and thereby broke the covenant of Umar (RA). He also banned Christians, Jews and Sunni Muslims from visiting Jerusalem. Furthermore, he banned all Sunni congregational prayers. He also ordered the killing of all dogs in a nearby village because their barking annoyed him. This is just one of many examples in the history of the Fātimid Caliphate. Due to these, the Fātimids did not receive much support and were disliked by the vast majority of their subjects. The author says “without widespread support, and hampered by radical changes in policy during each succession, the Fātimids slowly declined in power through the eleventh and twelfth centuries.”(p120) Although they did not stay in power for long, relative to other Muslim states, the damage done by the Fātimid Caliphate to the Muslim world would prove critical in the centuries to come when the Muslims faced an old foe from its western borders.
Another disaster faced by the Muslims were the Crusades. The Muslims had expanded into the depths of western Anatolia after Seljuk Sultan Alparslān I’s victory at Manzikert in 1071. Byzantine Emperor Alexios requested aid from Pope Urban II to push back the burgeoning Seljuk Empire. The latter relayed the emperor’s call to European kings. However, their target was not to help the Byzantine Empire recapture Anatolia but to conquer Jerusalem. In the late 10th century, a 30,000-strong crusader army marched out of Europe. They plundered villages and killed many people including European Jews on their way to Constantinople. The army instilled such a great fear that Emperor Alexios refused to open the gates of Constantinople until he received assurances of safety from the Crusaders. In 1097, the Crusaders arrived at Antioch and the city was easily conquered and its population massacred. The Crusaders took advantage of an extremely divided Muslim world with emirs (governors) who were constantly at war with each other. Due to this, calls for aid by the Emir of Antioch fell on deaf ears. The Crusaders then marched towards a poorly defended Fātimid-controlled Jerusalem and captured the city with ease. The Fātimids managed to raise an army but they were too late. With the Muslims still failing to form a united front against their common enemy, the Crusaders easily took the surrounding cities and established four Crusader principalities.
For the first time in history, Western and Eastern cultures mixed. Although the Crusaders set up their European Feudal system, the population remained largely Muslim. Furthermore, goods that had never before come from Europe, entered the region. As a result, many Western European states profited from the new markets that were generated.
However, this period of crusader growth and prosperity was short-lived. A serious resistance was finally formed by Imad al-Dīn Zangi of Mosul who launched a successful campaign against the crusader principality of Edessa. Although this was the weakest of the four Crusader principalities, it highlighted growing Muslim unity and marks the point when the “tide began to turn against the Crusaders” (p126). His efforts were continued by his son Nūr al-Dīn who finally united Syria under his rule. It seemed as if the hour of reckoning had come for the Crusaders but Nur Ad-Din’s attention was unexpectedly turned to Egypt. King Amalric of Jerusalem attempted to conquer Egypt in a bid to use its vast wealth to fight Nūr al-Dīn. However, Shawar, the vizier of Egypt, requested aid from Nur Ad-Din in the name of Muslim unity. Nur Ad-Din answered the call and pushed back Amalric. In a strange turn of events, Shawar betrayed Nūr al-Dīn and successfully made a deal with Amalric to push Nūr al-Dīn out of Egypt. However, relations between the newly formed allies soon turned sour and Shawar turned to Nūr al-Dīn again. He answered but this time did not make the same mistake. After pushing Amalric back again, he ordered the execution of Shawar and installed his trusted commander Shirkuh as the vizier. Shirkuh would soon die, however, and a young Salahuddīn would become the vizier.
Salahuddīn was born in 1137/38 in Iraq and was the nephew of Shirkuh. Initially, he led a life in pursuit of the sacred sciences and did not want to go to war. However, upon the insistence of his uncle, he joined Shirkuh’s second campaign against the Fātimids. After becoming the vizier, he slowly toppled the Fātimid Caliphate by spreading Sunni teachings and following the death of Fātimid Khalifah Al-‘Adid, Salahuddīn became the sole ruler of Egypt. This led to tensions between him and Nūr al-Dīn and as the two were about to lock horns, the latter passed away – thus averting a civil war. Salahuddīn, seen as Nūr al-Dīn’s spiritual successor, marched to Syria and united it with Egypt. Now having surrounded Jerusalem, he was ready to take the city. However, due to a strategic error, he was defeated at Montgisard in 1177. For the next decade, he made truces with the Crusaders to further stabilise his rule and gather more strength by conquering Mesopotamia. Another threat he faced was the Hashashin who were a secret group of Isma’ili assassins. They attempted to assassinate Salahuddīn twice but were never successful. After uniting large parts of the Muslim world, Salahuddīn employed a cat’s patience in waiting for the Crusaders to break the truce and they did so in 1187 when Reynald of Kerak attacked a Muslim pilgrim caravan. Salahuddīn gathered his armies in response and marched on Jerusalem. He defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin in July 1187. Three months later, Salahuddīn entered the holy city of Jerusalem in a similar manner to the second Khalifah of Islam, Umar ibn al-Khattab (RA). In an act of magnanimity, Salahuddīn granted all the Christians safe passage back to Europe. Unlike the Christian leaders, who took all the gold they could back with them to Europe, Salahuddīn paid the ransom for those who could not pay. Salahuddīn’s state developed into the Ayyubid Sultanate by his successors and the crusaders never again posed such a great threat to the Muslim world as they had done in the 11th and 12th centuries.
