Chapter 19 Chapter XIV Turkic and Mongol Aggression
In the 500 years between 1000 and 1500, the most remarkable and astonishing development was the expansion of the Turks and Mongols from their vast original settlements in Central Asia.These nomads occupied almost all of Eurasia except the remote fringes of Japan, Southeast Asia, South India and Western Europe.
In these centuries, the expansion of nomads is clearly divided into three stages: the first stage (1000-1200) the rise of the Turks.The Turks first served as mercenaries of the Abbasid dynasty and then ruled the dynasty.They gave vitality and aggression to the dying Islamic world, defeated Byzantium and Hindustan, and expanded their territory into Asia Minor and northern India.The second stage (1200-13O0 years) Mongol invasion.The Mongols not only annexed Central Asia, East Asia, and Russia, but also invaded the Muslim Middle East, thereby abruptly ending the expansion of the Muslim Turkic peoples.In the last stage (1300-1500 years), the Mongol Empire collapsed.The collapse of the Mongol Empire cleared the way for the resurgence of the Turks and the re-entry of Islamic Turks into Christian Europe and Hindustan.
This chapter will describe each of these three stages and their significance in the history of the world as a whole.
The Turks speak the same language family, but not the same ethnic group, they are all united by speaking one or the other Turkic language.Although they were a mixed race ethnically, they generally looked more Caucasian than Mongoloid.By the middle of the sixth century they ruled the vast plains from Mongolia to the Oxus or Amu Darya River.From the 8th century onwards, as the Arabs conquered Persia and defeated the Chinese at Talas (751), the Turks were increasingly influenced by Islam.
The reaction of the Turks to the great Abbasid dynasty across the Oxus was very similar to the reaction of the Germans to the Roman Empire across the Rhine.The first is the cultural influence: the barbaric Turkic pagans succumbed to the material temptation of advanced civilization and converted to the teachings of Islam.At the same time, the Turks began to enter the military establishment of the Caliphate just as the former Germans entered the military establishment of the Roman Empire.Being highly mobile cavalry archers, they soon demonstrated superior military qualities, and increasingly replaced the Arabs and Persians in the Caliphate's armies.
As the Caliphate gradually weakened, the Turkic mercenaries, like the Germanic mercenaries, changed from servants to masters.They dethroned the rulers in Baghdad and made successive caliphs into guardians.Around 970, a Seljuk of the Turkic nation successfully passed the border and entered the Muslim area, and soon took over the political power here. The regime was officially recognized in 1055 when the caliph declared the Seljuk chieftain Toglur Bey the "sultan", that is, the "monarch".Although the Caliph is still the head of the empire in name, the actual ruler has since been the Turkic Sultan.Under the leadership of the warlike Turks, the frontiers of the Islamic empire were now further expanded into two major regions.
One region was Asia Minor, which for centuries had been the bastion of Christian Byzantine powers against repeated attacks by Arab Islam.But in 1071, at the Battle of Manzikert in eastern Asia Minor, the Seljuks won a complete victory and captured Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV.This battle was a decisive turning point in the history of the Middle East, as it immediately sparked a civil war between rival Byzantine factions.In fact, the failure of the Battle of Manzikert.Much was due to this factional strife; and the continuation of this factional strife now allows the Turks to enter Asia Minor without any resistance.The feuding Byzantine officials and military officers competed for positions in the administration of the Turkic tribal chiefs, and many towns and fortresses were dedicated to the invaders.Moreover, the peasants, dissatisfied with the corruption and exploitation of Byzantine officials, accepted their new masters obediently though distrustful.Therefore, from the 11th to the 13th centuries, the great subdivision area of Asia Minor changed from a Greek and Christian area to a Turkic and Muslim area, and it has remained until now.Furthermore, Byzantium was left emptied by the loss of Asia Minor, a province that had provided the empire with large taxes and armies in the past.Constantinople is now like a great head on a gaunt body; the cause of its decline in 1453 must therefore be traced back to 1071.
The victory of Manzikert, for the Seljuks, was a big step forward, allowing them to rebuild the rule of the impending caliphate.During the reign of Malik Shah (1073-1092), the Cerdu Empire reached its peak and ruled Syria, Mesopotamia, Iran and Asia Minor.With the support of the Seljuks, the cultural undertakings were extremely prosperous, and the achievements of Persian language, literature and art were the most notable.But Cerdu's advantage was only short-lived. After Maliksha's death, heirs competed for each other, fiefdoms became hereditary, and the empire began to split (see Chapter 13, Section 6).This division of the empire made it possible for the crusaders to conquer the Holy Land in the 12th century.Another result was the appearance of the Ottoman Turks in the west of Asia Minor. They continued to hold high the banner of Islam, approached Vienna, and ruled the entire Middle East before the 20th century.
While the Seljuks were advancing westward, chasing fame and loot, other Turkic peoples were also expanding eastward, marching towards the great treasure house of India.The most famous of these was a man named Mahmud (997-1030).Based in Ghazni in Afghanistan, he attacked India almost every year and finally annexed Punjab, which has been a Muslim region ever since.Mahmud's zeal for destroying the temples of Hindus and smashing their idols earned him the nickname "the iconoclast"; his zeal was based on the Islamic creed: any visible depiction of God is is guilty.Mahmud and his followers, inspired by the fanatical monotheism of Islam, came to India not only to plunder, but to convert or destroy the heathen.In addition, there is also the issue of social conflict involved here, that is, the conflict between two different societies: one society believes that all people are brothers; the other society is based on a caste system that presupposes inequality .So, it was from this time that the struggle of two fundamentally different cultures began here, and as a result, after World War II, the Indian peninsula was divided into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan.
In the 12th century, Mahmud's successors were replaced by another Turkic dynasty based in Gur, also in Afghanistan.Under the leadership of a man named Muhammad, the Gurkurs advanced south as far as Gujarat and east into the Ganges valley. In 1192, they captured Delhi and made Delhi the capital of the kingdom of the Turkic Sultanate of India.In this battle, Buddhist monasteries were destroyed and a large number of monks were massacred, so that Buddhism never recovered in its birthplace.
The ease with which the Turks settled in a country which definitely outnumbered them was due in part to the ancient military tactics of India; Tactics are the same, they cannot adapt to the needs of the time.Its infantry was usually a disorganized mob, and their vaunted elephant troops were useless against Muslim cavalry.India's caste system was equally destructive, and an even more fatal weakness, as it restricted combatants to the kshatriyas, the warrior class.The others were untrained and disinterested in combat, largely because class divisions separated the oppressors, landowners from peasants, further fragmenting the social hierarchy.Therefore, the masses of the people either adopt an attitude of indifference, or welcome the invaders and follow their religion.This happened many times later.This is why, in modern times, the British rulers have been able to rule India from Delhi, as the former Turkic sultans did.
At the same time that the Turks became rulers of the Muslim world, in faraway Mongolia an obscure chief was beginning his career in conquest that would eventually lead to the formation of the largest empire in history.Genghis Khan (also spelled Chinggis, Chingis, Jenzhiz, etc.), born Temujin in 1167, was the son of a smaller tribal chief.Temujin's father died of poisoning when he was 12, and the future Great Khan had a miserable childhood as a result.Temujin mastered the complex art of tribal politics, which required a creative blend of loyalty, cunning, ruthless betrayal, and his own prowess.It was due to this that he was able to overcome his early inferiority and, after turning against his chief, and destroying all rivals, finally accomplished the unification of the Mongol tribes. In 120s, at the "Kuriertai", that is, the meeting of chiefs of various Mongolian tribes, he was elected as the Great Khan of All Mongolia, and he was honored as Genghis Khan, which means "ruler of the world".
Now he can satisfy the savage nomads' lust for conquest and plunder.He is said to have said: "Man's greatest happiness is in victory: subdue your enemies, pursue them, seize their property, make their lovers weep, ride their horses, embrace their wives and daughters." Here In this respect, Genghis Khan was no different from the steppe conquerors who came before him.Why, then, was he the only one destined to be the ruler of most of Eurasia?The question is intriguing because, as a Mongol, Genghis Khan did not have the human resources that other conquerors, mainly Turks, had.The Mongolian tribes, men, women, and children together have no more than 1 million people, which can only provide him with 12,500O soldiers at most.With such a limited force, how could he become the almost veritable "ruler of the world"?
