Saturday, January 21, 2006
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
The Tartar Relation: The Mongol Empire and the Latin West in the 13th Century
In the thirteenth century, an obscure people led by an extraordinary ruler carved out an Empire stretching from Korea to Hungary—a storm over Asia that was nearly unstoppable. The great Chin Empire and the realm of the wealthy Khwarazm-shah fell to their might. Never before had so much of the world fallen under the rulership of one dynasty. In the Latin West, these rumblings to the east seemed at first to signal the salvation of the Holy Land. A legendary Christian king to the east was thought to be on his way to join forces with the West and destroy the Muslim menace. At the same time, reports trickled in of an unstoppable demonic cavalry leaving death in its wake. Two different conceptions of the Mongols emerged in the West early on, but neither offered an accurate picture of this new world power. The expansion of the Mongol Empire had significant consequences in the Middle Eastern political scene, where the Latin West was trying desperately to hold on to its foothold in the Holy Land. However, due to the sparse and conflicting intelligence, the West was unable to properly interpret these events to the far east. Only after the Mongols posed a threat to the West did Latin political forces make definite efforts to learn more about its new neighbor and formulate ways of handling the situation. By then, however, misunderstandings on both sides had caused the two to miss an opportunity to pursue common goals.
The Asiatic steppes stretch from the edge of Europe, north of the Black Sea, to Manchuria, in the east. This corridor of prairie land cannot sustain sedentary cultures, and has for time immemorial been inhabited by various nomadic herders. Steppe nomadic life was not entirely self-sustaining. Through contact with more civilized neighbors they obtained grain and metal products and through contact with forest dwelling peoples to the north they obtained furs. The steppe nomad spent much of his life in the saddle. From an early age, he learned to ride and to use the bow. A lifetime of herding and hunting from horseback made him an excellent horseman and trained his mind for military cavalry maneuvers. His incredible ability to shoot arrows from the saddle was thanks his skill and to the composite or reflex bow. Made of several pieces of joined bone, its curved shape and small size made it quick, powerful, and able to be used while riding. Being on the move for much of the time also made the steppe peoples tough and able to deal with a variety of weather conditions. If given enough cause and adequate leadership, these nomads could become a powerful military force. Throughout history, the more advanced civilizations on either end of it were occasionally harassed by these peoples. Conflict somewhere in the steppe would typically result in the mass migration of confederations of tribes outward, putting them in direct, often violent contact with sedentary civilizations surrounding them. The Huns that destroyed the Roman Empire, struck deep into India, and possibly appeared in China (known as the Hsiung-nu), are one such example. The Mongol expansion into China, across the steppes, and into the Middle East and Europe is a result of the monumental effort and unparalleled military expertise of one man—Genghis Khan.
The date of Genghis Khan, born Temujin, is unknown. One Chinese source places it in 1162. Other traditions put it at 1167. He was said to have been born at the moment his father, Yesugei Ba’atur, returned from fighting the Tatars with Temujin Uge as prisoner, and it is from this event that he is supposed to have gotten his name. It is also said that at his birth he held in his right hand a clot of blood “the size of a knuckle bone,” a prophetic sign of his future career. He was born into a group of clans known as the Mongols, one of several such feuding tribes on the outskirts of the Chin Empire. The Chin Empire was established by a Manchurian people called the Jurchen in the 1120s. They displaced the Khitans, another people of the central steppes, who had extended their rule over China. One Khitan prince fled to establish the Qara-Khitai (or “Black” Khitai) Empire to the west. Between Qara-Khitai and the Chin Empire lay Hsi-Hsia (Xixia), an empire established by the nomadic Tanguts. The invasion of north China by these outsiders had driven the native Sung dynasty, who had ruled over China in the latter half of its Golden Age, far to the south. Chinese culture dominated East Asia and much of Central Asia, but at the time of Temujin’s rise to power it was divided into three political entities. While Temujin was still a boy, his father was murdered by the rival Tatars. Leadership of the clan fell to others, while Temujin and his mother were cast aside. Gradually he acquired enough of a following to take a leadership position among the Mongols. He married Bortei, of the Qonggirat tribe, and allied himself with Toghril, the leader of the Keraits. It was in the interests of the Chin government not to allow any of the surrounding tribes to gain too much power, and they shifted their alliance from the Tatars to Keraits. With Temujin’s help, Toghril defeated the Tatars and received the title of Wang, or “prince”, by the Chin Emperor. Temujin received the title of Chao-churi, or “warden of the marches.” Toghril was eventually overthrown by Temujin and killed by the Naimans, leaving Temujin to gather further support and conquer the remaining tribes. For the most part, these other tribes were conscripted and absorbed under the Mongol banner.
In 1206, a kuriltai, or assembly of the clans, was held near the Onon River. Here it seems Temujin received the title of Genghis Khan (or Chinggis Khan). From here, Genghis Khan began his conquest of the world. The nest few years were spent subduing remaining opposition tribes and subjugating the rulers of Hsi-Hsia. In 1211, he began the long campaign against the Chin that would not be fully completed until after his death. Loot may have been the initial purpose of the attacks. China had always been a prime target of barbarian raids. These raids, however, evolved into a full-fledged campaign. It was here that the Mongol military force first gained experience with siege warfare. It soon acquired teams of Chinese engineers that would be essential in the Mongols’ future success. The Chin dynasty was a foreign power, and many native Chinese were willing to throw in their lot with the Mongols. Chung-tu, the Chin capital, fell in 1215.
Farther to the west, another power was growing in power and territory. Khwarazm is a region on the Oxus River, near the Aral Sea. It was brought under Muslim domination in the 8th century. In the 11th century, it was ruled by the Seljuks, as they advanced westward into the Abbasid realm. Governors of the area took the title Khwarazm-shah, and were able to exercise independent rule. After 1141, the Khwarazm Shahs were forced to accept nominal rule by Qara-Khitai after it defeated Seljuk ruler Sanjar in 1141. Ala-ad-Din Muhammad ruled Khwarazm at the beginning of the 13th century and began a policy of expansion. By 1215, he had conquered most of Persia, Transoxania, and Afghanistan. Qara-Khitai, meanwhile, had become weak and decentralized. Khwarazm-shah Muhammad’s empire itself was still in a state of consolidation when the Mongols invaded it. At the time, its armies were in scattered garrisons and still adjusting to the tensions between the Qipchaq mercenaries and the native Persians. In 1209, forces of the Khwarazm Shah and Genghis Khan had encountered each other during a Mongol pursuit of fugitive Merkits. Despite their initial clash, harmonious relations with each other were in both of their interests, as both rulers had troubles with Qara-Khitai. In 1211, Kuchlug , a Naiman enemy of Genghis Khan had seized control and began a campaign against Muhammad. Muhammad’s relations with the Mongols, however, soon turned sour.
At Otrar, a city on the edge of Muhammad’s empire, a caravan of 450 merchants arrived. The governor of the city executed them and seized their property, judging that they were Mongol spies. Genghis Khan was outraged and sent envoys to the Khwarazm-shah, demanding that the governor be punished. Instead, he executed one of them and shaved the beards off of the others. Such an affront to the Great Khan and to the sacrosanct position of ambassadors triggered the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazm-shah’s domains and the complete destabilization of the Middle East.
Our sources of information during this period are limited. The Secret History of the Mongols does not survive in its original form, but it translation. Other sources include Persian historian Ala-ad-Din Ata Malik Juvaini’s History of the World Conqueror (finished in 1260) and Rashid al-Din’s Jami al-Tavarikh. Neither of these was written during the life of Genghis Khan, but they do offer an early view of the still-pagan 13th century Mongols. A contemporary of Juvaini, Juzjani, offers a far less flattering picture of Genghis Khan. The Georgian Chronicle and the Primary Russian Chronicle offer accounts of the Mongol presence in Europe. In the years after the invasion of Europe, the travelers John of Plano Carpini, William of Rubruck, and Marco Polo offer later accounts. Several other missionaries’ accounts survive, along with the letters of the Papal and Mongol embassies.
The system of organization in the Mongol army was known as the Great Yasa. In order to break up loyalties to the individual tribes under his command, he gave out positions of command on the basis of merit rather than previous tribal leadership. From then on, command of units passed from father to son, but not if a son proved incompetent. All adult males of the nomad peoples served in the military. Certain portions of households were to provide actual fighting men, while others were to provide support. The army was divided according to a decimal system made up of the mingham (one thousand men), which were further grouped into tumen (ten mingham). Rarely were these units operating at full capacity. The mingham came to be graded according to minimum numbers of 3,000, 5,000, or 7,000. Mongol armies brought with them siege machine engineers, bridge-builders, and other specialists. Scouts preceding Genghis Khan’s army fanned out in all directions, providing intelligence of the local terrain, the people, and the enemy. He also initiated the postal system, wherein jams or stations were to be built at intervals of one days ride across the empire and equipped with up to twenty horses, food, and water. Mongol campaigns were thusly conducted with nearly all contingencies in mind. Their commanders thought, not in terms of the next city or river, but in terms of thousands of miles, a scale necessary for the conquest of the world.
In 1219, Khwarazm-shah Muhammad bore the brunt of this highly organized force. Part of the Mongol forces besieged Otrar, while the main body marched to Bokhara. Another part moved to meet Muhammad’s forces at the Ferghana pass. Bokhara fell in February, 1220, Samarkand in April. Genghis Khan would settle for no less than the death of the Khwarazm-shah. Generals Jebei and Subodei pursued the frightened and paranoid Muhammad across his collapsing empire. With the Mongols right on his heels, Muhammad barely escaped to an island in the Caspian Sea, where he died. Meanwhile, Genghis Khan pursued Muhammad’s son Jelal ad-Din through Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush Mountains. Jelal ad-Din gathered a military force from the remains of the Kwarazm Empire. Anti-Mongol sentiment arose in the form of assassinations of Mongol-appointed native officials. At Merv and Nishapur, only several hundred skilled artisans of the male population were spared. The siege at Herat lasted months before the city capitulated, only to revolt again. For this insolence, the entire population was massacred. A Mongol force of 2,000 returned later to search for survivors and slaughtered 3,000 more. It is said that only 40 people from the city and surrounding suburbs managed to survive, and this out of a city where over 100,000 had been garrisoned. Meanwhile, Jelal ad-Din involved himself in a quarrel among his vassals and the offended prince left with his men, thus leaving his master without adequate support. At the banks of the Indus River, the Khwarazm army was defeated. Jelal ad-Din himself cut his way through the Mongol forces, seized back the captured colors, and fled to a cliff overlooking the river. He leapt in and swam to safety. On the other side, he gathered together a military force strong enough to subjugate a number of Indian tribes and compel the king of Dehli to give him his daughter in marriage. This would not be the end of Jelal ad-Din. He would soon return to attempt a reconquest, and his actions would have effects reaching all the way to the Christian world.
