Mongol invasions of Syria

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Mongol invasions of Syria
the Mamluk-Ilkhanid War
Mongol raids in Syria and Palestine 1260.svg
1260 Mongol offensives in the Levant
Date 1260-1323
Location Syria, Iraq, Cilicia, Turkey, Levant
Result The Treaty of Aleppo
Belligerents
Ilkhanate of the Mongol Empire Bahri dynasty


Golden Horde of the Mongol Empire
Karamanid rebels
Commanders
Kitbuqa
Baidar
Samgar
Abagha
Mongke-temur
Ghazan
Molay
Kutluqshah
Oljeitu		 Qutuz
Baybars
Emir Salar
Emir Baibars al-Jashnakir
Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad
Qalawun
Al-Kamil of Mayyafariqin
Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey
Strength
Unknown Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown (heavier than the Mamluks) Unknown (heavy)
v • d • e

Central Asia (Khwarizm) – Georgia and Armenia – Volga Bulgaria (Samara Bend – Bilär) – Anatolia – Europe (Rus' – Poland – Hungary) – Baghdad – Korea – India – Japan (Bun'ei – Kōan) – Vietnam (Bạch Đằng) – China (Jin – Song) – Burma (Ngasaunggyan – Pagan  – Bhamo) – Java – Syria – Palestine (Ain Jalut)
v • d • e

Starting in the 1240s, the Mongols made repeated invasions of Syria or attempts thereof. Most failed, but they did have some success in 1260 and 1300, capturing Aleppo and Damascus and destroying the Ayyubid dynasty. The Mongols were forced to retreat within months each time by other forces in the area, primarily the Egyptian Mamluks. Since 1260, it had been described as the Mamluk-Ilkhanid War.

Contents

[edit] Background

A small detachment of Mongols under Bachu had raided Syria in 1243,[1] but made no significant progress. Although, the Ayyubids and local warlords were afraid of his advance, Bachu's army suffered from heat and were few in number. The more serious challenge began in the 1250s. Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, had founded the Ilkhanate, the southwestern state of the Mongol Empire. Under orders from his older brother, the Great Khan Mongke, in 1255 Hulagu sought to further expand the Empire into the Middle East. His forces subjugated multiple peoples along the way, most notably the center of the Islamic Empire, Baghdad, which was completely sacked in 1258, causing the destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate. From there, the Mongol forces proceeded into Syria.

[edit] 1260 invasion

In 1260, Egypt was under the control of the Bahri Mamluks, while most of the Levant (aside from the Crusader states) was still under the control of Ayyubid princes. The Mongols, for their part, had combined their forces with that of their Christian vassals in the region, the Georgians; the army of Cilician Armenia under Hethum I, King of Armenia; and the Franks of Bohemond VI of Antioch. The combined forces captured the city of Aleppo, and then on March 1, 1260, under the Mongol Christian general Kitbuqa, took Damascus. The last Ayyubid king, An-Nasir Yusuf, was captured by the Mongols near Gaza in 1260. However, Hulagu promised him that he would appoint An-Nasir Yusuf as his viceroy in Syria.[2] With the Islamic power center of Baghdad and Syria gone, the center of Islamic power transferred to the Mamluks in Cairo.

Hulagu's intention at that point was to continue south through Palestine to Egypt, to engage the Mamluks. However, Mongke died in late 1259, requiring Hulagu to return to Karakorum to engage in the councils on who the next Great Khan would be. Hulagu departed with the bulk of his forces, leaving only about 10,000 Mongol horsemen in Syria under Kitbuqa. Some of Kitbuqa's forces engaged in raids southwards towards Egypt, reaching as far as Gaza, where a Mongol garrison was established with 1,000 troops.

The Mamluks took advantage of the weakened state of the Mongol forces, and, negotiating a passive alliance with the remnants of the Crusader forces in Acre, advanced northwards to engage the Mongols at the pivotal Battle of Ain Jalut in September 1260. The Mamluks achieved a decisive victory, Kitbuqa was executed, and the battle established a highwater mark for the Mongol conquests. In previous defeats, the Mongols had always returned later to re-take the territory, but they were never able to avenge the loss at Ayn Jalut. The border of the Mongol Ilkhanate remained at the Tigris River for the duration of Hulagu's dynasty. the Sultan An-Nasir and his brother were executed after Hulagu heard the news of the defeat of Kitbuqa at Ain Jalut.

In December 1260, Hulagu sent 6,000 troops back into Syria, but they were defeated at the First Battle of Homs.