Genghis Khan starts with the inherent advantages of each nomadic warrior.In fact, their daily life is the continuous training of combat exercises.Dressed in furs and supplemented by new horses, these warriors could ride on horseback for days and nights with little rest or food. They introduced "blitzkrieg" to the world of the 13th century.They are said to have covered 270 miles in three days while fighting on the Hungarian plain.They used leather bags to hold water; when there was no water in the leather bags, they could be inflated and used when swimming across the river.They usually lived off the rural population, but also drank horse blood and milk if necessary.The hunting skills learned in childhood enable them to control horses galloping over long distances.A favorite tactic of the Mongols was a feigned rout, in which case the enemy would probably pursue them for days; only to be tricked into ambushes and wiped out.Other strategies included tying branches to horses' tails, kicking up dust, and having dummies ride on extra horses to give the appearance of large troops on the march.
15th Century Chinese Painting: Genghis Khan Hunting.
The most basic weapon of the Mongols was the large hybrid bow, which was more lethal than the British longbow, and its armor-piercing arrows could kill the enemy within 600 feet.This was a fearsome weapon used by Mongol cavalry; they could shoot the 30 arrows they were equipped with while galloping.Other equipment included steel helmets, light hide armor, sabers, and sometimes a long spear with hook and a mace.Mongolian horses only graze in open pastures, without shelter during the long and severe winter, and without hay or grain as supplementary feed.Although this makes them not very tall, they are very hardworking and adaptable. "Even today," says one authority, "it is not uncommon to catch a Mongolian horse with a lasso in a pastoral area, saddle it, and ride it for more than 100 miles without needing to be fed. But the next day You can’t ride that far any longer, and you’ll have to graze it for days.” This was no problem for the Mongols, who had a large army of new horses for war, and could switch them on and off as needed.
Genghis Khan added new skills and equipment to the traditional techniques of the nomads.Most of these skills and equipment were learned from the Chinese, including powerful catapults, battering rams and tunnel sappers; tunnel sappers can dig tunnels under the city walls and then blow them up with gunpowder.In this way, Genghis Khan added siege weapons to the unrivaled cavalry archers; such weapons were indispensable when taking fortified cities.
The Mongols were also masters of espionage and psychological warfare.Before the battle, they gathered as much information as possible about the enemy's roads, rivers, fortifications, political and economic conditions, and so on.They also sent spies to spread rumors that Mongolia was so powerful that any resistance would be useless, demoralizing the enemy.In battle, they employ brutal tactics of terror in order to weaken the rusticity of the enemy.Prisoners of war were forced to stand at the front of the line and attack their own people; and when they met a little resistance during the siege, the entire city residents were massacred.
Finally, Genghis Khan's great strategy was unique: he paid great attention to conquering his nomadic neighbors before attacking the mighty empire.He was very familiar with the traditional Chinese divide-and-conquer strategy, or as the Chinese say, "use the barbarians to control the barbarians." In the past, many chiefs of nomadic tribes were wiped out due to simultaneous attacks by imperial troops and rival tribes.Genghis Khan's strategy, therefore, was first to unite "all those who live in tents with felt walls."
Even with military genius and superior weaponry, Genghis Khan could not have become the conqueror of the world if he hadn't happened to appear at the right historical juncture.In the Han Dynasty or the Tang Dynasty, a united and strong China could easily stop him; the Muslim Arabs in the most powerful period could also stop him.At the beginning of the thirteenth century, however, the balance of power in Eurasia was quite different.China had now been divided into three small states: the Jin Dynasty, which ruled the north, the Song Dynasty, which controlled the south, and the Xixia Dynasty, which was established in the northwest by Tibetan party members.To the west of China is the founding state of Kara, which was built on the basis of oasis cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand; to the west of the Kara Khanate, on the banks of the Oxus River, is the Muslim Kingdom of Huacizimo, and further west is The Attes dynasty of Baghdad.However, both Huacizimo and the Apis Dynasty were in a period of decline at this time.
From 1205 to 1209, Genghis Khan first conquered Tangut, forcing it to become a vassal state. In 1211, they attacked the north of China and occupied the area north of the Great Wall. Then in 1213, they broke through the defense line of the Great Wall and entered the Yellow River Plain.By 1215, he had pillaged and taken Beijing, aided by Chinese who knew how to siege cities and foreigners who knew how to develop and manage agricultural societies.According to his general strategy, at this time, Genghis Khan turned to attack the territories of the surrounding nomadic tribes. Manchuria fell in 1216, Korea fell in 1218, and Kara Khan fell the following year.
Having completed the conquest of the above regions, he was close to the border of Huacizimo, and in 1219-1221, occupied the country.Rich and ancient cities such as Bukhara, Samarkand, and Balkh were looted and their inhabitants massacred. Only skilled artisans survived and were sent to Mongolia.A Chinese Taoist priest traveled here at that time and recorded: "We passed the great city of Balkh. The residents here were massacred not long ago because they resisted Genghis Khan. However, we can still hear the barking of dogs on the street." In fact, Now, Balkh has become a ghost town, the first of many to suffer such a fate.The aggrieved ruler of Huacizimo took refuge on an island in the Caspian Sea and died there while his son fled east to India.But on the upper Indus he was defeated by the ruthless Mongols and fled to Delhi, where the Turkic sultan, petrified by the massacre, granted him refuge.
The Mongols were not content with these stunning victories in the Middle East and India.They turned north and attacked the Caucasus, where they defeated the Georgians.Subsequently, it continued to advance towards Ukraine. In 1223, it defeated the 80000 Russian soldiers who had an absolute superiority in numbers.At the same time, Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia because Xixia opposed his rule, commanded the campaign against the Xixia Dynasty again, and won.This was his last exploit, and he died shortly afterward, in 1227.In accordance with his will, he was buried in his hometown under a big tree he had chosen during his lifetime.Those who escorted the body to the scene were all killed in order to ensure that the location of the grave was not discovered.
Two years after the throne was vacant, Genghis Khan's son Ogedei succeeded him as Great Khan.During his reign (1229-1241), he continued to campaign against China and Europe, which were about 5,000 miles apart on both ends of the Eurasian continent.In China, in 1234, the Mongols wiped out the remnants of the Jin Dynasty in the north, and then attacked the Southern Song Dynasty.The Song soldiers resisted tenaciously, and the war lasted for 45 years before being completely wiped out.At the same time, Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, led 150,000 troops and was sent to western Europe. In the autumn of 1237, he crossed the middle reaches of the Volga and attacked the principalities of central Russia, capturing town after town, including the then less important city of Moscow.By March 1238, he was approaching the Baltic city of Novgorod, but fearing that Haruyuki might trap his cavalry in the mud, he suddenly withdrew his troops south.
Two years later, in the summer of 1240, the Mongols again attacked southern Russia from their base in the Caucasus, and by December they had occupied Kyiv, the ancient Russian capital.The Mongols were so cruel to the local population that a monk at the time recorded that the few survivors were "very envious of the dead." , defeated the German army by 30,000 people.Then, cross the frozen Danube, occupy Zagreb, and finally reach the Adriatic coast.So far, the Mongolian army has controlled the vast area of Eurasia from the Adriatic Sea to the Sea of Japan. In the spring of 1242, news of the death of Wokuotai Dazhu came from Mongolia, so Batu crossed the Balkans and withdrew to the lower reaches of the Volga River, where he established the Khanate; because of its golden tent, it was named the Golden Horde Khanate.
The influence of these strange riders from the East was so great that in faraway St. Albans, near London, Matthew Parrissie writes in his chronicle:
Illustration from the 13th century Persian history book of Mongolia: The Court of Genghis Khan.Genghis Khan sits on the throne with his three sons on the left.One of the sons, Ogedei, succeeded his father in 1299.
Whether or not these feared and disastrous beings will retreat is a big question facing Europeans.Mongolia's political development process answers this question.Five years after Wo Kuotai's death, his son Gui Youcai succeeded him as Great Khan.No major expeditions were possible during this period of turmoil, and during the short two years of the drunken Guiyu's reign.Expeditions are also out of the question.After Guiyu, the throne was vacant for another three years, and finally, Genghis Khan's talented grandson Meng Ge (1251-1259) succeeded to the throne.William of Ruberouk had spoken of the new Great Khan's intention to continue his invasion of Europe.He said that Meng Ge's minister had asked him "the situation in the Kingdom of France, whether there are many sheep, cattle and horses there, and whether it is better for them to attack there at once and occupy it completely." The final decision was to complete the invasion of southern China. The Abbasids who conquered and captured Baghdad.Möngke entrusted these two very difficult tasks to his two younger brothers, Kublai Khan and Hulagu; the former was sent to China, the latter to the Middle East.