The last case study the author looks at is the Mongol invasions in the 13th century. Starting in the 1220s, a wave of blood and destruction spread throughout the Muslim world. Genghis Khan had united the Mongol tribes and created a vast empire. However, he did not have any quarrel with the Muslim world. After Shāh Muhammad II unjustly killed Mongol messengers, Genghis Khan gathered his armies and marched on the Khwarezmian Empire. Shāh Muhammad II’s armies were no match for the endless Mongol hordes who decimated all in their path. The author does not mention Juwaini’s statements but it is important to do so to illustrate the extent of the fear across the Muslim world. He was a Persian Historian who wrote about the Mongol conquests. He records “the air became blue, the sea boiled with the noise of drums, with his finger, he pointed to the army on the plain, a host to which there was no end”. Muslim cities capitulated to the Mongols one by one until the death of Genghis Khan.
The Muslims finally received a “welcome reprieve” (P134) when Ogedei Khan came to the Mongol throne. He chose to focus on the Ural Mountains and Europe. However, Mongol priorities shifted again when Ogodei Khan died.
Hulagu, the new ruler of the Mongol Empire, launched a fresh campaign against the Muslim World which was unparalleled in destruction to any previous Mongol campaign. The Mongols marched into Persia and wiped out the Hashashin stronghold of Alamut. They then set their sights on Baghdad. To illustrate the nature of this existential threat, the author says “Never before in Islamic history had the caliphate itself fallen” (p136). In 1258, Baghdad fell. The population was massacred and the House of Wisdom, which was the largest library in the world, was “razed to the ground” (p137). Its books and centuries of scientific development were thrown into the river. The author says “Such was this loss that today we only have a fraction of the works of the great scientists of the Golden Age such as Ibn al-Haytham, al-Birūni and Ibn Sina. What other discoveries they may have had that we are unaware of bled into the Tigris, never to be read again.” This highlights the true extent of the loss. Mongol invasions did not cease after the conquest of Baghdad and they went on to conquer Syria and even threaten the Hejāz and Egypt.
However, by this time, a new dynasty had risen to power – The Mamluk Sultanate. They were an elite regiment of slave soldiers recruited by the Ayyubids but overthrew their rulers and established their own dynasty. Despite overwhelming odds, they would not accept servitude to the Mongols and marched out to battle. They won a major victory at ‘Ayn Jalūt in 1260 against the Mongols. The author highlights the importance of this victory by saying “The victory meant Egypt, and perhaps Islam itself, was saved from Mongol atrocities” (p138). The Mongols then ran into a series of their own troubles with the empire being split into 4 Khanates. To make matters worse, the ruler of the Golden Horde, Berke Khan, accepted Islam and allied himself with the Mamluks against the Mongols. This kept the Mongols from conquering other Muslim lands. However, the damage to the Muslim world was done. Once a beacon of justice, scientific advancements, architectural magnificence and religious freedom, the Muslim World had been reduced to a wasteland of stinking carcasses. The very speed at which the Muslims rose to assume stewardship of the world was the very speed at which they succumbed to the Mongols. The author highlights this by saying “The destruction of Baghdad was more than the conquest of a city. It was the end of a political, scientific and religious centre that the Muslim world at that time never could have conceived of.” (p137) Many even began to question Islam itself. They wondered if it was indeed the one true religion after the atrocities it faced. Scholars such as Ibn Taymiyah challenged this by saying that the Mongol invasions were the fault of the Muslims who lost their way. It is clear from this that the Muslims lost a great deal due to the Mongol invasions and the true extent of this loss cannot be known.
In conclusion, the Muslim world was primed and ready for the conquest of the entire world in the 8th and 9th centuries but this was not to be. A series of upheavals significantly weakened the Muslim World leading to its decline. Although the Muslims would eventually recover and form another great empire, they would never again regain their former glory.