Early Western conceptions of the Mongols are inextricably tied to their religious character. Central Asia of the 13th century was a fascinating religious mix. Buddhists, Nestorian Christians, Muslims, and even Manichaeans could be found among the former Qara-Khitai Empire. Genghis Khan’s sons had married Kerait princesses who were Christian. The Khan himself continued to follow the pagan shamanist beliefs of the Mongol tribes, but he consulted Muslim advisors, Christian priests, and Taoist sages. On religious matters, he tolerated all faiths in his empire, as long as they recognized him as their earthly ruler.
Reports of the Mongols’ apparent partiality toward Christians and of his war on the Muslim Khwarazm-shah seem to have raised hopes of Christians farther west that Genghis Khan was out to destroy Islam. Already there had developed by the time of the Second Crusade the myth of Prester John, a Christian king to the east who would one day rescue the Holy Land. C. F. Beckingham suggests that the Qara-Khitai victory of Seljuk Sultan Sanjar served as the basis for this legend. In any case, the existence of Nestorian Christians, and even Christians in positions of leadership, farther to the east gave at least a shred of credence to this notion. In the 1160s, a “Letter of Prester John” circulated through Europe and was translated from Latin into several vernacular languages. The belief had largely faded, by the 13th century, but the appearance of a new, unknown power revived the myth. A letter by Pope Honorius III (1216-1227), dated June 20, 1221, mentions forces from the Far East on the way to rescue the Holy Land. The Pope’s hopeful letter was based on a report from Jacques de Vitry, Bishop of Ptolemais, who also sent similar messages to Duke Leopold of Austria, King Henry III of England, and even to the University of Paris. In his messages, Vitry claims that the Caliph of Baghdad, then at war with the Khwarazm-shah Muhammad, had asked the Nestorian Patriarch of Baghdad to contact the “King David of India,” the grandson of Prester John, and request that he come to his aide. The fact that in Februray 1221 Jebei and Subodei had defeated the Christian King George IV of Georgia was explained by the Georgians being heretical Christians. The name “King David,” along with a copyist’s incorrectly writing “rex Indoum” as “rex Judeoum,” caused excitement among Jews in Europe. This news certainly briefly raised the spirits of the forces of the Fifth Crusade mired at Damietta, who would nevertheless surrender later that year. The first time the Latin West learned of the Mongol invasions, they took it as news of the approach of a Christian ally. Soon enough, however, their perception of the Mongols would become something far different.
As the Mongol forces completed the destruction of the Khwarazm dominion, Subodei was ordered to lead an expeditionary force northward, through the Caucuses. He and Jebei were given three years to gather information about the peoples to the north. In 1222, their force of 30,000 headed north into the realm of the Qipchaqs (or Polovtsians). During their journey, their guides escaped, while the Qipchaqs, having heard of their approach, sent an army to the Caucuses. Subodei sent an embassy to the Qipchaq khan, assuring them that they did not intend to attack The ploy worked, and while the Qipchaq forces returned home, the Mongols raided the villages of the north Caucuses. After replenishing their supplies, the Mongol army surprised and defeated the Qipchaqs near the Don River. Khan Koten fled to his brother-in-law, Prince Mstislav Mstislavich of Galicia to plead for aid against the “Tatars,” as the Mongols were known. Subodei and Jebei divided their forces, with Jebei waiting at the banks of the Don and Subodei moving southwest. After wintering north of the Crimea, the Mongol army under Subodei captured Sudak, a Genoese trading post that the Seljuk Sultan of Rum had recently claimed for himself. Its fortress was burned and the survivors escaped in galleys to Italy, bringing news of the destructive capabilities of this mysterious Tartar force and again reporting the appearance of white crosses among their ranks. It is while raiding the Azov coast that James Chambers claims that Subodei entertained Venetian merchants and entered into a secret agreement wherein the merchants would send reconnaissance reports to the Mongols and in exchange, the Mongols would destroy rival trading stations and therefore aiding the Venetians in taking back their trade monopoly. The Venetians also agreed to spread whatever propaganda might aid the Mongols. Meanwhile, at the urging of Mstislav, the Russian princes gathered their forces near the town of Zarub, south of Kiev. A Mongol embassy tried to convince the Russians that the Mongols did not want to invade Russia and that they should abandon their Qipchaq allies. The ploy did not work and the ambassadors were killed, thus infuriating Subodei. The Russian forces moved east, assembling on an island on the Dnieper River. In mid-May, 1223, they pursued some detachments of the Mongol advance guard, which retreated. On May 31, they attacked Subodei’s main force at the Kalka River. The Russians combined army collapsed under assault from three sides. Jebei and Subodei drove the scatted Russians back. The Mongol forces then turned back. Their expedition was complete and it was time to report back.
The first encounter with the Mongols had been a terrible loss for the Russians, but this was merely the beginning. In 1236, Batu would launch a full-fledged campaign against the Russian princes. Even then the Russians were still disorganized and unprepared for the invasion. By then reports had trickled westward of the Mongols’ exploits. In 1222, Queen Rusudan wrote to Honorius III, reporting that no Georgian forces could be sent to aid the Fifth Crusade because of their encounter with the Mongols. The Georgian cavalry had been preparing to march on the Holy Land. They pursued with Subodei’s forces straight into an ambush by Jebei and were destroyed. Her letter does not reveal the entire truth of the situation:
A savage people of Tartars, hellish of aspect, as voracious as wolves in their hunger for spoils and as brave as lions, have invaded my country. They must be of Christian origin, since they carry an oblique white cross on their banners. The brave knighthood of Georgia has hunted them out of the country, killing 25,000 of the invaders. But, alas, we are no longer in a position to take up the Cross as we had promised Your Holiness to do.
In truth, the Mongol force left to continue reconnoitering. Michael Prawdin asserts that Subodei carried emblems featuring white falcons that were mistaken for crosses. This would be the source of endless misunderstanding about the Mongols and heavily influenced Western conceptions of them.
Meanwhile, Genghis Khan himself had returned to Central Asia to deal with a recalcitrant Hsi-Hsia ruler who had not contributed his assigned allotment of troops to the Western campaign. The expeditionary force of Jebei and Subodei made their way to link up with Jochi. Along the way, they were compelled to retreat from the staunchly Muslim Volga Bulgars and defeated the Qangli Turks north of the Aral Sea. Jebei died of fever before the force made it to Genghis’ camp. The Chin had not been completely subdued, and the threat of a Hsi-Hsia alliance with the Chin forced Genghis to shift his attention back to the Far East, giving Jelal ad-Din an opportunity to return. In 1225, he reappeared to retake much of his father’s former domain, even extending his authority over the Caliph of Baghdad and posing a potential threat to the Ayyubid rulers further west. After Genghis’ death in 1227, Ogodei became the next khagan. He concluded the subjugation of the Chin. Only in 1231 did a Mongol army under Chormaqan return to drive him away to eastern Anatolia. He was killed by a Kurdish peasant whose brother he had executed. The remainder of his military force occasionally raided northern Syria, until they would become a mercenary force in the wars of the quarrelling Ayyubids.
The family of Saladin ruled Egypt and Syria. Al-Kamil ruled Egypt, al-Mu’azzam ruled in Damascus, and al-Ashraf ruled Jezireh. They had successfully defeated the Crusader force in Damietta, but their alliance soon fell apart. As a result of al-Mu’azzam’s recognition of Jelal ad-Din as suzerain, al-Kamil sent an envoy to Frederick II in Sicily in the hopes of organizing another Crusade against his brother. Al-Kamil was even prepared to give Frederick Jerusalem upon the completion of a successful campaign. Then in November 1227, al-Mu’azzam died and was succeeded by his son, an-Nasir. Al-Kamil seized the opportunity to try to take control of an-Nasir’s territory. Al- Ashraf and al-Kamil secretly made arrangements to defeat their nephew. An-Nasir got wind of it and escaped to Damascus. Then Frederick arrived with a force two small to launch a serious campaign, but enough to serve as a bargaining chip. He negotiated with al-Kamil the return of Jerusalem and Bethlehem and a peace treaty for ten years. Frederick and representatives of Sultan al-Kamil signed the treaty on February 18th, 1229. After having temporized for so long about fulfilling his promise to go on Crusade, he managed to obtain Jerusalem without a fight. Ten years later, when the treaty expired, the Ayyubids were once again fighting amongst themselves. The Khwarazm cavalry, still occupying parts of northern Syria, came under the service of as-Salih Ayub. Ayub, the Egyptian ruler was once again battling the prince of Damascus, Ismail. The Templars played each side off the other until finally aligning themselves with Ismail, who had the support of an-Nasir, now ruling Kerak, and al-Mansur Ibrahim of Homs. Against this alliance, Ayub had no option but to turn to the Khwarismians. They attacked Damascus in June 1244, but were unable to take it. From there they moved on to Jerusalem, this time managing to break into the city. Despite vicious street fighting, the Crusader garrison held out until an-Nasir’s troops arrived. He agreed to give the Franks safe passage to the coast if they would surrender the city. About six thousand left Jerusalem. On the way to Jaffa, several of them noticed that Frankish flags were raised on Jerusalem’s towers. Thousands returned to the city, believing a Crusader force had arrived. They were killed at the city walls. The remaining body continued to Jaffa only to be killed by Arab raiders. Out of the six thousand, only three hundred made it to safety. In October, a combined Crusader and Damascene army gathered at Acre to march on Ayub. Just outside of Gaza, the combined army was routed by the Egyptians and Khwarismians. Over the next few years, the Crusaders were ousted from their Palestinian possessions and Ayub took control over Damascus. The Khwarazm cavalry, unsatisfied with Ayub, switched sides, but were themselves destroyed by Egyptian forces. The loss of Jerusalem made the urge for another Crusade, already being preached by the Pope’s agents, all the more pressing. The Ayyubid wars and the ripple effects of the final defeat of Jelal ad-Din would once again draw forces from Western Europe into the Middle East.
The Europe of the early 13th century had hardly been putting up a unified front against its Muslim enemies. Pope Innocent III (1189-1216) was perhaps the greatest of the medieval popes. Aside from his role as spiritual head of Catholic Europe, he involved himself in more earthly affairs. In the ongoing struggle between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, Innocent intervened in the succession of the throne. First he supported Otto of Brunswick, crowning him in 1209, but later excommunicated him when he refused to uphold papal claims to lands in Italy and planned to invade Sicily. Innocent then turned his support to Frederick Hohenstaufen, who became master of both Germany and Sicily. Innocent’s successors would regret this turnaround, as Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II had the Papacy hemmed in from the north and south. Frederick had his own issues. In 1234, his son Henry revolted along with the Lombards and died a prisoner of his own father. Near the end of his life, his illegitimate son Enzio, King of Sardinia, was taken prisoner by the Bolognese. The Latin West was still in the era of its great enthusiasm for crusades. The First Crusade had captured the Eastern Mediterranean coast, establishing four Crusader States. Over time, however, pressure from Muslim powers, and the violation of political agreements between the Crusader States and Muslim rulers by successive waves of zealous crusaders led to the loss of most of that territory. The Fourth Crusade had been a rousing success, except that it had been directed against Christian Constantinople on the insistence of Philip of Swabia, his brother-in-law the deprived clamant to the Byzantine throne, and Doge Enrico Dandalo of Venice. In 1204, the Crusaders sacked Constantinople and set up Alexius the brother-in-law as Emperor of what would be known as the Latin Empire. The remaining Byzantine forces established their government at Nicaea. The Venetian involvement in Fourth Crusade came as a result of competition with the Genoese, who had cut in on their trade at Constantinople and the Black Sea region beyond. The most recent military Crusade at the time of the Mongol invasion, the Fifth, was directed against Ayyubid Egypt and was a failure. East of central Europe, the land of the Rus was also in a state of division. Kiev, formally the political and cultural center of Russia, had been raided by growing Russian powers to the north. Such was the state of the collection of small kingdoms on the far end of Eurasia.