[edit] Abbasid Caliphate in Cairo and the rebellion in Mosul

After the fall of Baghdad in 1258, a few of Abbasid princes fled to Syria and Egypt. There, the Abbasids still maintained a feeble show of authority, confined to religious matters, under the Mamluks. But their authority was limited to being figureheads. First of the Caliphs in Cairo, Al-Mustansir II was dispatched to Iraq by Baibars. The Caliph was reinforced with Syrian auxiliaries and the Bedouins. However, he was totally crushed by the Mongol vanguard in South Iraq in 1262. The Mongol protecrate and ruler of Mosul, Badr al-Din's sons sided with the Mamluks and rebelled against the rule of Hulegu. This led to the destruction of the city state and the Mongols finally suppressed the rebellion in 1265.

[edit] 1271 invasion

The Mamluks under Baibars (yellow) fought off the Franks and the Mongols during the Ninth Crusade.

The second Mongol invasion of Syria took place in October 1271, when 10,000 Mongols and Seljuk auxiliaries moved southwards from Rum and captured Aleppo; however they retreated back beyond the Euphrates when the Mamluk leader Baibars marched on them from Egypt.

[edit] Mamluk-Golden Horde alliance

A Mamluk-Mongol alliance[3][4][5][6][7] occurred during the second half of the 13th century, between the Mamluk government of Egypt and the Mongols of the Golden Horde. This alliance was strategic in terms of trade exchanges, as well as on military plane, as it functioned as a counterweight to the alliance between the Il-Khan Mongols and the Franks. Mamluk Egypt was the Golden Horde’s long-standing trade partner and ally in the Mediterranean. Berke, the khan of Kipchak had drawn up an alliance with the Mamluk Sultan Baibars since 1261.[8]

The rulers of the Golden Horde menaced the Ilkhans to secure their claim on Georgia and Azerbaijan because the civil war erupted in the Mongol Empire. These multiples alliances were organized between, on the one hand a North-South axis consisting of the Mongol Golden Horde, the Egyptian Mamluks and the Genoese, and on the other, a East-West axis consisting of the Mongol Il-Khanids, the Armenians, the Franks. The Byzantine Empire would ally with the two parties alternatively.

[edit] Conflict between the Golden Horde and the Il-Khans

Mamluks offensive at the Fall of Tripoli in 1289.

The alliance occurred in the context of a strong rivalry between the two Western Mongol realms, the Golden Horde and the Il-Khanate. The conflict originated in a territorial dispute. Following the Mongol invasion of Central Asia, the Mongol Khagan Gengis Khan had attributed several of the territories south of the Caucasus to his eldest son Jochi, founder of the Golden Horde: specifically Georgia, and the Seljukid Sultanate.[9] The Il-Khan ruler Hulagu however invaded these territories in 1256 and took them for himself. He even installed his capital in the center of these disputed territories, at Maragha.

This led to a drawn-out conflict between the two Mongol realms, which would last well into the 14th century.[10] The conflict erupted under Berke, who could not tolerate this infringement of his inheritance.[9]

[edit] Ethnic affinities

The Mamluk rulers of Egypt were actually former slaves bought from the Kipchack territory of southern Russia, now an important segment of the Mongol Golden Horde. There were therefore strong cultural affinities between large segments of the Mongol Horde and the ruling elite of Egypt.[11] Berke’s Turkic subjects also spoke the same Turkic language as the Mamluks.[12]

[edit] Religious affinities

The Golden Horde converted to Islam from the time of Berke,[10] and soon felt solidarity for the Islamic realms to the south.[13] On the contrary, the Il-Khan rulers were highly favourable to Christianity, and would not commit to Islam until the very end of the 13th century.[14]

[edit] Mamluk-Golden Horde rapprochement

The Mamluks defeated the Armenians and captured the prince Leo at the disaster of Mari, 1266: illumination from Le Livre des Merveilles, 15th century

The Golden Horde entered into a defensive alliance with the Mamluks in Egypt. The agreement was that each realm would intervene if the other was attacked by the Il-Khan.[15]

This agreement effectively forced Il-Khan rulers to fight on two front every time they tried to invade the Levant,[16] so that they could never use all their forces in the invasion. Typically, a ruler would start a campaign in Syria, only to be forced to recall his troops within a few months because he was being attacked by the Golden Horde in the north. Also, a large portion of the Georgian troops under the rule of the Mongols would have to man the northern Georgian frontier to protect from Golden Horde incursions.[17]

In 1277, Baibars (Baybars) invaded the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, then dominated by the Mongols. He defeated a Mongol army at the Battle of Abulustayn, captured the city of Kayseri, but was unable to hold any of his Anatolian conquests and quickly withdrew to Syria. Taking advantage of the general confusion, Mehmed Bey captured Konya on 12 May and placed on the throne a pretender called Jimri who claimed to be the son of the Seljuk sultan Kaykaus. After Baibars's departure, Abaqa put down the rebellion of the Karamanids and Mehmed was executed with some of his brothers. But the Mamluks never stopped their disastrous raids on Cilician Armenia.

