The Mongols

Abstract

The Mongol invasion¹ began in the autumn of the year 1219. Devastating everything in its path, it brought the natural development of the lands it passed through to a halt for a long time. In the territories inhabited by Iranian peoples the conquest took place in two stages. The first, led by Chingiz-Khān, was directed towards the northern (Central Asiatic) districts which were defended with great courage but with little political forethought by the Khvārazm-Shāhs Muhammad and Jalālu’d-dīn. The Mongols advanced victoriously as far as Tiflis. In unprecedented fashion they laid waste the countries that had been brought to such a flourishing state of cultivation. Unprecedented too was the butchery perpetrated among the native population; and this was no haphazard savagery, on the contrary it was all well thought out and organised. By their bestial behaviour Chingiz-Khān and his myrmidons intended to terrify the subjugated peoples and weaken them so radically as to prevent them from ever again being able to summon up the courage to effectively resist the invader. By about 1250 the Mongols were in control of Central Asia, Khurasan, Sistan, Mazandaran, the Persian districts of Iraq, Azerbayjan and other countries. The south and south-western lands were left intact because the Atabegs of Fars, the Karakhitaīs of Kirman and the rulers of Luristan lost no time in surrendering to the aggressor and becoming tributary subjects. Yet this Mongol invasion did not injure the strong hearth of resistance that the Ismā‹īlitic Alamūb proved to be. Central Asia with the adjacent territories and Iran were absorbed into the vast empire of the Great Khans, whereby Central Asia fell to the share of Chaghatay, while Persia was allotted to the Golden Horde, although in point of fact Persia was ruled directly by the governors appointed by the Great Khan until the middle of the 13th century.

An erratum to this chapter is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-3479-1_48