By the 1230s, it seems the Papacy was familiar with the destruction of the Mongols and that the term “Tartar” was already being associated with “Tartarus,” the Greek conception of Hell. In 1239, Queen Rusudan asked the Pope for help against the Mongols, who were once again invading. In 1237, Batu, by way of a Hungarian Dominican, sent a message to King Bela IV of Hungary, demanding that he submit. Most unexpectedly of all, in 1238, Assassins of northern Persia sent embassies to the England and France with propositions of a Christian-Muslim alliance. Prester John, one theory held, had been killed by his armies in revolt.
Batu’s forces entered Russian territory in the winter of 1237, which allowed their horses to cross the frozen rivers with ease. One by one, the disorganized principalities were defeated. By 1240, Kiev had fallen. Apparently, by this time quite substantial information about the Mongols had reached the West. As their forces approached the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick II tried to elicit support from his fellow European rulers. He even describes the ability of the Mongol horses to find food among the bark and leaves of trees and from roots. Frederick’s request may also have been motivated by a desire to gain allies against his enemies—not simply the Mongols, but also the Pope, who had called for a crusade against him. From Volynia, Batu moved into Hungary and sent a part of his army into Poland. In March, King Bela learned that they had broken through the fortified Carpathian passes. It was reported that even in the snow, the Mongol cavalry was moving at up to fifty miles per day. What he did not know was that another force under Subodei was moving up the Danube from the south. Batu’s army feigned at retreat, and Bela’s forces left Buda to pursue them. Meanwhile, Subodei moved around behind them. On April 11, Bela advanced his larger army advanced against Batu’s smaller one, only to find himself cut off from behind by Subodei. The Hungarians set up a fortified camp. The Mongols responded by bombarding it with artillery, until Bela and much of his army fled through a gap in the Mongol line. A contingent of the Knights Templar stayed behind to be slaughtered to a man. On March 24, the northern Mongol forced burned Krakow, which had been abandoned by most of the populace. On April 9, Henry, Duke of Silesia with a force of Teutonic Knights, Templars, and Hospitallers was defeated at Liegnitz. Two days later, Batu defeated the Hungarians again at Mohi, and began pursuing Bela to the Dalmatian coast. The assault on Europe ended only because news reached Batu of Khan Ogedei’s death, which would require the members of the family of Genghis Khan to return to Karakorum to settle the issue of succession.
Elsewhere, the Mongols made further inroads westward. In 1242, the Seljuk Sultan Kaikhosrau was campaigning in Jezireh in an attempt to capture the Khwarazm territories left leaderless by Jelal ad-Din’s death. He ran into a Mongol force under Baichu. After several defeats, the Sultan submitted to Mongol suzerainty. Fearing an assault by Baichu, Hethoum, King of Armenia submitted as well.
By the time of the European invasion, the image of the Mongols had evolved from Prester John into something like the armies of Hell. Yet, diplomatic relations between Western Europe and the Mongol horde continued. Mongol advances into Europe had largely halted due to disputes between the various branches of Genghis’ family. In 1245, Pope Innocent IV sent Franciscan ambassadors John of Plano Carpini (Pian di Carpine) and Lawrence of Portugal to the “Emperor of the Tartars.” They carried two letters—the first an impassioned entreaty to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Son of God and savior, and the second a request that he “for the future desist entirely from assaults of this kind and especially from the persecution of Christians, and that after so many and such grievous offences you conciliate by a fitting penance the wrath of Divine Majesty, which no doubt you have seriously aroused by such provocation.” Guyuk Khan, Mongol ruler at the time, responded thusly: “Thou thyself, at the head of all the Princes, come at once to serve and wait upon us!”
Aside from the diplomatic stalemate, the Carpini mission did bring to the West valuable information. Carpini made his way through Poland to the Asiatic steppes. He knew nothing of the languages of the East, nor how he would be treated by the Mongols. They reached the camp of Batu’s brother Orda. From there they raced to Karakorum, where, on July 22, 1246, a kuriltai was held to proclaim Guyuk successor to his father Ogodei. Ogodei had died in 1241 and his widow acted as regent until she secured the throne for their son. Thus Carpini was able to record valuable information about Mongol culture and the extent of their conquests. Present at the kuriltai were thousands of envoys from all over Asia. Among them were Russian princes, including Yaroslav of Suzdal, father or Alexander Nevski, several tribal chiefs, “also two sons of the King of Georgia, the ambassador of the Caliph of Baghdad, who was a Sultan, and more than ten other Sultans of the Saracens,” writes Carpini. Guyuk was made Khagan on August 24, and a week of festivities followed. Carpini returned by way of Batu’s camp and Kiev. Along the way, several Russian princes gave them letters to be given to the Pope, accepting his authority and the supremacy of Rome. Carpini’s account, known as Historia Mongalorum (History of the Mongols) was incorporated into Vincent of Beauvais’ encyclopedic work, Speculum Historiale. Thus it became the primary source of information on the Mongols. Along his return journey, Carpini writes that “people through whom I passed in Poland, Bohemia, Germany, Liège, and Champagne were so pleased with the present treatise that they copied it down before it was complete, as I had not yet had the leisure enough to finish it fully.” It seems Carpini stopped to give lectures on his journeys. Friar Salimbene, a chronicler Carpini met outside of Lyons wrote that Carpini “wrote a great book about the deeds of the Tartars and caused this book to be read aloud, as I myself saw and heard, whenever he found it too laborious to tell the story; and when the readers were astonished or did not understand, he himself expounded or discussed matters of detail.” Thus first-hand knowledge of the Mongols was disseminated among the literate of the West for the first time and much of Carpini’s account found its way into other historical records.
In the same year as Carpini’s return, Pope Innocent IV sent a group of Dominican friars on another mission to the Mongols. Their purpose was to demand the end of hostilities against Christian kingdoms. After an initially cold reception by general Baichu, Aljighidai, an envoy of Guyuk, arrived on the scene. The Mongol Empire was turning its attention to the Middle East, and recognized the advantage of having an ally. Aljighidai sent Christian envoys to meet Louis IX. Thus lasting diplomatic relations were established between the Mongols in the Middle East and the crusading king. Louis’ zeal had its origin in what he believed was a miracle from God. Late in 1244, the same year as the fall of Jerusalem, Louis became ill. On his deathbed, he promised God he would take up the Cross if his life was spared. His health miraculously returned, and he immediately set about fulfilling his oath. He would become known as the most pious monarch in medieval history. At Lyons the following summer, Pope Innocent, after having dispatched Carpini eastward, held a Council. The main purpose was to drum up support against Frederick II, who had forced him out of Rome. Also discussed was the Mongol problem. Innocent allowed Norwegian duke Cnut to substitute a campaign against the Mongols in Hungary instead of against the Muslims in Palestine in fulfillment of his vows. Louis refused to involve himself in a war with Frederick. His oath had been to fight the infidels and the heretics. Reluctantly, the Pope blessed his effort. For the next three years he prepared for his Crusade, exacting heavy taxes in order to pay for it all. The target was Egypt, which was still the center of Muslim power. Meanwhile, Frederick was passing information about Louis to the Egyptian court. Louis left in August 1248 with among others, his ambitious brother Charles of Anjou.
In December, 1248, Louis arrived at Cyprus. There he was met by the two Nestorian envoys, Mark and David, sent by Aljighidai. They reported that the great Khan Guyuk had been baptized and was concerned about the Christian cause. Both Christian and Muslim sources record that Guyuk was baptized, a prospect made more probable by the fact that his mother was a Christian. They also reported that several high ranking officials were inclined toward the Christian faith. The chronicler Joinville writes that “the cham of Tartary sent him word that he was ready and at his command to assist him in the conquest of the Holy Land, and to deliver Jerusalem from the hands of the Saracens and Pagans.” Overjoyed, Louis sent a mission under Andrew of Longjumeau back to Karakorum. They carried with them a portable tent-chapel. It was “of fine scarlet cloth, very rich,” with gold trim and embroidered scenes from the life of Christ. He included an altar and a splinter, supposedly from the true Cross. Unfortunately, by this time, Guyuk was already dead. It is doubtful that he seriously considered himself a Christian. Upon arriving in Karakorum, the mission encountered Guyuk’s widow, Oghul Qaimish, now acting as regent. She accepted the gifts from the King of the Franks as a sign of his subjection to Mongol supremacy. She reminded the envoys of their King’s duty to send such tribute each year. She sent the envoys back with some gifts, including an asbestos cloth that would not catch fire, which Louis sent to the Pope. This incident helped to dispel misconceptions that the Mongols were on the side of Christianity. Yet, Louis did not give up hope that they might be willing to make an alliance of convenience against their common enemies.
After much delay at Cyprus, Louis departed for Egypt on the 30th of May, 1249, and arrived at Damietta on June 4. Sultan Ayub’s forces under Fakhr ad-Din could not keep the Franks from establishing a beachhead. He found the garrison at Damietta in a state of panic and ordered an evacuation. On June 6, the Crusader force entered the undefended city, now without most of its Muslim population, which fled with the army. Ayub, now dying of illness, offered to exchange Jerusalem for Damietta. Louis rejected the offer. In November, the Frankish army moved out of the city toward Mansourah, where the Sultan and his forces waited. Ayub died on November 23, but his widow concealed his death with the help of Fakhr ad-Din and the palace eunuch Jamal ad-Din Mohsen until Ayub’s son Turanshah could be brought from Jezireh. In February 1250, the Franks caught the Egyptians camped outside Mansourah by surprise. Fakhr ad-Din was killed in the battle. With his death there was no leader for the Mamluk Egyptian force. Mamluks were slaves, mostly from the Black Sea region, who served the Sultan as warriors. Slavery for them was an opportunity, as they rose to positions of substantial power. One such Mamluk, Rukn ad-Din Baybars, took control of the Egyptian force. The Frankish force under Robert of Artois entered the city of Mansourah expecting to defeat the remaining Mamluks. Instead, they were caught by surprise in the narrow streets and only five managed to escape. By the end of the month, Turanshah arrived. The Egyptians continued to put the squeeze on Damietta, capturing the Frankish ships attempting to replenish the city’s food supply, which led to starvation and disease. Louis and his forces were captured while trying to break out. He was forced to give up the city and pay a sum of a million besants as ransom. The Crusade had failed, but it would have unforeseen consequences. The Egyptian Mamluks were angry at Turanshah, who was about to replace them with his own Mamluks from Jezireh. In May, Baybars and the Egyptian Mamluks killed Turanshah. Egypt under Mamluk rule would soon confront the Mongol invasion of Syria.