The Mongols quickly swept through Central Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, but they were in trouble in China: large-scale fighting with the Chinese continued for decades in stop and go.By Chinese standards, the Song Dynasty was a weak and incompetent dynasty, but conquering the Song Dynasty was much more difficult for the Mongols than conquering the Muslim rulers of the Middle East, even though the latter were farther from the Mongol power center.In the war against China, the Mongols once again demonstrated their perfect tactics for engaging in large-scale strategic encirclement warfare.In addition to advancing along the Yangtze River and capturing Hangzhou, the capital of the Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan also surrounded the Song Dynasty from the west and south flanks.After a large-scale battle, he invaded Sichuan, Yunnan, Annan and Tokyo, and surrounded the dynasty from all directions. In 1277, he occupied Guangzhou, the big southern port, and three years later, he wiped out the Song Dynasty navy off the coast of Hainan Island, thus completing the conquest of China.
In 1259, during the attack on Sichuan, Mungo died and Kublai Khan was elected as his successor.As Great Khan, he moved the imperial capital from Harahelin in Mongolia to Beijing in North China.Faithful to Genghis Khan's original plan of conquering the world, he launched a new war after defeating the Song Dynasty, invading Indochina and Burma by land, and Java and Japan by water.No wonder Marco Polo, who served Kublai Khan for 17 years, wrote: Kublai Khan is "from our ancestor Adam to the present, the most powerful ruler ever seen in the world. He has the most subjects and the most extensive land. , the wealth is the most abundant.”
Hulagu, meanwhile, had crossed the Oxus; sweeping through Persia, Mesopotamia, and Syria. In 1258, the Abbasid capital Baghdad fell, and it is said that except for a few highly skilled craftsmen, the city's 800,000 residents were massacred.According to Genghis Khan's ban, in order to prevent the blood of the royal family from staining the sword, the unfortunate caliph was wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death by a horse.After conquering Aleppo and Damascus in the same way, it seems that no force can stop the Mongols from continuing to attack Egypt and North Africa, thus completing the conquest of the entire Muslim world.
But in Ain Jalut in Palestine, the birthplace of political politics, there was a major and unexpected twist. In 1260, the Egyptian Mamluk army defeated the Mongols there.One reason for the failure was that, in 1259, the death of Mongol Tazu split the united Mongol ruling group.Hulagu supported his elder brother Kublai Khan to inherit the vacant throne, but was opposed by his cousin, the Great Annihilation Berk of the Golden Horde of Russia.In fact, Berk had converted to Islam and was so indignant at Hulagu's elimination of the caliphate that the two gradually began to fight openly.As a defensive measure, Hulagu again crossed the Euphrates and entered Persia, leaving only an exhausted force in Palestine, the vast majority of whom were non-Mongols.The defeat of this army saved the Islamic world and marked the beginning of the fall of the Mongol Empire.
Despite the defeat in Palestine, the Mongol Empire at this time was still an impressive sprawling edifice, occupying Russia, the Middle East and southern China in addition to Genghis Khan's initial conquests.The Mongol army was operating from the Baltic coast to Burma, while the navy was attacking Japan and Java.By this time, however, the sprawling empire had begun to crumble, and indeed ceased to exist after only a few decades.
Of course, the reason is not only the loss to the Mamluk army.Few of the Mongol troops were involved in that battle, and the Mongols were still expecting a swift vengeance; the kind of vengeance that the few opponents who had won individual battles in the past could not escape.This time, however, this did not happen again because the process of the collapse of the empire had already begun.
To some extent, this collapse is closely related to excessive expansion.Even the highly mobile Mongols found themselves in trouble after expanding to both ends of Eurasia.In addition to the defeat at the birthplace of Goliath, the Mongol attack on India between 1285 and 1303 was repulsed by the Turkic Sultan of Delhi.In Burma and Vietnam, the Mongols also discovered that forest warfare was quite different from cavalry raids on the plains.Overseas conquests by the Mongol navy also failed. In 1291, the fleet sent to attack the Ryukyu Islands failed to find even these islands; an expeditionary force sent to Java withdrew two years later with heavy losses.The biggest overseas conquest was the attack on Japan. In 1274 and 1281, the Mongols sent a large number of expeditionary forces to Japan.The Japanese resisted tenaciously and were finally rescued by a southwesterly typhoon, which the Japanese gratefully called "the kamikaze," which blew away the enemy's ships.In this way, on the sea as in the forest, the expansion of the Mongols was restricted.
However, not only the ends of the Eurasian continent and the islands on the sea were difficult to conquer, for the Mongols, what was more serious was that they found it impossible to keep the conquered areas.The first problem is that they are too small and uncivilized compared with the people of the dependent countries.The Mongols were, as Pushkin put it, “Arabs without Aristotle and algebra.” As such, they were easily assimilated once they dismounted from their horses and settled in conquered territories.In this respect the Mongols were very different from the Arabs: the Arabs possessed their own language and religion, which were readily adopted by the subject peoples and served as a powerful link of imperial unity.The Mongols are not as advanced as the Arabs and do not have this advantage at all.On the contrary, the Mongols lost their own characteristics by adopting the language, religious beliefs and culture of their more advanced subjects.This is the fundamental reason why its empire collapsed shortly after its creation.
Kublai Khan's decision to move the capital from Hara and Lin to Beijing expresses precisely this process of assimilation.He ruled in a Chinese-designed palace, performed intricate Confucian rituals, and built a new Confucian temple, so he was bound to be a Chinese-style emperor.As a Great Khan, Kublai Khan was only the nominal monarch of the Mongolian Khanates, and his power on the ground was limited to China.Initially, his younger brother Ali Boke had competed with him for the throne of the Great Khan. After four years of struggle, Kublai Khan won.Later, his cousin, Haidu, which controls Turkestan, also competed with him for the throne, so a 40-year civil war broke out, which ended in a stalemate between the two sides.Therefore, the destruction of the Mongol Empire was not only due to cultural assimilation, but also due to internal struggles within the dynasty.
At the same time that Kublai Khan became emperor of China, Hulagu also became the ruler of Persia.With Tabriz as his capital, he established the so-called Ilkhanate (the word Ilkhan means "subsidiary Khan", which means that the Mongolian ruler of Persia is subordinate to the Great Khan). In 1295, Hulagu's successors adopted Islam as the state religion, which reflected and facilitated the assimilation of the Mongols in the Iranian-Islamic environment.Likewise, the Golden Horde on the other side of the Caucasus mountains went their own way, accepting the influence of local Orthodox culture and formal Islamic teachings.Before long, only those Mongols in Mongolia remained purely of Mongol blood; there, they were influenced by Buddhism and have since become obscurity.
Since the number of Mongols was very small, they continued to recruit a large number of Turks into the army.As the Mongol Empire fell apart, however, these Muslim Turks immediately assumed the same prominence they had occupied in the Caliphate before the Mongol invasion.In order to control the central plain of the Eurasian continent, groups of military adventurers emerge in endlessly at this time.The most famous of these was Timur, known to Europeans as Tamerlane.He took Samarkand in 1369, from which he struck everywhere.First eliminated the Ilkhanate in Persia and Mesopotamia, then defeated the Golden Horde in Russia and the Ottoman Turks in Asia Minor; even invaded India and looted Delhi.He was determined to make the capital, Samarkand, the best city in the world.Therefore, after each battle, he sent back a caravan full of spoils, as well as artisans, artists, astrologers, and literati.At its height, Timurid's empire stretched from the Mediterranean to China; before his death in 1405, he was preparing to invade China.After his death, however, his empire fell apart much faster than the Mongol Empire.
