Iraq under the Mongols
The Mongol Il-Khans (1258-1335)
At the time of an-Nasir's death in 1225, the
Mongols under Genghis Khan (d. 1227) had already
destroyed the state of the Khwarezm-Shahs and conquered
much of northern Iran. The armies of the 'Abbasid caliph
al-Mustansir (1226-42), an-Nasir's
grandson, managed to drive off a Mongol attack on Arabian
Iraq. Under his son, al-Musta'sim (1242-58), the
Mongols laid siege to Baghdad in 1245 without
success. A series of terrible floods in 1243, 1253, 1255, and 1256
undermined the defenses of the city, the prosperity of the region, and the
confidence of the populace.
In 1258 Baghdad was invested by a major Mongol
force commanded by the non-Muslim Hülegü, a grandson of
Genghis Khan, who had been sent from Mongolia
expressly to deal with the 'Abbasids. The city fell on
Feb. 10, 1258, and al-Musta'sim was executed shortly
thereafter. Although the Mamluk sultans of Egypt
and Syria later raised a figurehead or "shadow" caliph in
Cairo, and after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt
in 1517 the Ottoman sultans used the title caliph
until the Ottoman "caliphate" was abolished by Mustafa Kemal
(Atatürk) in 1924, the death of al-Musta'sim--the
last universally recognized caliph--in fact represents the end of this
great Islamic religion-political institution.
Physically much of Baghdad was destroyed, and it is
said that 800,000 of its inhabitants perished.
Administratively the city was relegated to the status of a provincial
centre. Other cities in Arabian Iraq, such as Al-Hillah,
Al-Kufah, and Basra, readily came to
terms with the conqueror and were spared. In Upper Iraq, Mosul
was made the capital of the provinces of Diyar Bakr and
Diyar Rabi'a. These provinces, like Arabian Iraq, were
dependencies of the new Il-Khan Mongol polity, which was
based in Azerbaijan. (The Il-Khans in turn were nominally
subordinate to the Great Khan in China.)
Although Baghdad may have retained a certain symbolic
aura for Muslims, the city of Tabriz in
Azerbaijan rapidly replaced it as the major commercial and
political hub of the region. Mongol rule in
Baghdad and Mosul generally took the form of a
condominium consisting of a Muslim, Christian,
or Jewish civilian administrator seconded by a
Mongol garrison commander.
Although under the Muslim Juvayni family of
Khorasan (1258-85) there is some evidence that Baghdad
began to recover somewhat from the devastation it had suffered at the
hands of the Mongols, in general Iraq experienced a
period of severe political and economic decline that was to last well into
the 16th century. Later on, despite the conversion to Islam of the Il-Khan
Mahmud Ghazan (1295-1304) and the centralizing reforms of
his minister Rashid ad-Din (d. 1318), according to one
source, state or diwan revenues in Arabian Iraq fell from more than 30
million dinars in pre-Mongol times to 3 million in 1335-40.
Jalayirids (1336-1432)
Mongol tribe that supported the Il-Khan Hülegü's
rise to power and eventually provided the successors to the Il-Khan
dynasty as rulers of Iraq and Azerbaijan.
A Jalayirid dynasty made its capital at Baghdad
(1336-1432).
Hasan Buzurg, founder of the dynasty, had served as
governor of Anatolia (Rum) under the Il-Khan Abu
Sa'id (reigned 1317-35). Following the death of Abu Sa'id,
Hasan Buzurg competed for real control of the empire with
his rival, the Chupanid amir Hasan Kücük
("the Small," so designated to distinguish him from Hasan Buzurg,
"the Great"); they set up rival khanates. Soon afterward the empire broke
down into local dynasties in Anatolia, Iran,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia.
Hasan Buzurg had, meanwhile, established his line in
Baghdad, from which he conducted his agitation against
the Chupanids. His son The most prominent of the
Jalayirids, Sheikh Uways (1356-74) finally wrested
control of Azerbaijan from the Süldüz Chupanids in 1360,
creating a polity based on Arabian Iraq and Azerbaijan. He enlarged
Jalayirid domains by seizing Azerbaijan (1360) and
placing the Mozaffarid principality of Fars
under his suzerainty (1361-64). In addition to this and other military
exploits, he fostered trade and commerce and won renown as patron of
poetry, painting, and calligraphy. He also undertook a number of
architectural projects in Baghdad.
The dynasty, however, was beset by the westward migrations and
invasions of various Turkic and Mongol
tribes. The khans of the Golden Horde, successors of
Batu, unsuccessfully attempted the conquest of
Azerbaijan in 1356-59. The later Jalayirids,
however, dissipated their energies in fruitless foreign adventures and
fratricidal struggles.
During the reign of Sultan Ahmad Jalayir (1382-1410),
Timur (Timur Barlas, or Tamerlane), a new conqueror from
Central Asia, took Baghdad and Tikrit in
1393. Forcing Sultan Ahmad to leave Baghdad
and seek the protection of the Mamluks of Egypt
until Timur's death in 1405. Although Sultan
Ahmad was able to reoccupy his capital briefly, Timur
again besieged and sacked Baghdad in 1401,
dealing it a blow from which it did not recover until modern times.
Timurid administration in Arabian Iraq, first under
Timur and later under his grandson Abu Bakr,
was sporadic and short-lived: they controlled the area during the years
1393-94, 1401-02, and 1403-05. After Timur's death,
Sultan Ahmad Jalayir regained Baghdad
for a time, but in 1410 he was killed in a dispute with his former ally,
Kara Yusuf (1389-1420), chief of the Kara Koyunlu
(Black Sheep) Turkmen tribal confederation from eastern
Anatolia, who had just driven the Timurids
out of Azerbaijan. The remnants of the Jalayirid
dynasty were pushed south to Al-Hillah, Wasit,
and Basra. They were finally extinguished by the
Kara Koyunlu in 1432.