After his defeat, Louis IX was still determined to launch a Crusade to the Holy Land. He also never gave up on the possibility of an alliance treaty with the Mongols nor the prospect of encouraging the spread of Christianity among the Mongols. This was in spite of the report of the Longjumeau mission. Joinville records a strange account relating to the Prester John myth. He writes that the Tartars were forced to pay tribute to Prester John, the emperor of Persia, and several other kings. Finally they rose up against Prester John and forced him to submit to their rule. A prince of one of the Tartar tribes however, had a vision in which a “king seated on a throne of gold” told him to order the “cham of Tartary” to praise God for granting him Prester John’s nation. Afterward they defeated the “emperor of Persia.” This cryptic tale probably alludes very real Christian presence in Central Asia particularly among the Keraits. The Prester John myth did not die, however. He shows up again in later accounts, this time in the unexplored regions of Africa. As a follow up mission, Louis sent William of Rubrick and Bartholomew of Cremona to Karakorum as his ambassadors with the chief purpose being to “preach the work of God and to instruct men to live by His will.” Rubrick arrived at the Great Khan Mongke’s court toward the end of 1253. He gained an audience with the ruler and a promise to aid Christians to the west as long as they recognized his suzerainty. This was as good a diplomatic concession as he was going to get. Nevertheless, his account of his journey offers another in depth look into Mongol society prior to the breakup of the Empire.
Mongke had become Khagan in 1251. He assigned his brothers their respective fiefs. Qubilai was assigned to the East with the task of completing the conquest of the Southern Sung Empire. Hulegu was given the tasks of destroying the strongholds of the Hashishim, or Assassins in northern Persia and subjugating the Caliph of Baghdad. The Caliph was at least in name the master over the entire Muslim world. The Caliphs were the successors to Muhammad himself. After the Prophet’s death, a series of four Caliphs oversaw the expansion of Arab rule and of Islam, until the succession became the hereditary privilege of the Umayya clan of Mecca. In the middle of the eighth century, they were overthrown and nearly the entire family was massacred. Replacing them was the house of ‘Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet. The Abbasids held on to the Caliphate all the way until the 13th century. At the time of Hulegu’s campaign, al-Musta’sim was the current Caliph. Though the Caliphs were considered the titular heads of Islam, their power was soon stripped away by other factions. The only factions in Islam that did not recognize the authority of the Caliphs were the Shiites. The Shiites were originally supporters of Ali, the fourth Caliph, and his descendents. Later, other doctrinal differences developed between the Shiites and Orthodox Islam. The Assassins were one such Shiite faction. Founded in 1090 by Hassan ben Sabbah, the sect holed up a well-protected valley south of the Caspian. They specialized in political murders and it is from them that we derive the word “assassin.” Genghis Khan’s own son Jagatai had been one such victim of the Assassins’ speciality.
Hulegu marched into the valley of the Assassins in 1257. Their Grand Master, Rukn ad-Din Khurshah, upon seeing the overwhelming force approaching the citadel at Alamut, at first tried to negotiate with Hulegu. Then in December he submitted before Hulegu. Those within the castle refused to give up so easily and it had to be taken by force. Hulegu moved on to the other fortresses, likewise taking them out. The Assassins were executed by the thousands under the ruse of a census call. After the Caliph refused to submit, Hulegu marched to Baghdad. He laid siege to the city until al-Musta’sim surrendered. After he revealed the location of the secret treasury, he was executed. A general slaughter began. Over 80,000 were massacred. The only survivors were Christians, who were protected by special order, and a few lucky citizens who were never found in their cellar hiding places. It was said that on one side street, forty newborn infants were found whose mothers were now dead. In an act of grim mercy, they were all killed. From Baghdad, Hulegu continued through Syria to wage war on the remaining Ayyubid Sultans.
Diplomacy between the Mongols and the West of a cordial, but uncertain manner occurred during Hulegu’s Middle Eastern campaign, when he actively sought an alliance with the Frankish Crusaders. Reactions were mixed. Bohemond VI of Antioch surrendered to the Mongols and even participated in their assault of Ba’labakk. In return, lands previously taken by the Ayyubids were given to Antioch. Crusaders further to the south were more hesitant, realizing how much of a threat the Mongols could be. They requested help from the kings of Europe while sending gifts to Hulegu’s general, Kitbuga. Kitbuga’s sack of Sidon in 1260 seemed to turn the Crusaders against the Mongols, and they actually helped supply the Mamluk Sultan’s troops. The Great Khan Mongke died on August 11, 1259 and two kuriltai were held by brothers Arigh Boke and Qubilai. Each was elected Khan by his supporters. As a result, Hulegu was compelled to withdraw eastward in case he needed to intervene. Meanwhile, Kitbuga moved on the Mamluks. At Ayn Jalut on September 3, 1260, Kitbuga, operating without his scouts, encountered Baybars. He pursued him into the hills where a superior Mamluk force surrounded them. Kitbuga was defeated, thus ending Mongol expansion in the Middle East and saving Islam.
The Mongol Empire was in the process of breaking up into its respective parts. In Persia, the Hulegu’s heirs ruled as the Ilkhans of Persia, in theory subordinate to Qubilai, but in practice the operated independently. Further north, the Russian princes continued to be dominated by the faction known as the Golden Horde. The Ilkhans, now acting alone rather than as agents of a larger empire, continued to make sincere diplomatic overtures in Western Europe. Their hope was to renew the Crusading effort against the Mamluks. Unfortunately, the West could no longer muster the force to try bolstering its precarious position in Palestine. Louis attempted another Crusade in 1270, but was convinced to divert it to Tunis by Charles of Anjou, who had designs of his own. Louis died there and only a small force under Edward, soon to be Edward I of England made it to Palestine, where he made contact with the Mongols. His force was too weak and no coordinated Mongol-Christian assault came to fruition. In 1274, a party of Ilkhan envoys arrived at Pope Gregory X’s Council at Lyons and even had themselves baptized publicly as a sign of commitment to mutual support. Subsequent efforts to coordinate a campaign against the Mamluks all met with failure. In 1313, the last known embassy from the Ilkhanids met with Edward II of England. Seven years later, the Ilkhanids made peace with the Mamluks.
Since ancient times there have been connections between the distant civilizations of the world. The Mediterranean Sea, rather than an obstacle, was an immense network of exchange. So it was also with the coastlines of the Indian Ocean, from the southern tip of Africa to the East Indies. Even across the great expanse of inner Asia, trade networks arose, allowing products and ideas to make their way across the largest continent on Earth. For a brief period from the initial conquests of Genghis Khan to the breakup of the end of Mongke’s reign there existed a single Empire spanning the continent. The ripple effects of Mongol expansionism washed up against the edges of Western civilization, spilling over in places like Eastern Europe and Palestine, where Christian and Muslim interests intersected. The pressure of the Mongol campaigns had significant consequences in the politics of Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean. Early conceptions of the Mongols by the Latin West were dominated by the myth of Prester John. Europeans did not know how to connect the myth and the misleading reports of armies bearing white crosses with the shocking accounts of destruction and defeat. On the one hand, an apparently invincible military force seemed like an army of the Apocalypse. On the other hand, the prospect of another enemy of Islam offered the hope of a reversal of the gradual loss of the Crusader states. Only after the missions of Carpini, Rubrick, and others did a clearer picture emerge of the true nature of the Mongols. This learning process was riddled with false leads, as the Mongols could not comprehend the diplomatic overtures of Latin Christendom. The Khans mistook diplomatic ventures for acts of submission. Their ambivalence on religious matters confounded Westerners expecting Christian sentiment. Only in the latter half of the thirteenth century, when the major era of Crusading was on the decline did the Mongol rulers grasp the possibility of a joint effort against their enemies. By then the West’s position in the Levant was precarious at best. At the same time, the universal Mongol Empire was breaking apart. The sheer size of the Khans’ domain and the vast differences and cultural strength of the civilizations they conquered were too much of a strain on the Empire. Its various parts were subsumed into the civilizations over which they were superimposed. Contact with the Mongols in the thirteenth century did have its lasting effects. Never before had the West had been in such intimate contact with distant peoples. The missions sent by the Pope and by Louis IX brought back records of cultures across Asia. The culmination of this information gathering process was the journey of Marco Polo. The impressions gleaned of the peoples and geography of the East informed, or in some cases, misinformed, explorers during the age of discovery a few centuries later.
Peter Jackson, The Mongols and the West (United Kingdom: Pearson Education Ltd, 2005), 32
David Morgan, The Mongols (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1986), 55
Secret History of the Mongols, trans. Francis Woodman Cleaves (Harvard University Press, 1982), 14
Thomas T. Allsen, Mongol Imperialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 190
Morgan, 66
Morgan, 67
Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The Islamic Dynasties (Edinburgh University Press, 1967), 109
Morgan, 53
Kuchlug was pursued and killed by Jebei, a general who had once fought against Temujin in the tribal wars and actually brought down his horse with an arrow. See David Nicolle & Viacheslav Shpakovsky, Kalka River 1223 (London: Osprey Publishing, 2005)
Hugh Kennedy, Mongols, Huns, and Vikings—Nomads at War (London: Cassell & Co, 2002) 122
Allsen, 193
Allsen, 211
Francis Dvornik, Origins of Intelligence Services (New Brunswick, NJ: Quinn & Boden, 1974) 275
Dvornik, 276
Michael Prawdin, The Mongol Empire—Its Rise and Legacy, trans. Eden and Cedar Paul (London: Bradford and Dickens, 1961) 191
Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades vol. III (Cambridge University Press, 1951) 244-5
Prawdin, 192
Prawdin, 196, 197
Morgan, 49
Runciman, 246
Prawdin, 16
Morgan, 48
Jackson, 21
Runciman, 246
Prawdin, 15
Prawdin, 15
Runciman, 247
Prawdin, 16
Nicolle & Shpakovsky, 51
Nicolle & Shpakovsky, 16
Prawdin, 214
James Chambers, The Devil’s Horsemen (New York: Atheneum, 1985), 24, 25
Jackson, 59
Prawdin, 212
Prawdin, 211
Nicolle & Shpakovsky, 83
Runciman, 210
Runciman, 184
Runciman, 225
Friedrich Heer, The Holy Roman Empire trans. Janet Sondheimer (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1969) 83, 84
Jackson, 59
Jackson, 60
Christopher Dawson, Introduction to Mission to Asia (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), xiv
Jackson, 60
Kennedy, 114
Jackson, 67
Kennedy, 152
Mission to Asia-Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, trans. by a nun of Stanbrook Abbey, ed. By Christopher Dawson (New York: Harper & Row, 1966) xviii
Mission to Asia, 76
Mission to Asia, 86
Mission to Asia, 62
Mission to Asia, xvii
Mission to Asia, 2
R. A. Skelton, Thomas E. Marston, and George D. Painter, The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1965) 39
Skelton, 39
Jackson, 104
Runciman, 257
Saunders, J. J., The History of the Mongol Conquests (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1971) 97, 98
Lord de Joinville, Memoirs of Louis IX, King of France, commonly called Saint Louis, ed. Henry G. Bohm (London: Kegan Paul, 2004) 385
Prawdin, 296; Joinville, 385
Prawdin, 297
Runciman, 264. 265
Joinville, 479-481
Mission to Asia, xxi
Prawdin, 304
Runciman, 300
Runciman, 303
Jackson, 117
Jackson, 117, 118
Jackson, 167
Bibliography
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The Asiatic steppes stretch from the edge of Europe, north of the Black Sea, to Manchuria, in the east. This corridor of prairie land cannot sustain sedentary cultures, and has for time immemorial been inhabited by various nomadic herders. Steppe nomadic life was not entirely self-sustaining. Through contact with more civilized neighbors they obtained grain and metal products and through contact with forest dwelling peoples to the north they obtained furs. The steppe nomad spent much of his life in the saddle. From an early age, he learned to ride and to use the bow. A lifetime of herding and hunting from horseback made him an excellent horseman and trained his mind for military cavalry maneuvers. His incredible ability to shoot arrows from the saddle was thanks his skill and to the composite or reflex bow. Made of several pieces of joined bone, its curved shape and small size made it quick, powerful, and able to be used while riding. Being on the move for much of the time also made the steppe peoples tough and able to deal with a variety of weather conditions. If given enough cause and adequate leadership, these nomads could become a powerful military force. Throughout history, the more advanced civilizations on either end of it were occasionally harassed by these peoples. Conflict somewhere in the steppe would typically result in the mass migration of confederations of tribes outward, putting them in direct, often violent contact with sedentary civilizations surrounding them. The Huns that destroyed the Roman Empire, struck deep into India, and possibly appeared in China (known as the Hsiung-nu), are one such example. The Mongol expansion into China, across the steppes, and into the Middle East and Europe is a result of the monumental effort and unparalleled military expertise of one man—Genghis Khan.