After Timur, the most notable development was the expansion of the Muslim Turks in India and Byzantium. In the 13th century, driven by the Mongol threat, the Turkic Sultan of Delhi controlled only northern India. In the 14th century, with this threat removed, they began to expand southward, reaching the Jisdana River and occupying two-thirds of the Indian peninsula.However, Timur's aggression formed many small states in northern and central India at that time. These small states were ruled by the Turks, and none of them had enough power to restore the rule of the Delhi Sultan.At the same time, the expansion of Islamic forces to most parts of India caused resistance from Hindus. As a result, Vijayanagar, a Hindu power, was formed, and its territory included the entire Indian region south of the Jisdana River.This is the division that existed here in the 16th century when another Muslim Turkic dynasty, the Mughal Empire, forcibly unified the Indian peninsula from the outside.
At the same time, in the Middle East, the Ottoman Turks continued to expand the territory of Islam at the expense of Byzantium.These invaders from Central Asia entered the Seljuk Empire at the time of its decline and settled in the northwestern corner of Asia Minor, less than fifty miles from the strategic strait that separates Europe and Asia. In 1299, Osman, the leader of these Turks, got rid of the rule of the Seljuk monarchs, declared independence, and developed his country from a small and low-status country to the great Ottoman Empire named after him.
The first step in the Turkish conquest was to occupy the remaining Byzantine territory in Asia Minor.The conquest was completed in 1340, thanks to the discontent of the Christian peasants against the Byzantine authorities and the support of Islamic warriors who flocked from all over the Middle East to fight against the Christian infidels.Then, the Turks crossed the Dardanelles and set foot in Europe for the first time, establishing a fort at Gallipoli in 1354.They picked a time that could hardly have been better to enter Europe.At this time, conflicts between rival Christian churches, competition among Byzantine, Serbian, and Bulgarian states divided the Balkans; and these states were all in a period of decline.In addition, like the peasants of Asia Minor, the Christian peasants of the Balkans were dissatisfied with their rulers.The Western Christian countries have been divided, and even if they wanted to, they would not be able to assist the countries of the Balkan Peninsula; what's more, there has long been a gap between the Catholic Church and the East, and they are not willing to provide assistance.This cleared the way for the Ottoman Turks, who took full advantage of the opportunity.
In 1362, the Turks occupied Adrianople; in 1384, they captured Sofia, thereby besieging Constantinople.However, in 1402 the Timurs defeated and captured their sultan, and in the following decades they were forced to move.But Timur's rule was only short-lived. His death in 1405 freed the Ottoman Turks to rebuild their rule and continue their foreign aggression.Constantinople was finally captured in 1453, thus ending the 1,000-year imperial history. At the end of the 15th century, except for a few coastal forts controlled by Venice, they had ruled the entire Balkan Peninsula south of the Danube (see Chapter 15, Section 4 for details).
One result of the Turkic and Mongol invasions between 1000 and 1500 was the emergence of a new balance of power in Eurasia, in which Islam was the main, decisive force. In the late 15th century, when the West began to expand overseas, Islam had spread in all directions on land.The Ottoman Turks were crossing the Danube into Central Europe; Central Asia was being converted to Islam except for the eastern fringes; the Mughals were about to begin their conquest of virtually the entire Indian peninsula.Moreover, Islam was advancing to the far fringes of the Eurasian core.In Africa, Islam spread steadily into the interior from two major centers.It spread across the Sahara from the coast of North Africa to West Africa; here many black Muslim kingdoms flourished.Likewise, it spread from the Arab colonies along the coast of East Africa to countries in the interior, including the kingdom of Christian Nubia, which was conquered and converted by Islam (see Chapter 17).
Arab and Indian merchants also brought Islam to Southeast Asia.Here, as in Africa and other less civilized areas, conversion to Islam was easier because of the simplicity and adaptability of this new religious ritual.All people who want to become Muslims only need to repeat this sentence: "Find proof that there is no god except Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah." Newly added Islamic rituals are generally accepted and respected. Local customs and traditions.The religion spread, therefore, not by the sword, but by the unobtrusive work of merchants who, by learning the language of the native population, adopting their customs, intermarrying their women, transformed their new kin and business Partner's faith, come and win them over.The following passage describes the methods used by these merchant-missionaries, though in the Philippines, but can also illustrate similar conditions in other early islands: "These Muslims adopted the language of the native peoples, and adopted many of their customs,的女子结婚，购买奴隶以提高自己的地位，最后，成功地挤进了地位最高的首领的行列；这些对于他们将自己的宗教传入这一国家较为有利。”
1292 年，马可·波罗访问费莱克（今亚齐）时，发现那里有许多穆斯林。“众所周知，费莱克人民过去都是偶像崇拜者。但是由于同经常乘船来此的萨拉森商人接触，现在，他们都改信了穆罕默德的教义。”到15世纪末，伊斯兰教向东最远传到菲律宾的棉兰老岛。马六甲的穆斯林国家，是著名的商业中心，控制着经过海峡的所有贸易，在传播伊斯兰教方面，起了重要的作用，它不仅吸引着来自印度和整个东南亚的商人，而且通过提供指导富裕的赞助人的机会，吸引了著名的教师和经师。马六甲最大的成就是，使爪哇皈依伊斯兰教；爪哇的穆斯林君主，推翻前印度教的麻喏巴歇王国的胜利，正是这一皈依的标志。若把东南亚看作一个整体，那么，穆斯林主要的中心正如所期望的那样，是那些贸易交往最为活跃的地区：马来半岛和印度尼西亚群岛。
1248至1354年间建在格拉纳达的摩尔人国王的宫殿艾勒汉卜拉宫。遍及欧亚大陆的伊斯兰教建筑的杰作是1000至1500年伊斯兰教广泛传播的象征。
在这五个世纪中，伊斯兰教传遍欧亚大陆，使其领土几乎增加两倍，对世界历史的进程产生了重大影响。7、 8世纪，在初期扩人阶段，伊斯兰教已将地中海变成了穆斯林湖；而在晚期扩张阶段，它又使整个印度洋成为穆斯林湖。这意味着当时，尤其是1995年伊儿汗国信奉伊斯兰教以后，从亚洲运往欧洲的所有货物，实际上是沿穆斯林所控制的陆路水路运输的。124O年后的几十年里，虽然蒙古帝国使欧亚大陆间的安全旅行和贸易成为可能，但这几十年只是早期和晚期扩张阶段中的一个插曲；而在这一时期，阿拉伯突厥人控制着中亚和中东，在中国和西方之间筑起了一道屏障。到1500年，伊斯兰教的继续扩张，还使它成为一股世界力量，而不仅仅是中东的势力。这一点至今仍深刻地影响世界事务的进程。如今印度半岛之所以分成两部，穆斯林政治集团之所以在东南亚影响甚大，伊斯兰教之所以成为非洲的一股强有力的、迅速发展的势力和占世界人口七分之一的人们的信仰，原因就在于此。