[edit] Trade relations

A Mamluk cavalryman, drawn in 1810

The Mamluks were highly dependent on foreign trade for their military industry. The Mamluk army itself was constituted of “Mamluk” slaves imported from the Kipchak region of the Golden Horde, and therefore totally depended on Mongol goodwill in these regions. Also various strategic materials such as iron and wood also had to be imported from the territory under the Golden Horde. The Mamluk alliance with the Golden Horde was therefore essential to such shipments:[18]

"The Egyptians lack iron, wood, tar, and slaves to reinforce their army, and do not have any if they are not brought from other countries."
—Hayton, "La Fleur des Histoires d'Orient".[19]

These shipments also had to transit through Constantinople, using a sealane which the Byzantine Empire had total control. For this reason, the Byzantine emperors (Michael VIII Palaeologus, and later his son Andronicus II) were highly involved in a relationship with both the Mongols and the Mamluks, and formalized alliances with them.[20][21][22]


[edit] 1281 invasion

The Mongols and the Armenians were defeated by the Mamluks at the Second Battle of Homs in 1281.

The third major invasion took place in 1281 under Abaqa Khan. Having crossed the Euphrates and captured Aleppo, the Mongols moved as far south as Homs with 80,000 men before they were beaten back to the Euphrates river at the Second Battle of Homs.

Since then there was not serious clash between the Mongols and the Mamluks, though, Abaqa's successors threathened the Sultans. However, Tekuder (r. 1282-1284) ) sent friendly letter to Mamluk sultan to wish a peace but Tekuder's envoy was arrested by the Mamluks. His conversion to Islam and good ties with Mamluks were not seen well by Mongol nobles and Tekuder was executed. The Great Khan Kublai (r.1260-94) ordered Arghun (1284-91) to conquer Egypt and Syria but the Ilkhanids did nothing more than only border conflicts.

[edit] The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War: 1299-1303

See also: Mongol raids into Palestine
See also: Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar
1299, The Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar. The Mongols under Ghazan defeated the Mamluks.

In late 1299, the Mongol khan of Persia, Mahmud Ghazan and his army crossed the Euphrates river and again invaded Syria, continuing south until they were slightly north of Homs.[23] The Mongols successfully took Aleppo, and there, Ghazan was joined by forces from Cilician Armenia.[24]

The Mamluk relief force sent from Damascus met the Mongol army northeast of Homs. The Mongols had some 60,000 troops, with about 40,000 Georgian and Armenian auxiliaries. The Egyptian Mamluks had a much smaller force of 20,000-30,000 troops, and were routed at the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar. The Mamluk army on its retreat was then harassed by Maronite and Druze bowmen who wanted independence from the Mamluks. One group of Mongols also split off from Ghazan's army, and pursued the retreating Mamluk troops as far as Gaza,[25] pushing them back to Egypt.

1300-1301 operations from Ruad and Mongol offensives under Ghazan's general Kutluka.

The bulk of Ghazan's forces then proceeded onward, towards Damascus. Some of the populace of Damascus upon hearing of the Mongol approach had fled to Egypt and the governor of the city, Arjawash, had entrenched himself deep inside the Citadel. The Mongols besieged the city for ten days, which surrendered somewhere between December 30, 1299, and January 6, 1300, though its Citadel resisted.[26][27] Ghazan then withdrew most of his forces in February. The reasons for the withdrawal is believed to be either the Chagatai Mongols invading their eastern borders, or the need to retreat to areas where there was better grazing room for the horses. The Mamluks had learned that the availability of pastures was important to the Mongols, and so the Mamluks had taken to burning pastureland so as to remove that resource from the equation.

Also in early 1300, two Frankish rulers, Guy d'Ibelin and Jean II de Giblet, had moved in with their troops from Cyprus in response to Ghazan's earlier call, and established a base in the castle of Nefin in Gibelet (Byblos) on the Syrian coast with the intention of joining him, but Ghazan was already gone.[28][29] They also started to besiege the new city of Tripoli, but in vain,[30] and then returned to Cyprus.

In the meantime the remaining forces of the Mongols, about 10,000 horsemen under the Mongol general Mulay, ruled over Syria for about three months,[31] and engaged in raids as far south as Jerusalem and Gaza.[32][33][34][35] But that small force had to retreat as well, when the Mamluks returned in May 1300.