The date of Genghis Khan, born Temujin, is unknown. One Chinese source places it in 1162. Other traditions put it at 1167. He was said to have been born at the moment his father, Yesugei Ba’atur, returned from fighting the Tatars with Temujin Uge as prisoner, and it is from this event that he is supposed to have gotten his name. It is also said that at his birth he held in his right hand a clot of blood “the size of a knuckle bone,” a prophetic sign of his future career. He was born into a group of clans known as the Mongols, one of several such feuding tribes on the outskirts of the Chin Empire. The Chin Empire was established by a Manchurian people called the Jurchen in the 1120s. They displaced the Khitans, another people of the central steppes, who had extended their rule over China. One Khitan prince fled to establish the Qara-Khitai (or “Black” Khitai) Empire to the west. Between Qara-Khitai and the Chin Empire lay Hsi-Hsia (Xixia), an empire established by the nomadic Tanguts. The invasion of north China by these outsiders had driven the native Sung dynasty, who had ruled over China in the latter half of its Golden Age, far to the south. Chinese culture dominated East Asia and much of Central Asia, but at the time of Temujin’s rise to power it was divided into three political entities. While Temujin was still a boy, his father was murdered by the rival Tatars. Leadership of the clan fell to others, while Temujin and his mother were cast aside. Gradually he acquired enough of a following to take a leadership position among the Mongols. He married Bortei, of the Qonggirat tribe, and allied himself with Toghril, the leader of the Keraits. It was in the interests of the Chin government not to allow any of the surrounding tribes to gain too much power, and they shifted their alliance from the Tatars to Keraits. With Temujin’s help, Toghril defeated the Tatars and received the title of Wang, or “prince”, by the Chin Emperor. Temujin received the title of Chao-churi, or “warden of the marches.” Toghril was eventually overthrown by Temujin and killed by the Naimans, leaving Temujin to gather further support and conquer the remaining tribes. For the most part, these other tribes were conscripted and absorbed under the Mongol banner.
In 1206, a kuriltai, or assembly of the clans, was held near the Onon River. Here it seems Temujin received the title of Genghis Khan (or Chinggis Khan). From here, Genghis Khan began his conquest of the world. The nest few years were spent subduing remaining opposition tribes and subjugating the rulers of Hsi-Hsia. In 1211, he began the long campaign against the Chin that would not be fully completed until after his death. Loot may have been the initial purpose of the attacks. China had always been a prime target of barbarian raids. These raids, however, evolved into a full-fledged campaign. It was here that the Mongol military force first gained experience with siege warfare. It soon acquired teams of Chinese engineers that would be essential in the Mongols’ future success. The Chin dynasty was a foreign power, and many native Chinese were willing to throw in their lot with the Mongols. Chung-tu, the Chin capital, fell in 1215.
Farther to the west, another power was growing in power and territory. Khwarazm is a region on the Oxus River, near the Aral Sea. It was brought under Muslim domination in the 8th century. In the 11th century, it was ruled by the Seljuks, as they advanced westward into the Abbasid realm. Governors of the area took the title Khwarazm-shah, and were able to exercise independent rule. After 1141, the Khwarazm Shahs were forced to accept nominal rule by Qara-Khitai after it defeated Seljuk ruler Sanjar in 1141. Ala-ad-Din Muhammad ruled Khwarazm at the beginning of the 13th century and began a policy of expansion. By 1215, he had conquered most of Persia, Transoxania, and Afghanistan. Qara-Khitai, meanwhile, had become weak and decentralized. Khwarazm-shah Muhammad’s empire itself was still in a state of consolidation when the Mongols invaded it. At the time, its armies were in scattered garrisons and still adjusting to the tensions between the Qipchaq mercenaries and the native Persians. In 1209, forces of the Khwarazm Shah and Genghis Khan had encountered each other during a Mongol pursuit of fugitive Merkits. Despite their initial clash, harmonious relations with each other were in both of their interests, as both rulers had troubles with Qara-Khitai. In 1211, Kuchlug , a Naiman enemy of Genghis Khan had seized control and began a campaign against Muhammad. Muhammad’s relations with the Mongols, however, soon turned sour.
At Otrar, a city on the edge of Muhammad’s empire, a caravan of 450 merchants arrived. The governor of the city executed them and seized their property, judging that they were Mongol spies. Genghis Khan was outraged and sent envoys to the Khwarazm-shah, demanding that the governor be punished. Instead, he executed one of them and shaved the beards off of the others. Such an affront to the Great Khan and to the sacrosanct position of ambassadors triggered the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazm-shah’s domains and the complete destabilization of the Middle East.
Our sources of information during this period are limited. The Secret History of the Mongols does not survive in its original form, but it translation. Other sources include Persian historian Ala-ad-Din Ata Malik Juvaini’s History of the World Conqueror (finished in 1260) and Rashid al-Din’s Jami al-Tavarikh. Neither of these was written during the life of Genghis Khan, but they do offer an early view of the still-pagan 13th century Mongols. A contemporary of Juvaini, Juzjani, offers a far less flattering picture of Genghis Khan. The Georgian Chronicle and the Primary Russian Chronicle offer accounts of the Mongol presence in Europe. In the years after the invasion of Europe, the travelers John of Plano Carpini, William of Rubruck, and Marco Polo offer later accounts. Several other missionaries’ accounts survive, along with the letters of the Papal and Mongol embassies.
The system of organization in the Mongol army was known as the Great Yasa. In order to break up loyalties to the individual tribes under his command, he gave out positions of command on the basis of merit rather than previous tribal leadership. From then on, command of units passed from father to son, but not if a son proved incompetent. All adult males of the nomad peoples served in the military. Certain portions of households were to provide actual fighting men, while others were to provide support. The army was divided according to a decimal system made up of the mingham (one thousand men), which were further grouped into tumen (ten mingham). Rarely were these units operating at full capacity. The mingham came to be graded according to minimum numbers of 3,000, 5,000, or 7,000. Mongol armies brought with them siege machine engineers, bridge-builders, and other specialists. Scouts preceding Genghis Khan’s army fanned out in all directions, providing intelligence of the local terrain, the people, and the enemy. He also initiated the postal system, wherein jams or stations were to be built at intervals of one days ride across the empire and equipped with up to twenty horses, food, and water. Mongol campaigns were thusly conducted with nearly all contingencies in mind. Their commanders thought, not in terms of the next city or river, but in terms of thousands of miles, a scale necessary for the conquest of the world.
In 1219, Khwarazm-shah Muhammad bore the brunt of this highly organized force. Part of the Mongol forces besieged Otrar, while the main body marched to Bokhara. Another part moved to meet Muhammad’s forces at the Ferghana pass. Bokhara fell in February, 1220, Samarkand in April. Genghis Khan would settle for no less than the death of the Khwarazm-shah. Generals Jebei and Subodei pursued the frightened and paranoid Muhammad across his collapsing empire. With the Mongols right on his heels, Muhammad barely escaped to an island in the Caspian Sea, where he died. Meanwhile, Genghis Khan pursued Muhammad’s son Jelal ad-Din through Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush Mountains. Jelal ad-Din gathered a military force from the remains of the Kwarazm Empire. Anti-Mongol sentiment arose in the form of assassinations of Mongol-appointed native officials. At Merv and Nishapur, only several hundred skilled artisans of the male population were spared. The siege at Herat lasted months before the city capitulated, only to revolt again. For this insolence, the entire population was massacred. A Mongol force of 2,000 returned later to search for survivors and slaughtered 3,000 more. It is said that only 40 people from the city and surrounding suburbs managed to survive, and this out of a city where over 100,000 had been garrisoned. Meanwhile, Jelal ad-Din involved himself in a quarrel among his vassals and the offended prince left with his men, thus leaving his master without adequate support. At the banks of the Indus River, the Khwarazm army was defeated. Jelal ad-Din himself cut his way through the Mongol forces, seized back the captured colors, and fled to a cliff overlooking the river. He leapt in and swam to safety. On the other side, he gathered together a military force strong enough to subjugate a number of Indian tribes and compel the king of Dehli to give him his daughter in marriage. This would not be the end of Jelal ad-Din. He would soon return to attempt a reconquest, and his actions would have effects reaching all the way to the Christian world.
Early Western conceptions of the Mongols are inextricably tied to their religious character. Central Asia of the 13th century was a fascinating religious mix. Buddhists, Nestorian Christians, Muslims, and even Manichaeans could be found among the former Qara-Khitai Empire. Genghis Khan’s sons had married Kerait princesses who were Christian. The Khan himself continued to follow the pagan shamanist beliefs of the Mongol tribes, but he consulted Muslim advisors, Christian priests, and Taoist sages. On religious matters, he tolerated all faiths in his empire, as long as they recognized him as their earthly ruler.