突厥人和蒙古人的侵略具有深远的意义，因为他们还促进了欧亚大陆间的相互影响。众所周知，在技术领域里，蒙古统治下的和平导致了中国发明的大批传播，其中包括火药、丝绸、机械、印刷术和炼铁高炉等（见第十二章第三节人在伊儿汗国统治的波斯，也可看到这种相互影响的情况；波斯因所处的地理位置，受到了来自东方和西方的影响。据了解，中国炮兵曾去过波斯，在蒙古军队中服役；另外一位名叫傅梦之的人提出了中国的天文学原理；中国医生曾在伊儿汗朝廷里工作；中国艺术家曾对波斯的微型绘画产生了不可磨灭的影响。另一方面，欧洲的影响主要表现在贸易和外交领域中。在首都大不里士，聚居的意大利商人们生意十分兴隆；伊儿汗国从他们中间征募了一些使者和翻译，让他们肩负着各种使命，前往欧洲。其中当然有马可·波罗，他在护送一位蒙古公主从中国到波斯、同伊儿汗国的大汗结婚以后，继续向威尼斯航行。
最后，由这种相互影响提供的机会，又被正在欧洲形成的新文明所充分利用。这一点具有深远的意义，直到现在，仍对世界历史的进程产生影响。欧亚大陆其他各文明过于一成不变。最初，伊斯兰教世界似乎很容易适应和改变新的东西。尽管伊斯兰教有其兴起于阿拉伯半岛的原始背景，却非常善干接受已形成的伟大文明，创造新的、给人以深刻印象的东西。但是，这引起了伊斯兰教教义与希腊唯理论哲学及科学之间的必然、内在的紧张关系。哈里发马蒙（813－833年）早年曾大力支持古典名著的翻译，信奉唯理论者的学说，认为是人创造的，并不是永恒的。但他的继承者则完全不同，他们支持保守的神学家，这些神学家指责所有科学的、哲学的推测，认为这将导致异端和无神论。
在人们开始相信寻求上帝比了解自然更为重要的意义上，这一点意味着经院哲学的胜利。中世纪早期，蛮族入侵后，这种经院哲学在西方也很盛行。当时罗马教皇统治了文化生活，神学被公认为各门科学的“皇后。”如今，在伊斯兰教世界，随着蛮族——十字军、柏柏尔人、贝都因人、塞尔柱人和蒙古人——的一系列侵略，出现了同样的发展情况。在这里，如同在西方一样，人们面临巨大的灾难，为了得到救济和安慰，只得求助于宗教信机。但在西方，经院哲学最终追到驳斥并被取代，而在穆斯林世界，它却一直居统治地位至19世纪末。
伊斯兰教著名的神学家加扎利（1058 —1111年），在其著作《哲学的矛盾》中，猛烈地攻击了整个世俗学派。他争辨说，神的启示是真理的最终源泉，理智应用于摧毁信任本身。他受到了穆斯林亚里土多德学派的著名哲学家伊本·路西德（1126—1198年）的挑战。伊本·路西德生于西班牙的科尔多瓦，被西方人称为阿成罗伊。他在《矛盾的矛盾》一书中宣称：认识应服从理性的判决，哲学对伊斯兰教并无害处。但他决不是一个唯理论者，他强调民众应接受“神学”教育，因为他们在理智上既不期望、也不具备哲学推理的能力。然而，他所认为的能接受“哲学“教育的知识阶层，却拒绝他的主张，指责他虚伪，怀疑他是无神论者。
伟大的历史学家和社会学之父伊本·赫勒敦（1332 —1406年），在其著作中反映了这一正统派反应的广度。他最先将历史看作是关于诸文明的起源和发展的科学，而不是当时传统的编年史和有关某一事件的作品。然而，这位学识渊博、富于创造力的思想家，却认为哲学和科学是无用、危险的。他说：“应该明白，哲学家所持的观点是完全错误的。……物理学问题对我们的宗教事务或日常生活来说，无关紧要，所以我们对此不必理会。……任何研究它［逻辑学］的人，只有在完全掌握宗教法规，且研究了的解释和法学之后，才应从事这项工作。不懂穆斯林宗教科学的人，是不应致力于此事的。因为缺乏这一知识的人，几乎无法躲避有害面的侵蚀。”
因此，在穆斯林世界中，智力的发展与创新停止了；在欧洲诸大学极度活跃的同时，伊斯兰教学校却满足于死记硬背权威性的教科书。800 至1200年，穆斯林世界远远超过西方，但到16世纪时，这种差距已经消失。此后，西方迅速发展，突然跑到了前面，而伊斯兰教世界则停滞不前，甚至倒退。下面这段话生动地描写了这两个世界间的差别：“白昼逝去了，伊斯兰教医学和科学却反射出古希腊文化的太阳的光芒，它象一轮明月，照亮了欧洲中世纪漆黑的夜晚；有些明亮的星星也闪烁着各自的光芒。但在新的一天——文艺复兴——的黎明，月亮和星星却都变得暗淡无光。”
西方和欧亚大陆其他文明之间，也呈现出类似的差别。原因很简单，只有西方实现了趋向近代思潮的重大转变。印度和拜占廷均被伊斯兰教征服，陷于停滞不前的状态之中。中国虽然反抗蒙古人的统治，并于1368 年将他们驱逐出去，但却表现出强烈的民族优势感——一种对外国以及蛮族的所有东西近乎本能的敌意和轻蔑。148O年，俄罗斯也取得了推翻蒙古统治的胜利，但长久的创伤依然存在。这个国家已拒绝西方吹来的清新之风达两个半世纪之久；因此，蒙古人的思想和习俗已为莫斯科大公国和东正教的专制主义铺平了道路。
在这一般格局中，唯独西方是个例外。只有西方发生了巨大的变化，即出现了以新技术为基础的现代文明。这一新文术立即表现出自身的优越性，不仅传入欧亚大陆，而且传遍全球。如前所述（第十一章第六节），蛮族侵略的毁灭性的冲击，是形成西方这种独特性的原因所在；它埋葬了古典文明，让新观念和新制度生根、繁荣。后面几章首先介绍位于伊斯兰教世界两侧的传统的拜占廷文明和儒家文明，然后分析与之形成鲜明对照的革命的西方文明。
15th Century Chinese Painting: Genghis Khan Hunting.
The most basic weapon of the Mongols was the large hybrid bow, which was more lethal than the British longbow, and its armor-piercing arrows could kill the enemy within 600 feet.This was a fearsome weapon used by Mongol cavalry; they could shoot the 30 arrows they were equipped with while galloping.Other equipment included steel helmets, light hide armor, sabers, and sometimes a long spear with hook and a mace.Mongolian horses only graze in open pastures, without shelter during the long and severe winter, and without hay or grain as supplementary feed.Although this makes them not very tall, they are very hardworking and adaptable. "Even today," says one authority, "it is not uncommon to catch a Mongolian horse with a lasso in a pastoral area, saddle it, and ride it for more than 100 miles without needing to be fed. But the next day You can’t ride that far any longer, and you’ll have to graze it for days.” This was no problem for the Mongols, who had a large army of new horses for war, and could switch them on and off as needed.
Genghis Khan added new skills and equipment to the traditional techniques of the nomads.Most of these skills and equipment were learned from the Chinese, including powerful catapults, battering rams and tunnel sappers; tunnel sappers can dig tunnels under the city walls and then blow them up with gunpowder.In this way, Genghis Khan added siege weapons to the unrivaled cavalry archers; such weapons were indispensable when taking fortified cities.
The Mongols were also masters of espionage and psychological warfare.Before the battle, they gathered as much information as possible about the enemy's roads, rivers, fortifications, political and economic conditions, and so on.They also sent spies to spread rumors that Mongolia was so powerful that any resistance would be useless, demoralizing the enemy.In battle, they employ brutal tactics of terror in order to weaken the rusticity of the enemy.Prisoners of war were forced to stand at the front of the line and attack their own people; and when they met a little resistance during the siege, the entire city residents were massacred.
Finally, Genghis Khan's great strategy was unique: he paid great attention to conquering his nomadic neighbors before attacking the mighty empire.He was very familiar with the traditional Chinese divide-and-conquer strategy, or as the Chinese say, "use the barbarians to control the barbarians." In the past, many chiefs of nomadic tribes were wiped out due to simultaneous attacks by imperial troops and rival tribes.Genghis Khan's strategy, therefore, was first to unite "all those who live in tents with felt walls."
Even with military genius and superior weaponry, Genghis Khan could not have become the conqueror of the world if he hadn't happened to appear at the right historical juncture.In the Han Dynasty or the Tang Dynasty, a united and strong China could easily stop him; the Muslim Arabs in the most powerful period could also stop him.At the beginning of the thirteenth century, however, the balance of power in Eurasia was quite different.China had now been divided into three small states: the Jin Dynasty, which ruled the north, the Song Dynasty, which controlled the south, and the Xixia Dynasty, which was established in the northwest by Tibetan party members.To the west of China is the founding state of Kara, which was built on the basis of oasis cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand; to the west of the Kara Khanate, on the banks of the Oxus River, is the Muslim Kingdom of Huacizimo, and further west is The Attes dynasty of Baghdad.However, both Huacizimo and the Apis Dynasty were in a period of decline at this time.
From 1205 to 1209, Genghis Khan first conquered Tangut, forcing it to become a vassal state. In 1211, they attacked the north of China and occupied the area north of the Great Wall. Then in 1213, they broke through the defense line of the Great Wall and entered the Yellow River Plain.By 1215, he had pillaged and taken Beijing, aided by Chinese who knew how to siege cities and foreigners who knew how to develop and manage agricultural societies.According to his general strategy, at this time, Genghis Khan turned to attack the territories of the surrounding nomadic tribes. Manchuria fell in 1216, Korea fell in 1218, and Kara Khan fell the following year.