Ghazan promised to return in the winter of 1300-1301 to attack Egypt.[36]

After defeating the Chagatai invasion, Ghazan Khan returned to Syria in late 1300 and crossed the Euphrates river between December 14, 1300 and November 1, 1301. Panic arose in Damascus upon hearing of the renewed threat, especially since the Mamluk army in Syria withdrew to Egypt without even fighting the Mongols. A small section of the Mongol army however, was defeated near Aleppo by the post of Hamat. This created order in Damascus, enough for the governor to send for a larger relief force from Egypt. However, the Mongols had already left Syria due to a death in Ghazan Khan's family.

[edit] 1303 invasion

Dominion of Bahri Mamluks ( red )

The Ilkhanate returned to Syria in 1303, travelling unopposed down the Levant until they reached Damascus. However, near Damascus they were once again defeated at the Battle of Marj al-Saffar. This military operation was the last major Mongol invasion of Syria.

[edit] Sieges of Faqbat and Rahiba 1312-1313

Under the Ilkhan Oljeitu (b. 1280 - December 16, 1316, in Soltaniyeh, near Qazvin), the Mongols unsuccessfully besieged Faqbat and Rahiba fortresses. Realizing that Edward II of England and other Western powers were unable to help the Mongols, Oljeitu sent his army to the Bahri dynasty in 1312. The Mongols with the Seljuk auxiliaries crossed Euphrates and besieged Faqbat briefly. But they gave up after a month-siege and returned to the Ilkhanate. However, the Mongols recrossed Euphrates and besieged another important fortification - Rahiba the next year. They quickly evacuated the area to escape heat soon.

[edit] Treaty of Aleppo

The Mongol world, ca. 1300. The gray area is the later Timurid empire.

The Treaty of Aleppo was a peace treaty between the Mongol Il-Khanate of Persia and the Mamluks of Egypt. It was ratified in 1323.

The Mongol Il-Khanate had been at war with the Mamluks since their accession in the mid-13th century. The Il-Khanate invaded Syria repeatedly (Mongol invasions of Syria, but, although there were some initial successes, could not hold territory for more than a few months, and then usually retreated to Persia.

Following the defeat of the Mongol ruler Ghazan and the progressive conversion of the Il-Khanate to Islam, the Mongols finally signed the peace treaty of Aleppo with the Mamluks in 1332, under the rule of Abu Sa'id who followed the advice of his custodian Chupan.

The first contacts to establish a treaty were handled by the slave trader al-Majd al-Sallami, following which various letters and embassies were exchanged.[37]