Reports of the Mongols’ apparent partiality toward Christians and of his war on the Muslim Khwarazm-shah seem to have raised hopes of Christians farther west that Genghis Khan was out to destroy Islam. Already there had developed by the time of the Second Crusade the myth of Prester John, a Christian king to the east who would one day rescue the Holy Land. C. F. Beckingham suggests that the Qara-Khitai victory of Seljuk Sultan Sanjar served as the basis for this legend. In any case, the existence of Nestorian Christians, and even Christians in positions of leadership, farther to the east gave at least a shred of credence to this notion. In the 1160s, a “Letter of Prester John” circulated through Europe and was translated from Latin into several vernacular languages. The belief had largely faded, by the 13th century, but the appearance of a new, unknown power revived the myth. A letter by Pope Honorius III (1216-1227), dated June 20, 1221, mentions forces from the Far East on the way to rescue the Holy Land. The Pope’s hopeful letter was based on a report from Jacques de Vitry, Bishop of Ptolemais, who also sent similar messages to Duke Leopold of Austria, King Henry III of England, and even to the University of Paris. In his messages, Vitry claims that the Caliph of Baghdad, then at war with the Khwarazm-shah Muhammad, had asked the Nestorian Patriarch of Baghdad to contact the “King David of India,” the grandson of Prester John, and request that he come to his aide. The fact that in Februray 1221 Jebei and Subodei had defeated the Christian King George IV of Georgia was explained by the Georgians being heretical Christians. The name “King David,” along with a copyist’s incorrectly writing “rex Indoum” as “rex Judeoum,” caused excitement among Jews in Europe. This news certainly briefly raised the spirits of the forces of the Fifth Crusade mired at Damietta, who would nevertheless surrender later that year. The first time the Latin West learned of the Mongol invasions, they took it as news of the approach of a Christian ally. Soon enough, however, their perception of the Mongols would become something far different.
As the Mongol forces completed the destruction of the Khwarazm dominion, Subodei was ordered to lead an expeditionary force northward, through the Caucuses. He and Jebei were given three years to gather information about the peoples to the north. In 1222, their force of 30,000 headed north into the realm of the Qipchaqs (or Polovtsians). During their journey, their guides escaped, while the Qipchaqs, having heard of their approach, sent an army to the Caucuses. Subodei sent an embassy to the Qipchaq khan, assuring them that they did not intend to attack The ploy worked, and while the Qipchaq forces returned home, the Mongols raided the villages of the north Caucuses. After replenishing their supplies, the Mongol army surprised and defeated the Qipchaqs near the Don River. Khan Koten fled to his brother-in-law, Prince Mstislav Mstislavich of Galicia to plead for aid against the “Tatars,” as the Mongols were known. Subodei and Jebei divided their forces, with Jebei waiting at the banks of the Don and Subodei moving southwest. After wintering north of the Crimea, the Mongol army under Subodei captured Sudak, a Genoese trading post that the Seljuk Sultan of Rum had recently claimed for himself. Its fortress was burned and the survivors escaped in galleys to Italy, bringing news of the destructive capabilities of this mysterious Tartar force and again reporting the appearance of white crosses among their ranks. It is while raiding the Azov coast that James Chambers claims that Subodei entertained Venetian merchants and entered into a secret agreement wherein the merchants would send reconnaissance reports to the Mongols and in exchange, the Mongols would destroy rival trading stations and therefore aiding the Venetians in taking back their trade monopoly. The Venetians also agreed to spread whatever propaganda might aid the Mongols. Meanwhile, at the urging of Mstislav, the Russian princes gathered their forces near the town of Zarub, south of Kiev. A Mongol embassy tried to convince the Russians that the Mongols did not want to invade Russia and that they should abandon their Qipchaq allies. The ploy did not work and the ambassadors were killed, thus infuriating Subodei. The Russian forces moved east, assembling on an island on the Dnieper River. In mid-May, 1223, they pursued some detachments of the Mongol advance guard, which retreated. On May 31, they attacked Subodei’s main force at the Kalka River. The Russians combined army collapsed under assault from three sides. Jebei and Subodei drove the scatted Russians back. The Mongol forces then turned back. Their expedition was complete and it was time to report back.
The first encounter with the Mongols had been a terrible loss for the Russians, but this was merely the beginning. In 1236, Batu would launch a full-fledged campaign against the Russian princes. Even then the Russians were still disorganized and unprepared for the invasion. By then reports had trickled westward of the Mongols’ exploits. In 1222, Queen Rusudan wrote to Honorius III, reporting that no Georgian forces could be sent to aid the Fifth Crusade because of their encounter with the Mongols. The Georgian cavalry had been preparing to march on the Holy Land. They pursued with Subodei’s forces straight into an ambush by Jebei and were destroyed. Her letter does not reveal the entire truth of the situation:
A savage people of Tartars, hellish of aspect, as voracious as wolves in their hunger for spoils and as brave as lions, have invaded my country. They must be of Christian origin, since they carry an oblique white cross on their banners. The brave knighthood of Georgia has hunted them out of the country, killing 25,000 of the invaders. But, alas, we are no longer in a position to take up the Cross as we had promised Your Holiness to do.
In truth, the Mongol force left to continue reconnoitering. Michael Prawdin asserts that Subodei carried emblems featuring white falcons that were mistaken for crosses. This would be the source of endless misunderstanding about the Mongols and heavily influenced Western conceptions of them.
Meanwhile, Genghis Khan himself had returned to Central Asia to deal with a recalcitrant Hsi-Hsia ruler who had not contributed his assigned allotment of troops to the Western campaign. The expeditionary force of Jebei and Subodei made their way to link up with Jochi. Along the way, they were compelled to retreat from the staunchly Muslim Volga Bulgars and defeated the Qangli Turks north of the Aral Sea. Jebei died of fever before the force made it to Genghis’ camp. The Chin had not been completely subdued, and the threat of a Hsi-Hsia alliance with the Chin forced Genghis to shift his attention back to the Far East, giving Jelal ad-Din an opportunity to return. In 1225, he reappeared to retake much of his father’s former domain, even extending his authority over the Caliph of Baghdad and posing a potential threat to the Ayyubid rulers further west. After Genghis’ death in 1227, Ogodei became the next khagan. He concluded the subjugation of the Chin. Only in 1231 did a Mongol army under Chormaqan return to drive him away to eastern Anatolia. He was killed by a Kurdish peasant whose brother he had executed. The remainder of his military force occasionally raided northern Syria, until they would become a mercenary force in the wars of the quarrelling Ayyubids.
The family of Saladin ruled Egypt and Syria. Al-Kamil ruled Egypt, al-Mu’azzam ruled in Damascus, and al-Ashraf ruled Jezireh. They had successfully defeated the Crusader force in Damietta, but their alliance soon fell apart. As a result of al-Mu’azzam’s recognition of Jelal ad-Din as suzerain, al-Kamil sent an envoy to Frederick II in Sicily in the hopes of organizing another Crusade against his brother. Al-Kamil was even prepared to give Frederick Jerusalem upon the completion of a successful campaign. Then in November 1227, al-Mu’azzam died and was succeeded by his son, an-Nasir. Al-Kamil seized the opportunity to try to take control of an-Nasir’s territory. Al- Ashraf and al-Kamil secretly made arrangements to defeat their nephew. An-Nasir got wind of it and escaped to Damascus. Then Frederick arrived with a force two small to launch a serious campaign, but enough to serve as a bargaining chip. He negotiated with al-Kamil the return of Jerusalem and Bethlehem and a peace treaty for ten years. Frederick and representatives of Sultan al-Kamil signed the treaty on February 18th, 1229. After having temporized for so long about fulfilling his promise to go on Crusade, he managed to obtain Jerusalem without a fight. Ten years later, when the treaty expired, the Ayyubids were once again fighting amongst themselves. The Khwarazm cavalry, still occupying parts of northern Syria, came under the service of as-Salih Ayub. Ayub, the Egyptian ruler was once again battling the prince of Damascus, Ismail. The Templars played each side off the other until finally aligning themselves with Ismail, who had the support of an-Nasir, now ruling Kerak, and al-Mansur Ibrahim of Homs. Against this alliance, Ayub had no option but to turn to the Khwarismians. They attacked Damascus in June 1244, but were unable to take it. From there they moved on to Jerusalem, this time managing to break into the city. Despite vicious street fighting, the Crusader garrison held out until an-Nasir’s troops arrived. He agreed to give the Franks safe passage to the coast if they would surrender the city. About six thousand left Jerusalem. On the way to Jaffa, several of them noticed that Frankish flags were raised on Jerusalem’s towers. Thousands returned to the city, believing a Crusader force had arrived. They were killed at the city walls. The remaining body continued to Jaffa only to be killed by Arab raiders. Out of the six thousand, only three hundred made it to safety. In October, a combined Crusader and Damascene army gathered at Acre to march on Ayub. Just outside of Gaza, the combined army was routed by the Egyptians and Khwarismians. Over the next few years, the Crusaders were ousted from their Palestinian possessions and Ayub took control over Damascus. The Khwarazm cavalry, unsatisfied with Ayub, switched sides, but were themselves destroyed by Egyptian forces. The loss of Jerusalem made the urge for another Crusade, already being preached by the Pope’s agents, all the more pressing. The Ayyubid wars and the ripple effects of the final defeat of Jelal ad-Din would once again draw forces from Western Europe into the Middle East.
The Europe of the early 13th century had hardly been putting up a unified front against its Muslim enemies. Pope Innocent III (1189-1216) was perhaps the greatest of the medieval popes. Aside from his role as spiritual head of Catholic Europe, he involved himself in more earthly affairs. In the ongoing struggle between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire, Innocent intervened in the succession of the throne. First he supported Otto of Brunswick, crowning him in 1209, but later excommunicated him when he refused to uphold papal claims to lands in Italy and planned to invade Sicily. Innocent then turned his support to Frederick Hohenstaufen, who became master of both Germany and Sicily. Innocent’s successors would regret this turnaround, as Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II had the Papacy hemmed in from the north and south. Frederick had his own issues. In 1234, his son Henry revolted along with the Lombards and died a prisoner of his own father. Near the end of his life, his illegitimate son Enzio, King of Sardinia, was taken prisoner by the Bolognese. The Latin West was still in the era of its great enthusiasm for crusades. The First Crusade had captured the Eastern Mediterranean coast, establishing four Crusader States. Over time, however, pressure from Muslim powers, and the violation of political agreements between the Crusader States and Muslim rulers by successive waves of zealous crusaders led to the loss of most of that territory. The Fourth Crusade had been a rousing success, except that it had been directed against Christian Constantinople on the insistence of Philip of Swabia, his brother-in-law the deprived clamant to the Byzantine throne, and Doge Enrico Dandalo of Venice. In 1204, the Crusaders sacked Constantinople and set up Alexius the brother-in-law as Emperor of what would be known as the Latin Empire. The remaining Byzantine forces established their government at Nicaea. The Venetian involvement in Fourth Crusade came as a result of competition with the Genoese, who had cut in on their trade at Constantinople and the Black Sea region beyond. The most recent military Crusade at the time of the Mongol invasion, the Fifth, was directed against Ayyubid Egypt and was a failure. East of central Europe, the land of the Rus was also in a state of division. Kiev, formally the political and cultural center of Russia, had been raided by growing Russian powers to the north. Such was the state of the collection of small kingdoms on the far end of Eurasia.