Having completed the conquest of the above regions, he was close to the border of Huacizimo, and in 1219-1221, occupied the country.Rich and ancient cities such as Bukhara, Samarkand, and Balkh were looted and their inhabitants massacred. Only skilled artisans survived and were sent to Mongolia.A Chinese Taoist priest traveled here at that time and recorded: "We passed the great city of Balkh. The residents here were massacred not long ago because they resisted Genghis Khan. However, we can still hear the barking of dogs on the street." In fact, Now, Balkh has become a ghost town, the first of many to suffer such a fate.The aggrieved ruler of Huacizimo took refuge on an island in the Caspian Sea and died there while his son fled east to India.But on the upper Indus he was defeated by the ruthless Mongols and fled to Delhi, where the Turkic sultan, petrified by the massacre, granted him refuge.
The Mongols were not content with these stunning victories in the Middle East and India.They turned north and attacked the Caucasus, where they defeated the Georgians.Subsequently, it continued to advance towards Ukraine. In 1223, it defeated the 80000 Russian soldiers who had an absolute superiority in numbers.At the same time, Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia because Xixia opposed his rule, commanded the campaign against the Xixia Dynasty again, and won.This was his last exploit, and he died shortly afterward, in 1227.In accordance with his will, he was buried in his hometown under a big tree he had chosen during his lifetime.Those who escorted the body to the scene were all killed in order to ensure that the location of the grave was not discovered.
Two years after the throne was vacant, Genghis Khan's son Ogedei succeeded him as Great Khan.During his reign (1229-1241), he continued to campaign against China and Europe, which were about 5,000 miles apart on both ends of the Eurasian continent.In China, in 1234, the Mongols wiped out the remnants of the Jin Dynasty in the north, and then attacked the Southern Song Dynasty.The Song soldiers resisted tenaciously, and the war lasted for 45 years before being completely wiped out.At the same time, Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, led 150,000 troops and was sent to western Europe. In the autumn of 1237, he crossed the middle reaches of the Volga and attacked the principalities of central Russia, capturing town after town, including the then less important city of Moscow.By March 1238, he was approaching the Baltic city of Novgorod, but fearing that Haruyuki might trap his cavalry in the mud, he suddenly withdrew his troops south.
Two years later, in the summer of 1240, the Mongols again attacked southern Russia from their base in the Caucasus, and by December they had occupied Kyiv, the ancient Russian capital.The Mongols were so cruel to the local population that a monk at the time recorded that the few survivors were "very envious of the dead." , defeated the German army by 30,000 people.Then, cross the frozen Danube, occupy Zagreb, and finally reach the Adriatic coast.So far, the Mongolian army has controlled the vast area of Eurasia from the Adriatic Sea to the Sea of Japan. In the spring of 1242, news of the death of Wokuotai Dazhu came from Mongolia, so Batu crossed the Balkans and withdrew to the lower reaches of the Volga River, where he established the Khanate; because of its golden tent, it was named the Golden Horde Khanate.
The influence of these strange riders from the East was so great that in faraway St. Albans, near London, Matthew Parrissie writes in his chronicle:
Illustration from the 13th century Persian history book of Mongolia: The Court of Genghis Khan.Genghis Khan sits on the throne with his three sons on the left.One of the sons, Ogedei, succeeded his father in 1299.
Whether or not these feared and disastrous beings will retreat is a big question facing Europeans.Mongolia's political development process answers this question.Five years after Wo Kuotai's death, his son Gui Youcai succeeded him as Great Khan.No major expeditions were possible during this period of turmoil, and during the short two years of the drunken Guiyu's reign.Expeditions are also out of the question.After Guiyu, the throne was vacant for another three years, and finally, Genghis Khan's talented grandson Meng Ge (1251-1259) succeeded to the throne.William of Ruberouk had spoken of the new Great Khan's intention to continue his invasion of Europe.He said that Meng Ge's minister had asked him "the situation in the Kingdom of France, whether there are many sheep, cattle and horses there, and whether it is better for them to attack there at once and occupy it completely." The final decision was to complete the invasion of southern China. The Abbasids who conquered and captured Baghdad.Möngke entrusted these two very difficult tasks to his two younger brothers, Kublai Khan and Hulagu; the former was sent to China, the latter to the Middle East.
The Mongols quickly swept through Central Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, but they were in trouble in China: large-scale fighting with the Chinese continued for decades in stop and go.By Chinese standards, the Song Dynasty was a weak and incompetent dynasty, but conquering the Song Dynasty was much more difficult for the Mongols than conquering the Muslim rulers of the Middle East, even though the latter were farther from the Mongol power center.In the war against China, the Mongols once again demonstrated their perfect tactics for engaging in large-scale strategic encirclement warfare.In addition to advancing along the Yangtze River and capturing Hangzhou, the capital of the Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan also surrounded the Song Dynasty from the west and south flanks.After a large-scale battle, he invaded Sichuan, Yunnan, Annan and Tokyo, and surrounded the dynasty from all directions. In 1277, he occupied Guangzhou, the big southern port, and three years later, he wiped out the Song Dynasty navy off the coast of Hainan Island, thus completing the conquest of China.
In 1259, during the attack on Sichuan, Mungo died and Kublai Khan was elected as his successor.As Great Khan, he moved the imperial capital from Harahelin in Mongolia to Beijing in North China.Faithful to Genghis Khan's original plan of conquering the world, he launched a new war after defeating the Song Dynasty, invading Indochina and Burma by land, and Java and Japan by water.No wonder Marco Polo, who served Kublai Khan for 17 years, wrote: Kublai Khan is "from our ancestor Adam to the present, the most powerful ruler ever seen in the world. He has the most subjects and the most extensive land. , the wealth is the most abundant.”
Hulagu, meanwhile, had crossed the Oxus; sweeping through Persia, Mesopotamia, and Syria. In 1258, the Abbasid capital Baghdad fell, and it is said that except for a few highly skilled craftsmen, the city's 800,000 residents were massacred.According to Genghis Khan's ban, in order to prevent the blood of the royal family from staining the sword, the unfortunate caliph was wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death by a horse.After conquering Aleppo and Damascus in the same way, it seems that no force can stop the Mongols from continuing to attack Egypt and North Africa, thus completing the conquest of the entire Muslim world.
But in Ain Jalut in Palestine, the birthplace of political politics, there was a major and unexpected twist. In 1260, the Egyptian Mamluk army defeated the Mongols there.One reason for the failure was that, in 1259, the death of Mongol Tazu split the united Mongol ruling group.Hulagu supported his elder brother Kublai Khan to inherit the vacant throne, but was opposed by his cousin, the Great Annihilation Berk of the Golden Horde of Russia.In fact, Berk had converted to Islam and was so indignant at Hulagu's elimination of the caliphate that the two gradually began to fight openly.As a defensive measure, Hulagu again crossed the Euphrates and entered Persia, leaving only an exhausted force in Palestine, the vast majority of whom were non-Mongols.The defeat of this army saved the Islamic world and marked the beginning of the fall of the Mongol Empire.
Despite the defeat in Palestine, the Mongol Empire at this time was still an impressive sprawling edifice, occupying Russia, the Middle East and southern China in addition to Genghis Khan's initial conquests.The Mongol army was operating from the Baltic coast to Burma, while the navy was attacking Japan and Java.By this time, however, the sprawling empire had begun to crumble, and indeed ceased to exist after only a few decades.
Of course, the reason is not only the loss to the Mamluk army.Few of the Mongol troops were involved in that battle, and the Mongols were still expecting a swift vengeance; the kind of vengeance that the few opponents who had won individual battles in the past could not escape.This time, however, this did not happen again because the process of the collapse of the empire had already begun.
To some extent, this collapse is closely related to excessive expansion.Even the highly mobile Mongols found themselves in trouble after expanding to both ends of Eurasia.In addition to the defeat at the birthplace of Goliath, the Mongol attack on India between 1285 and 1303 was repulsed by the Turkic Sultan of Delhi.In Burma and Vietnam, the Mongols also discovered that forest warfare was quite different from cavalry raids on the plains.Overseas conquests by the Mongol navy also failed. In 1291, the fleet sent to attack the Ryukyu Islands failed to find even these islands; an expeditionary force sent to Java withdrew two years later with heavy losses.The biggest overseas conquest was the attack on Japan. In 1274 and 1281, the Mongols sent a large number of expeditionary forces to Japan.The Japanese resisted tenaciously and were finally rescued by a southwesterly typhoon, which the Japanese gratefully called "the kamikaze," which blew away the enemy's ships.In this way, on the sea as in the forest, the expansion of the Mongols was restricted.