Following the treaty and a period of peace, the Il-Khanate further atomized and disintegrated from 1335 throughout the 14th century.[37]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Rene Grousset, Russian and Mongolian scientists found out that there was a raid on Syria.
  2. ^ The Cambridge History of Egypt: Islamic Egypt, 640-1517, p.255
  3. ^ Ryley-Smith in "Atlas of the Crusades", p.112 (French Edition): "When the Golden Horde allied with the Mamluks, the Ilkhanate looked towards an alliance with the Christians"
  4. ^ ”The alliance which Berke had created between the Mongols and the Mamluks against the Ilkhanate remained constant”, Morgan, p.144
  5. ^ ”The Mongols of Iran were all but encircled by a chain of alliances linking the Mamluks to the Golden Horde, and this power to Kaidu”, Setton, p.529
  6. ^ ” The friendship between Egypt and the Golden Horde, which would last until the conclusion of peace between the Mamluks and the Il-Khan in 1320” The New Cambridge Medieval History - Page 710 by David Abulafia - History - 1999 – p.710
  7. ^ "In order to fight their common enemy [the Ilkhanate], the Kipchack Mongols and the Mamluks entered into an alliance." Luisetto, p.157
  8. ^ Mantran, Robert (Fossier, Robert, ed.) "A Turkish or Mongolian Islam" in The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages: 1250-1520, p. 298
  9. ^ a b Luisetto, p.155
  10. ^ a b The Mongols, David Morgan, p.144
  11. ^ ”It is a fact of crucial importance that the Mamluks of Egypt and the Mongols of the Golden Horde were natural allies (…) simply because the ruling class of Egypt and an important and influential segment of the Golden Horde belonged in fact to the same ethnic group.” A History of the Crusades, Kenneth Meyer Setton, p.527
  12. ^ Setton, p.527
  13. ^ By ultimately becoming Muslims, the Mongols of the Golden Horde conspicuously identified themselves with their Turkish subjects and with the people to the south, rather than with the Christian Russians to the North” Morgan, p.128
  14. ^ "On the contrary, Hulagu, accompanied by Dokuz Khatun greatly favoured Christianity", Luisetto, p.155-156
  15. ^ "In order to fight their common enemy [the Ilkhanate], the Kipchack Mongols and the Mamluks entered into an alliance. This was based on a defensive rather than an offensive policy: if one of their territories was attacked, the second would fight for the other, on his own front, in order to create a diversion or weaken enough Persian troops so that their action would be stopped." Luisetto, p.157
  16. ^ "Before invading Syria in 1299, Ghazan was forced to send troops in the Caucasus, in order to reinforce his Christian-Mongol troops. These were so many soldiers who could not fight in Palestine.", Luisetto, p.156
  17. ^ Luisetto, p.158
  18. ^ Luisetto, p.126
  19. ^ Quoted in Luisetto, p.126
  20. ^ ”Byzantium could not avoid being involved in this triangular relationship of the Mamluks and the two Mongol states”, Setton, p.529
  21. ^ ”Michael VIII Palaeologus … concluded an alliance with Hulagu, which despite passing tensions, remained effective even after the khan’s death.” Setton, p.529
  22. ^ ”Byzantium and the Rise of Russia: A Study of Byzantino-Russian Relations”by John Meyendorff - 1989 “The alliance with Genoa and the Golden Horde proved to be Michael's inheritance to his successors. It was to play a significant role in the politics of the 14th century also.”
  23. ^ Demurger, p.143
  24. ^ Demurger, p.142 (French edition) "He was soon joined by King Hethum, whose forces seem to have included Hospitallers and Templars from the kingdom of Armenia, who participate to the rest of the campaign."
  25. ^ Demurger, p.142 "The Mongols pursued the retreating troops towards the south, but stopped at the level of Gaza"
  26. ^ Demurger 142-143
  27. ^ Runciman, p.439
  28. ^ Demurger, p.144
  29. ^ "After Ghazan had left, some Christians from Cyprus arrived in Gibelet and Nefin, led by Guy, Count of Jaffa, and Jean d'Antioche with their knights, and from there proceeded to go to Armenia where the camp of the Tatars was. But Ghazan was gone, so they had to return."|Le Templier de Tyr, 614. - Le Templier de Tyr, 614: "Et apres que Cazan fu partis aucuns crestiens de Chipre estoient ales a Giblet et a Nefin et en seles terres de seles marines les quels vous nomeray: Guy conte de Jaffe et messire Johan dantioche et lor chevaliers; et de la cuyderent aler en Ermenie quy estoit a lost des Tatars. Cazan sen estoit retornes: il se mist a revenir"
  30. ^ Jean Richard, p.481
  31. ^ Demurger (p.146, French edition): "After the Mamluk forces retreated south to Egypt, the main Mongol forces retreated north in February, Ghazan leaving his general Mulay to rule in Syria".
  32. ^ "Meanwhile the Mongol and Armenian troops raided the country as far south as Gaza." Schein, 1979, p. 810
  33. ^ "He pursued the Sarazins as far as Gaza, and then turn to Damas, conquering and destroying the Sarazins". Original French: "Il chevaucha apres les Sarazins jusques a Guadres et puis se mist vers Domas concuillant et destruyant les Sarazins." Le Templier de Tyr, #609
  34. ^ "Arab historians however, like Moufazzal Ibn Abil Fazzail, an-Nuwairi and Makrizi, report that the Mongols raided the country as far as Jerusalem and Gaza"— Sylvia Schein, p.810
  35. ^ The Arab historian Yahia Michaud, in the 2002 book Ibn Taymiyya, Textes Spirituels I-XVI, Chap XI, describes that there were some firsthand accounts at the time, of forays of the Mongols into Palestine, and quotes two ancient Arab sources stating that Jerusalem was one of the cities that was invaded by the Mongols
  36. ^ Demurger, p.146
  37. ^ a b Meri, p.541

[edit] Sources

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Medieval sources

  • Adh-Dhababi, Record of the Destruction of Damascus by the Mongols in 1299-1301 Translated by Joseph Somogyi. From: Ignace Goldziher Memorial Volume, Part 1, Online (English translation).
  • Jean de Joinville, The Memoirs of Lord of Joinville, translated by Ethel Wedwood Online (English translation).
  • Le Templier de Tyr (circa 1300). Chronicle du Templier de Tyr, Online (Original French).
  • Hayton of Corycus (1307). Flowers of the Histories of the East, Online (English translation).
  • Kirakos (circa 1300). History of the Armenians, Online, (English translation).
  • (translated from the Syriac by Budge, Sir E.A.Wallis) The history and Life of Rabban Bar Sauma.  (online)

[edit] Modern sources

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasions_of_Syria"