By the 1230s, it seems the Papacy was familiar with the destruction of the Mongols and that the term “Tartar” was already being associated with “Tartarus,” the Greek conception of Hell. In 1239, Queen Rusudan asked the Pope for help against the Mongols, who were once again invading. In 1237, Batu, by way of a Hungarian Dominican, sent a message to King Bela IV of Hungary, demanding that he submit. Most unexpectedly of all, in 1238, Assassins of northern Persia sent embassies to the England and France with propositions of a Christian-Muslim alliance. Prester John, one theory held, had been killed by his armies in revolt.
Batu’s forces entered Russian territory in the winter of 1237, which allowed their horses to cross the frozen rivers with ease. One by one, the disorganized principalities were defeated. By 1240, Kiev had fallen. Apparently, by this time quite substantial information about the Mongols had reached the West. As their forces approached the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick II tried to elicit support from his fellow European rulers. He even describes the ability of the Mongol horses to find food among the bark and leaves of trees and from roots. Frederick’s request may also have been motivated by a desire to gain allies against his enemies—not simply the Mongols, but also the Pope, who had called for a crusade against him. From Volynia, Batu moved into Hungary and sent a part of his army into Poland. In March, King Bela learned that they had broken through the fortified Carpathian passes. It was reported that even in the snow, the Mongol cavalry was moving at up to fifty miles per day. What he did not know was that another force under Subodei was moving up the Danube from the south. Batu’s army feigned at retreat, and Bela’s forces left Buda to pursue them. Meanwhile, Subodei moved around behind them. On April 11, Bela advanced his larger army advanced against Batu’s smaller one, only to find himself cut off from behind by Subodei. The Hungarians set up a fortified camp. The Mongols responded by bombarding it with artillery, until Bela and much of his army fled through a gap in the Mongol line. A contingent of the Knights Templar stayed behind to be slaughtered to a man. On March 24, the northern Mongol forced burned Krakow, which had been abandoned by most of the populace. On April 9, Henry, Duke of Silesia with a force of Teutonic Knights, Templars, and Hospitallers was defeated at Liegnitz. Two days later, Batu defeated the Hungarians again at Mohi, and began pursuing Bela to the Dalmatian coast. The assault on Europe ended only because news reached Batu of Khan Ogedei’s death, which would require the members of the family of Genghis Khan to return to Karakorum to settle the issue of succession.
Elsewhere, the Mongols made further inroads westward. In 1242, the Seljuk Sultan Kaikhosrau was campaigning in Jezireh in an attempt to capture the Khwarazm territories left leaderless by Jelal ad-Din’s death. He ran into a Mongol force under Baichu. After several defeats, the Sultan submitted to Mongol suzerainty. Fearing an assault by Baichu, Hethoum, King of Armenia submitted as well.
By the time of the European invasion, the image of the Mongols had evolved from Prester John into something like the armies of Hell. Yet, diplomatic relations between Western Europe and the Mongol horde continued. Mongol advances into Europe had largely halted due to disputes between the various branches of Genghis’ family. In 1245, Pope Innocent IV sent Franciscan ambassadors John of Plano Carpini (Pian di Carpine) and Lawrence of Portugal to the “Emperor of the Tartars.” They carried two letters—the first an impassioned entreaty to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Son of God and savior, and the second a request that he “for the future desist entirely from assaults of this kind and especially from the persecution of Christians, and that after so many and such grievous offences you conciliate by a fitting penance the wrath of Divine Majesty, which no doubt you have seriously aroused by such provocation.” Guyuk Khan, Mongol ruler at the time, responded thusly: “Thou thyself, at the head of all the Princes, come at once to serve and wait upon us!”
Aside from the diplomatic stalemate, the Carpini mission did bring to the West valuable information. Carpini made his way through Poland to the Asiatic steppes. He knew nothing of the languages of the East, nor how he would be treated by the Mongols. They reached the camp of Batu’s brother Orda. From there they raced to Karakorum, where, on July 22, 1246, a kuriltai was held to proclaim Guyuk successor to his father Ogodei. Ogodei had died in 1241 and his widow acted as regent until she secured the throne for their son. Thus Carpini was able to record valuable information about Mongol culture and the extent of their conquests. Present at the kuriltai were thousands of envoys from all over Asia. Among them were Russian princes, including Yaroslav of Suzdal, father or Alexander Nevski, several tribal chiefs, “also two sons of the King of Georgia, the ambassador of the Caliph of Baghdad, who was a Sultan, and more than ten other Sultans of the Saracens,” writes Carpini. Guyuk was made Khagan on August 24, and a week of festivities followed. Carpini returned by way of Batu’s camp and Kiev. Along the way, several Russian princes gave them letters to be given to the Pope, accepting his authority and the supremacy of Rome. Carpini’s account, known as Historia Mongalorum (History of the Mongols) was incorporated into Vincent of Beauvais’ encyclopedic work, Speculum Historiale. Thus it became the primary source of information on the Mongols. Along his return journey, Carpini writes that “people through whom I passed in Poland, Bohemia, Germany, Liège, and Champagne were so pleased with the present treatise that they copied it down before it was complete, as I had not yet had the leisure enough to finish it fully.” It seems Carpini stopped to give lectures on his journeys. Friar Salimbene, a chronicler Carpini met outside of Lyons wrote that Carpini “wrote a great book about the deeds of the Tartars and caused this book to be read aloud, as I myself saw and heard, whenever he found it too laborious to tell the story; and when the readers were astonished or did not understand, he himself expounded or discussed matters of detail.” Thus first-hand knowledge of the Mongols was disseminated among the literate of the West for the first time and much of Carpini’s account found its way into other historical records.
In the same year as Carpini’s return, Pope Innocent IV sent a group of Dominican friars on another mission to the Mongols. Their purpose was to demand the end of hostilities against Christian kingdoms. After an initially cold reception by general Baichu, Aljighidai, an envoy of Guyuk, arrived on the scene. The Mongol Empire was turning its attention to the Middle East, and recognized the advantage of having an ally. Aljighidai sent Christian envoys to meet Louis IX. Thus lasting diplomatic relations were established between the Mongols in the Middle East and the crusading king. Louis’ zeal had its origin in what he believed was a miracle from God. Late in 1244, the same year as the fall of Jerusalem, Louis became ill. On his deathbed, he promised God he would take up the Cross if his life was spared. His health miraculously returned, and he immediately set about fulfilling his oath. He would become known as the most pious monarch in medieval history. At Lyons the following summer, Pope Innocent, after having dispatched Carpini eastward, held a Council. The main purpose was to drum up support against Frederick II, who had forced him out of Rome. Also discussed was the Mongol problem. Innocent allowed Norwegian duke Cnut to substitute a campaign against the Mongols in Hungary instead of against the Muslims in Palestine in fulfillment of his vows. Louis refused to involve himself in a war with Frederick. His oath had been to fight the infidels and the heretics. Reluctantly, the Pope blessed his effort. For the next three years he prepared for his Crusade, exacting heavy taxes in order to pay for it all. The target was Egypt, which was still the center of Muslim power. Meanwhile, Frederick was passing information about Louis to the Egyptian court. Louis left in August 1248 with among others, his ambitious brother Charles of Anjou.
In December, 1248, Louis arrived at Cyprus. There he was met by the two Nestorian envoys, Mark and David, sent by Aljighidai. They reported that the great Khan Guyuk had been baptized and was concerned about the Christian cause. Both Christian and Muslim sources record that Guyuk was baptized, a prospect made more probable by the fact that his mother was a Christian. They also reported that several high ranking officials were inclined toward the Christian faith. The chronicler Joinville writes that “the cham of Tartary sent him word that he was ready and at his command to assist him in the conquest of the Holy Land, and to deliver Jerusalem from the hands of the Saracens and Pagans.” Overjoyed, Louis sent a mission under Andrew of Longjumeau back to Karakorum. They carried with them a portable tent-chapel. It was “of fine scarlet cloth, very rich,” with gold trim and embroidered scenes from the life of Christ. He included an altar and a splinter, supposedly from the true Cross. Unfortunately, by this time, Guyuk was already dead. It is doubtful that he seriously considered himself a Christian. Upon arriving in Karakorum, the mission encountered Guyuk’s widow, Oghul Qaimish, now acting as regent. She accepted the gifts from the King of the Franks as a sign of his subjection to Mongol supremacy. She reminded the envoys of their King’s duty to send such tribute each year. She sent the envoys back with some gifts, including an asbestos cloth that would not catch fire, which Louis sent to the Pope. This incident helped to dispel misconceptions that the Mongols were on the side of Christianity. Yet, Louis did not give up hope that they might be willing to make an alliance of convenience against their common enemies.
After much delay at Cyprus, Louis departed for Egypt on the 30th of May, 1249, and arrived at Damietta on June 4. Sultan Ayub’s forces under Fakhr ad-Din could not keep the Franks from establishing a beachhead. He found the garrison at Damietta in a state of panic and ordered an evacuation. On June 6, the Crusader force entered the undefended city, now without most of its Muslim population, which fled with the army. Ayub, now dying of illness, offered to exchange Jerusalem for Damietta. Louis rejected the offer. In November, the Frankish army moved out of the city toward Mansourah, where the Sultan and his forces waited. Ayub died on November 23, but his widow concealed his death with the help of Fakhr ad-Din and the palace eunuch Jamal ad-Din Mohsen until Ayub’s son Turanshah could be brought from Jezireh. In February 1250, the Franks caught the Egyptians camped outside Mansourah by surprise. Fakhr ad-Din was killed in the battle. With his death there was no leader for the Mamluk Egyptian force. Mamluks were slaves, mostly from the Black Sea region, who served the Sultan as warriors. Slavery for them was an opportunity, as they rose to positions of substantial power. One such Mamluk, Rukn ad-Din Baybars, took control of the Egyptian force. The Frankish force under Robert of Artois entered the city of Mansourah expecting to defeat the remaining Mamluks. Instead, they were caught by surprise in the narrow streets and only five managed to escape. By the end of the month, Turanshah arrived. The Egyptians continued to put the squeeze on Damietta, capturing the Frankish ships attempting to replenish the city’s food supply, which led to starvation and disease. Louis and his forces were captured while trying to break out. He was forced to give up the city and pay a sum of a million besants as ransom. The Crusade had failed, but it would have unforeseen consequences. The Egyptian Mamluks were angry at Turanshah, who was about to replace them with his own Mamluks from Jezireh. In May, Baybars and the Egyptian Mamluks killed Turanshah. Egypt under Mamluk rule would soon confront the Mongol invasion of Syria.