However, not only the ends of the Eurasian continent and the islands on the sea were difficult to conquer, for the Mongols, what was more serious was that they found it impossible to keep the conquered areas.The first problem is that they are too small and uncivilized compared with the people of the dependent countries.The Mongols were, as Pushkin put it, “Arabs without Aristotle and algebra.” As such, they were easily assimilated once they dismounted from their horses and settled in conquered territories.In this respect the Mongols were very different from the Arabs: the Arabs possessed their own language and religion, which were readily adopted by the subject peoples and served as a powerful link of imperial unity.The Mongols are not as advanced as the Arabs and do not have this advantage at all.On the contrary, the Mongols lost their own characteristics by adopting the language, religious beliefs and culture of their more advanced subjects.This is the fundamental reason why its empire collapsed shortly after its creation.
Kublai Khan's decision to move the capital from Hara and Lin to Beijing expresses precisely this process of assimilation.He ruled in a Chinese-designed palace, performed intricate Confucian rituals, and built a new Confucian temple, so he was bound to be a Chinese-style emperor.As a Great Khan, Kublai Khan was only the nominal monarch of the Mongolian Khanates, and his power on the ground was limited to China.Initially, his younger brother Ali Boke had competed with him for the throne of the Great Khan. After four years of struggle, Kublai Khan won.Later, his cousin, Haidu, which controls Turkestan, also competed with him for the throne, so a 40-year civil war broke out, which ended in a stalemate between the two sides.Therefore, the destruction of the Mongol Empire was not only due to cultural assimilation, but also due to internal struggles within the dynasty.
At the same time that Kublai Khan became emperor of China, Hulagu also became the ruler of Persia.With Tabriz as his capital, he established the so-called Ilkhanate (the word Ilkhan means "subsidiary Khan", which means that the Mongolian ruler of Persia is subordinate to the Great Khan). In 1295, Hulagu's successors adopted Islam as the state religion, which reflected and facilitated the assimilation of the Mongols in the Iranian-Islamic environment.Likewise, the Golden Horde on the other side of the Caucasus mountains went their own way, accepting the influence of local Orthodox culture and formal Islamic teachings.Before long, only those Mongols in Mongolia remained purely of Mongol blood; there, they were influenced by Buddhism and have since become obscurity.
Since the number of Mongols was very small, they continued to recruit a large number of Turks into the army.As the Mongol Empire fell apart, however, these Muslim Turks immediately assumed the same prominence they had occupied in the Caliphate before the Mongol invasion.In order to control the central plain of the Eurasian continent, groups of military adventurers emerge in endlessly at this time.The most famous of these was Timur, known to Europeans as Tamerlane.He took Samarkand in 1369, from which he struck everywhere.First eliminated the Ilkhanate in Persia and Mesopotamia, then defeated the Golden Horde in Russia and the Ottoman Turks in Asia Minor; even invaded India and looted Delhi.He was determined to make the capital, Samarkand, the best city in the world.Therefore, after each battle, he sent back a caravan full of spoils, as well as artisans, artists, astrologers, and literati.At its height, Timurid's empire stretched from the Mediterranean to China; before his death in 1405, he was preparing to invade China.After his death, however, his empire fell apart much faster than the Mongol Empire.
After Timur, the most notable development was the expansion of the Muslim Turks in India and Byzantium. In the 13th century, driven by the Mongol threat, the Turkic Sultan of Delhi controlled only northern India. In the 14th century, with this threat removed, they began to expand southward, reaching the Jisdana River and occupying two-thirds of the Indian peninsula.However, Timur's aggression formed many small states in northern and central India at that time. These small states were ruled by the Turks, and none of them had enough power to restore the rule of the Delhi Sultan.At the same time, the expansion of Islamic forces to most parts of India caused resistance from Hindus. As a result, Vijayanagar, a Hindu power, was formed, and its territory included the entire Indian region south of the Jisdana River.This is the division that existed here in the 16th century when another Muslim Turkic dynasty, the Mughal Empire, forcibly unified the Indian peninsula from the outside.
At the same time, in the Middle East, the Ottoman Turks continued to expand the territory of Islam at the expense of Byzantium.These invaders from Central Asia entered the Seljuk Empire at the time of its decline and settled in the northwestern corner of Asia Minor, less than fifty miles from the strategic strait that separates Europe and Asia. In 1299, Osman, the leader of these Turks, got rid of the rule of the Seljuk monarchs, declared independence, and developed his country from a small and low-status country to the great Ottoman Empire named after him.
The first step in the Turkish conquest was to occupy the remaining Byzantine territory in Asia Minor.The conquest was completed in 1340, thanks to the discontent of the Christian peasants against the Byzantine authorities and the support of Islamic warriors who flocked from all over the Middle East to fight against the Christian infidels.Then, the Turks crossed the Dardanelles and set foot in Europe for the first time, establishing a fort at Gallipoli in 1354.They picked a time that could hardly have been better to enter Europe.At this time, conflicts between rival Christian churches, competition among Byzantine, Serbian, and Bulgarian states divided the Balkans; and these states were all in a period of decline.In addition, like the peasants of Asia Minor, the Christian peasants of the Balkans were dissatisfied with their rulers.The Western Christian countries have been divided, and even if they wanted to, they would not be able to assist the countries of the Balkan Peninsula; what's more, there has long been a gap between the Catholic Church and the East, and they are not willing to provide assistance.This cleared the way for the Ottoman Turks, who took full advantage of the opportunity.
In 1362, the Turks occupied Adrianople; in 1384, they captured Sofia, thereby besieging Constantinople.However, in 1402 the Timurs defeated and captured their sultan, and in the following decades they were forced to move.But Timur's rule was only short-lived. His death in 1405 freed the Ottoman Turks to rebuild their rule and continue their foreign aggression.Constantinople was finally captured in 1453, thus ending the 1,000-year imperial history. At the end of the 15th century, except for a few coastal forts controlled by Venice, they had ruled the entire Balkan Peninsula south of the Danube (see Chapter 15, Section 4 for details).
One result of the Turkic and Mongol invasions between 1000 and 1500 was the emergence of a new balance of power in Eurasia, in which Islam was the main, decisive force. In the late 15th century, when the West began to expand overseas, Islam had spread in all directions on land.The Ottoman Turks were crossing the Danube into Central Europe; Central Asia was being converted to Islam except for the eastern fringes; the Mughals were about to begin their conquest of virtually the entire Indian peninsula.Moreover, Islam was advancing to the far fringes of the Eurasian core.In Africa, Islam spread steadily into the interior from two major centers.It spread across the Sahara from the coast of North Africa to West Africa; here many black Muslim kingdoms flourished.Likewise, it spread from the Arab colonies along the coast of East Africa to countries in the interior, including the kingdom of Christian Nubia, which was conquered and converted by Islam (see Chapter 17).