After his defeat, Louis IX was still determined to launch a Crusade to the Holy Land. He also never gave up on the possibility of an alliance treaty with the Mongols nor the prospect of encouraging the spread of Christianity among the Mongols. This was in spite of the report of the Longjumeau mission. Joinville records a strange account relating to the Prester John myth. He writes that the Tartars were forced to pay tribute to Prester John, the emperor of Persia, and several other kings. Finally they rose up against Prester John and forced him to submit to their rule. A prince of one of the Tartar tribes however, had a vision in which a “king seated on a throne of gold” told him to order the “cham of Tartary” to praise God for granting him Prester John’s nation. Afterward they defeated the “emperor of Persia.” This cryptic tale probably alludes very real Christian presence in Central Asia particularly among the Keraits. The Prester John myth did not die, however. He shows up again in later accounts, this time in the unexplored regions of Africa. As a follow up mission, Louis sent William of Rubrick and Bartholomew of Cremona to Karakorum as his ambassadors with the chief purpose being to “preach the work of God and to instruct men to live by His will.” Rubrick arrived at the Great Khan Mongke’s court toward the end of 1253. He gained an audience with the ruler and a promise to aid Christians to the west as long as they recognized his suzerainty. This was as good a diplomatic concession as he was going to get. Nevertheless, his account of his journey offers another in depth look into Mongol society prior to the breakup of the Empire.
Mongke had become Khagan in 1251. He assigned his brothers their respective fiefs. Qubilai was assigned to the East with the task of completing the conquest of the Southern Sung Empire. Hulegu was given the tasks of destroying the strongholds of the Hashishim, or Assassins in northern Persia and subjugating the Caliph of Baghdad. The Caliph was at least in name the master over the entire Muslim world. The Caliphs were the successors to Muhammad himself. After the Prophet’s death, a series of four Caliphs oversaw the expansion of Arab rule and of Islam, until the succession became the hereditary privilege of the Umayya clan of Mecca. In the middle of the eighth century, they were overthrown and nearly the entire family was massacred. Replacing them was the house of ‘Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet. The Abbasids held on to the Caliphate all the way until the 13th century. At the time of Hulegu’s campaign, al-Musta’sim was the current Caliph. Though the Caliphs were considered the titular heads of Islam, their power was soon stripped away by other factions. The only factions in Islam that did not recognize the authority of the Caliphs were the Shiites. The Shiites were originally supporters of Ali, the fourth Caliph, and his descendents. Later, other doctrinal differences developed between the Shiites and Orthodox Islam. The Assassins were one such Shiite faction. Founded in 1090 by Hassan ben Sabbah, the sect holed up a well-protected valley south of the Caspian. They specialized in political murders and it is from them that we derive the word “assassin.” Genghis Khan’s own son Jagatai had been one such victim of the Assassins’ speciality.
Hulegu marched into the valley of the Assassins in 1257. Their Grand Master, Rukn ad-Din Khurshah, upon seeing the overwhelming force approaching the citadel at Alamut, at first tried to negotiate with Hulegu. Then in December he submitted before Hulegu. Those within the castle refused to give up so easily and it had to be taken by force. Hulegu moved on to the other fortresses, likewise taking them out. The Assassins were executed by the thousands under the ruse of a census call. After the Caliph refused to submit, Hulegu marched to Baghdad. He laid siege to the city until al-Musta’sim surrendered. After he revealed the location of the secret treasury, he was executed. A general slaughter began. Over 80,000 were massacred. The only survivors were Christians, who were protected by special order, and a few lucky citizens who were never found in their cellar hiding places. It was said that on one side street, forty newborn infants were found whose mothers were now dead. In an act of grim mercy, they were all killed. From Baghdad, Hulegu continued through Syria to wage war on the remaining Ayyubid Sultans.
Diplomacy between the Mongols and the West of a cordial, but uncertain manner occurred during Hulegu’s Middle Eastern campaign, when he actively sought an alliance with the Frankish Crusaders. Reactions were mixed. Bohemond VI of Antioch surrendered to the Mongols and even participated in their assault of Ba’labakk. In return, lands previously taken by the Ayyubids were given to Antioch. Crusaders further to the south were more hesitant, realizing how much of a threat the Mongols could be. They requested help from the kings of Europe while sending gifts to Hulegu’s general, Kitbuga. Kitbuga’s sack of Sidon in 1260 seemed to turn the Crusaders against the Mongols, and they actually helped supply the Mamluk Sultan’s troops. The Great Khan Mongke died on August 11, 1259 and two kuriltai were held by brothers Arigh Boke and Qubilai. Each was elected Khan by his supporters. As a result, Hulegu was compelled to withdraw eastward in case he needed to intervene. Meanwhile, Kitbuga moved on the Mamluks. At Ayn Jalut on September 3, 1260, Kitbuga, operating without his scouts, encountered Baybars. He pursued him into the hills where a superior Mamluk force surrounded them. Kitbuga was defeated, thus ending Mongol expansion in the Middle East and saving Islam.
The Mongol Empire was in the process of breaking up into its respective parts. In Persia, the Hulegu’s heirs ruled as the Ilkhans of Persia, in theory subordinate to Qubilai, but in practice the operated independently. Further north, the Russian princes continued to be dominated by the faction known as the Golden Horde. The Ilkhans, now acting alone rather than as agents of a larger empire, continued to make sincere diplomatic overtures in Western Europe. Their hope was to renew the Crusading effort against the Mamluks. Unfortunately, the West could no longer muster the force to try bolstering its precarious position in Palestine. Louis attempted another Crusade in 1270, but was convinced to divert it to Tunis by Charles of Anjou, who had designs of his own. Louis died there and only a small force under Edward, soon to be Edward I of England made it to Palestine, where he made contact with the Mongols. His force was too weak and no coordinated Mongol-Christian assault came to fruition. In 1274, a party of Ilkhan envoys arrived at Pope Gregory X’s Council at Lyons and even had themselves baptized publicly as a sign of commitment to mutual support. Subsequent efforts to coordinate a campaign against the Mamluks all met with failure. In 1313, the last known embassy from the Ilkhanids met with Edward II of England. Seven years later, the Ilkhanids made peace with the Mamluks.
Since ancient times there have been connections between the distant civilizations of the world. The Mediterranean Sea, rather than an obstacle, was an immense network of exchange. So it was also with the coastlines of the Indian Ocean, from the southern tip of Africa to the East Indies. Even across the great expanse of inner Asia, trade networks arose, allowing products and ideas to make their way across the largest continent on Earth. For a brief period from the initial conquests of Genghis Khan to the breakup of the end of Mongke’s reign there existed a single Empire spanning the continent. The ripple effects of Mongol expansionism washed up against the edges of Western civilization, spilling over in places like Eastern Europe and Palestine, where Christian and Muslim interests intersected. The pressure of the Mongol campaigns had significant consequences in the politics of Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean. Early conceptions of the Mongols by the Latin West were dominated by the myth of Prester John. Europeans did not know how to connect the myth and the misleading reports of armies bearing white crosses with the shocking accounts of destruction and defeat. On the one hand, an apparently invincible military force seemed like an army of the Apocalypse. On the other hand, the prospect of another enemy of Islam offered the hope of a reversal of the gradual loss of the Crusader states. Only after the missions of Carpini, Rubrick, and others did a clearer picture emerge of the true nature of the Mongols. This learning process was riddled with false leads, as the Mongols could not comprehend the diplomatic overtures of Latin Christendom. The Khans mistook diplomatic ventures for acts of submission. Their ambivalence on religious matters confounded Westerners expecting Christian sentiment. Only in the latter half of the thirteenth century, when the major era of Crusading was on the decline did the Mongol rulers grasp the possibility of a joint effort against their enemies. By then the West’s position in the Levant was precarious at best. At the same time, the universal Mongol Empire was breaking apart. The sheer size of the Khans’ domain and the vast differences and cultural strength of the civilizations they conquered were too much of a strain on the Empire. Its various parts were subsumed into the civilizations over which they were superimposed. Contact with the Mongols in the thirteenth century did have its lasting effects. Never before had the West had been in such intimate contact with distant peoples. The missions sent by the Pope and by Louis IX brought back records of cultures across Asia. The culmination of this information gathering process was the journey of Marco Polo. The impressions gleaned of the peoples and geography of the East informed, or in some cases, misinformed, explorers during the age of discovery a few centuries later.
Peter Jackson, The Mongols and the West (United Kingdom: Pearson Education Ltd, 2005), 32
David Morgan, The Mongols (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1986), 55
Secret History of the Mongols, trans. Francis Woodman Cleaves (Harvard University Press, 1982), 14
Thomas T. Allsen, Mongol Imperialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 190
Morgan, 66
Morgan, 67
Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The Islamic Dynasties (Edinburgh University Press, 1967), 109
Morgan, 53
Kuchlug was pursued and killed by Jebei, a general who had once fought against Temujin in the tribal wars and actually brought down his horse with an arrow. See David Nicolle & Viacheslav Shpakovsky, Kalka River 1223 (London: Osprey Publishing, 2005)
Hugh Kennedy, Mongols, Huns, and Vikings—Nomads at War (London: Cassell & Co, 2002) 122
Allsen, 193
Allsen, 211
Francis Dvornik, Origins of Intelligence Services (New Brunswick, NJ: Quinn & Boden, 1974) 275
Dvornik, 276
Michael Prawdin, The Mongol Empire—Its Rise and Legacy, trans. Eden and Cedar Paul (London: Bradford and Dickens, 1961) 191
Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades vol. III (Cambridge University Press, 1951) 244-5
Prawdin, 192
Prawdin, 196, 197
Morgan, 49
Runciman, 246
Prawdin, 16
Morgan, 48
Jackson, 21
Runciman, 246
Prawdin, 15
Prawdin, 15
Runciman, 247
Prawdin, 16
Nicolle & Shpakovsky, 51
Nicolle & Shpakovsky, 16
Prawdin, 214
James Chambers, The Devil’s Horsemen (New York: Atheneum, 1985), 24, 25
Jackson, 59
Prawdin, 212
Prawdin, 211
Nicolle & Shpakovsky, 83
Runciman, 210
Runciman, 184
Runciman, 225
Friedrich Heer, The Holy Roman Empire trans. Janet Sondheimer (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1969) 83, 84
Jackson, 59
Jackson, 60
Christopher Dawson, Introduction to Mission to Asia (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), xiv
Jackson, 60
Kennedy, 114
Jackson, 67
Kennedy, 152
Mission to Asia-Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, trans. by a nun of Stanbrook Abbey, ed. By Christopher Dawson (New York: Harper & Row, 1966) xviii
Mission to Asia, 76
Mission to Asia, 86
Mission to Asia, 62
Mission to Asia, xvii
Mission to Asia, 2
R. A. Skelton, Thomas E. Marston, and George D. Painter, The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1965) 39
Skelton, 39
Jackson, 104
Runciman, 257
Saunders, J. J., The History of the Mongol Conquests (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1971) 97, 98
Lord de Joinville, Memoirs of Louis IX, King of France, commonly called Saint Louis, ed. Henry G. Bohm (London: Kegan Paul, 2004) 385
Prawdin, 296; Joinville, 385
Prawdin, 297
Runciman, 264. 265
Joinville, 479-481
Mission to Asia, xxi
Prawdin, 304
Runciman, 300
Runciman, 303
Jackson, 117
Jackson, 117, 118
Jackson, 167
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