Arab and Indian merchants also brought Islam to Southeast Asia.Here, as in Africa and other less civilized areas, conversion to Islam was easier because of the simplicity and adaptability of this new religious ritual.All people who want to become Muslims only need to repeat this sentence: "Find proof that there is no god except Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah." Newly added Islamic rituals are generally accepted and respected. Local customs and traditions.The religion spread, therefore, not by the sword, but by the unobtrusive work of merchants who, by learning the language of the native population, adopting their customs, intermarrying their women, transformed their new kin and business Partner's faith, come and win them over.The following passage describes the methods used by these merchant-missionaries, though in the Philippines, but can also illustrate similar conditions in other early islands: "These Muslims adopted the language of the native peoples, and adopted many of their customs,的女子结婚，购买奴隶以提高自己的地位，最后，成功地挤进了地位最高的首领的行列；这些对于他们将自己的宗教传入这一国家较为有利。”
1292 年，马可·波罗访问费莱克（今亚齐）时，发现那里有许多穆斯林。“众所周知，费莱克人民过去都是偶像崇拜者。但是由于同经常乘船来此的萨拉森商人接触，现在，他们都改信了穆罕默德的教义。”到15世纪末，伊斯兰教向东最远传到菲律宾的棉兰老岛。马六甲的穆斯林国家，是著名的商业中心，控制着经过海峡的所有贸易，在传播伊斯兰教方面，起了重要的作用，它不仅吸引着来自印度和整个东南亚的商人，而且通过提供指导富裕的赞助人的机会，吸引了著名的教师和经师。马六甲最大的成就是，使爪哇皈依伊斯兰教；爪哇的穆斯林君主，推翻前印度教的麻喏巴歇王国的胜利，正是这一皈依的标志。若把东南亚看作一个整体，那么，穆斯林主要的中心正如所期望的那样，是那些贸易交往最为活跃的地区：马来半岛和印度尼西亚群岛。
1248至1354年间建在格拉纳达的摩尔人国王的宫殿艾勒汉卜拉宫。遍及欧亚大陆的伊斯兰教建筑的杰作是1000至1500年伊斯兰教广泛传播的象征。
在这五个世纪中，伊斯兰教传遍欧亚大陆，使其领土几乎增加两倍，对世界历史的进程产生了重大影响。7、 8世纪，在初期扩人阶段，伊斯兰教已将地中海变成了穆斯林湖；而在晚期扩张阶段，它又使整个印度洋成为穆斯林湖。这意味着当时，尤其是1995年伊儿汗国信奉伊斯兰教以后，从亚洲运往欧洲的所有货物，实际上是沿穆斯林所控制的陆路水路运输的。124O年后的几十年里，虽然蒙古帝国使欧亚大陆间的安全旅行和贸易成为可能，但这几十年只是早期和晚期扩张阶段中的一个插曲；而在这一时期，阿拉伯突厥人控制着中亚和中东，在中国和西方之间筑起了一道屏障。到1500年，伊斯兰教的继续扩张，还使它成为一股世界力量，而不仅仅是中东的势力。这一点至今仍深刻地影响世界事务的进程。如今印度半岛之所以分成两部，穆斯林政治集团之所以在东南亚影响甚大，伊斯兰教之所以成为非洲的一股强有力的、迅速发展的势力和占世界人口七分之一的人们的信仰，原因就在于此。
突厥人和蒙古人的侵略具有深远的意义，因为他们还促进了欧亚大陆间的相互影响。众所周知，在技术领域里，蒙古统治下的和平导致了中国发明的大批传播，其中包括火药、丝绸、机械、印刷术和炼铁高炉等（见第十二章第三节人在伊儿汗国统治的波斯，也可看到这种相互影响的情况；波斯因所处的地理位置，受到了来自东方和西方的影响。据了解，中国炮兵曾去过波斯，在蒙古军队中服役；另外一位名叫傅梦之的人提出了中国的天文学原理；中国医生曾在伊儿汗朝廷里工作；中国艺术家曾对波斯的微型绘画产生了不可磨灭的影响。另一方面，欧洲的影响主要表现在贸易和外交领域中。在首都大不里士，聚居的意大利商人们生意十分兴隆；伊儿汗国从他们中间征募了一些使者和翻译，让他们肩负着各种使命，前往欧洲。其中当然有马可·波罗，他在护送一位蒙古公主从中国到波斯、同伊儿汗国的大汗结婚以后，继续向威尼斯航行。
最后，由这种相互影响提供的机会，又被正在欧洲形成的新文明所充分利用。这一点具有深远的意义，直到现在，仍对世界历史的进程产生影响。欧亚大陆其他各文明过于一成不变。最初，伊斯兰教世界似乎很容易适应和改变新的东西。尽管伊斯兰教有其兴起于阿拉伯半岛的原始背景，却非常善干接受已形成的伟大文明，创造新的、给人以深刻印象的东西。但是，这引起了伊斯兰教教义与希腊唯理论哲学及科学之间的必然、内在的紧张关系。哈里发马蒙（813－833年）早年曾大力支持古典名著的翻译，信奉唯理论者的学说，认为是人创造的，并不是永恒的。但他的继承者则完全不同，他们支持保守的神学家，这些神学家指责所有科学的、哲学的推测，认为这将导致异端和无神论。
在人们开始相信寻求上帝比了解自然更为重要的意义上，这一点意味着经院哲学的胜利。中世纪早期，蛮族入侵后，这种经院哲学在西方也很盛行。当时罗马教皇统治了文化生活，神学被公认为各门科学的“皇后。”如今，在伊斯兰教世界，随着蛮族——十字军、柏柏尔人、贝都因人、塞尔柱人和蒙古人——的一系列侵略，出现了同样的发展情况。在这里，如同在西方一样，人们面临巨大的灾难，为了得到救济和安慰，只得求助于宗教信机。但在西方，经院哲学最终追到驳斥并被取代，而在穆斯林世界，它却一直居统治地位至19世纪末。
伊斯兰教著名的神学家加扎利（1058 —1111年），在其著作《哲学的矛盾》中，猛烈地攻击了整个世俗学派。他争辨说，神的启示是真理的最终源泉，理智应用于摧毁信任本身。他受到了穆斯林亚里土多德学派的著名哲学家伊本·路西德（1126—1198年）的挑战。伊本·路西德生于西班牙的科尔多瓦，被西方人称为阿成罗伊。他在《矛盾的矛盾》一书中宣称：认识应服从理性的判决，哲学对伊斯兰教并无害处。但他决不是一个唯理论者，他强调民众应接受“神学”教育，因为他们在理智上既不期望、也不具备哲学推理的能力。然而，他所认为的能接受“哲学“教育的知识阶层，却拒绝他的主张，指责他虚伪，怀疑他是无神论者。
伟大的历史学家和社会学之父伊本·赫勒敦（1332 —1406年），在其著作中反映了这一正统派反应的广度。他最先将历史看作是关于诸文明的起源和发展的科学，而不是当时传统的编年史和有关某一事件的作品。然而，这位学识渊博、富于创造力的思想家，却认为哲学和科学是无用、危险的。他说：“应该明白，哲学家所持的观点是完全错误的。……物理学问题对我们的宗教事务或日常生活来说，无关紧要，所以我们对此不必理会。……任何研究它［逻辑学］的人，只有在完全掌握宗教法规，且研究了的解释和法学之后，才应从事这项工作。不懂穆斯林宗教科学的人，是不应致力于此事的。因为缺乏这一知识的人，几乎无法躲避有害面的侵蚀。”
因此，在穆斯林世界中，智力的发展与创新停止了；在欧洲诸大学极度活跃的同时，伊斯兰教学校却满足于死记硬背权威性的教科书。800 至1200年，穆斯林世界远远超过西方，但到16世纪时，这种差距已经消失。此后，西方迅速发展，突然跑到了前面，而伊斯兰教世界则停滞不前，甚至倒退。下面这段话生动地描写了这两个世界间的差别：“白昼逝去了，伊斯兰教医学和科学却反射出古希腊文化的太阳的光芒，它象一轮明月，照亮了欧洲中世纪漆黑的夜晚；有些明亮的星星也闪烁着各自的光芒。但在新的一天——文艺复兴——的黎明，月亮和星星却都变得暗淡无光。”
西方和欧亚大陆其他文明之间，也呈现出类似的差别。原因很简单，只有西方实现了趋向近代思潮的重大转变。印度和拜占廷均被伊斯兰教征服，陷于停滞不前的状态之中。中国虽然反抗蒙古人的统治，并于1368 年将他们驱逐出去，但却表现出强烈的民族优势感——一种对外国以及蛮族的所有东西近乎本能的敌意和轻蔑。148O年，俄罗斯也取得了推翻蒙古统治的胜利，但长久的创伤依然存在。这个国家已拒绝西方吹来的清新之风达两个半世纪之久；因此，蒙古人的思想和习俗已为莫斯科大公国和东正教的专制主义铺平了道路。
在这一般格局中，唯独西方是个例外。只有西方发生了巨大的变化，即出现了以新技术为基础的现代文明。这一新文术立即表现出自身的优越性，不仅传入欧亚大陆，而且传遍全球。如前所述（第十一章第六节），蛮族侵略的毁灭性的冲击，是形成西方这种独特性的原因所在；它埋葬了古典文明，让新观念和新制度生根、繁荣。后面几章首先介绍位于伊斯兰教世界两侧的传统的拜占廷文明和儒家文明，然后分析与之形成鲜明对照的革命的西方文明。