Blog #4 Mongals

Islam emerged from the Arabian Peninsula, occupied by tribal nomads called Bedouins who were often engaged in some type of battle with one another. Mecca became home to many of the tribes, and Allah had become known as their God; Muhammad was Allah’s messenger. His teachings were written in the Quran which became Muslims sacred scriptures. Muhammad was a believer in social reform by all Muslim society, which directly challenged the commercialism in Mecca, encouraged was the practice of The Five Pillars. There was opposition to Muhammad and so he and followers emigrated to Medina, which interestingly was a turning point and marked the beginning of a new Islam calendar.  Members of his followings were included on belief rather than faith, which may allude to a more equal society. Muhammad eventually went back into Mecca and most of the Arabian Peninsula was under one rule. Muhammad was a political as well as religious leader.  The Arabs soon grew and began conquering the Byzantium and Persian empires. Islamic leaders wanted to gain territory to increase power and wealth, which seemed contradictory to what Muhammad had preached. Once Muhammad passed, a conflict erupted in the Muslim world, who would lead?  There was the Sunni and Shia Muslims and both believed they were entitled to the leadership within the religion and culture.

The Quran viewed woman as inferior and subordinate, women should be obedient to men. I don’t think it was different anywhere during this period in history, but this thinking is taken out of the Quran which, unfortunately many Muslims still believe in, so women still have a ways to go in equality.

It is interesting Islam was carried by the Turks to India. Many people that were lower class and did not experience the benefits of Buddhism and Hinduism gravitated towards the Muslim religion, although it was never more than 25% of the population of India. The Muslim religion also expanded through the trade industry and ended up in West Africa. The ripple effect of the trade industry was much more than just commerce, it also brought new culture and religion to different countries, and continents. Eventually Islam became a share religious culture compared to that of a political culture, but it did thrive as a civilization and spread globally.  It would seem that western civilization did not put Islam at the same status it had once been; and there seems to be division within the religion, but they all seemed to be grouped together as extremist. The Arab Empire had grown significantly but like we have seen in previous empires the competitiveness for power tends to weaken and diminish an empire. Mongol military conquered Baghdad; and although the empire weakened but the Islam civilization remained strong.

Mongols were pastoral nomads and settled in areas of Eurasia, Africa, Arabian and Saharan deserts. Because Mongols did not produce as much food as agricultural societies, the number of people in these communities was considerably smaller. The Mongols were pastoral nomads moving with the seasons, they did not farm and thus became dependent on the agricultural tribes for their produce.  They joined clans and tribes, and were not completely equal, some even had slaves, but women had a higher status than we have seen in other cultures. They had the role of caring for the family, but were also responsible for bringing in food and caring for the smaller animals.

Historians believe the strength in the Mongols came from the infamous leader Chinggis Khan, who took tribes small in number and created larger clans through “fictive kinship” which selected tribal allies as relatives to strengthen their size in number.  Each member of the tribe became warriors, even some of the women. They had an advantage over other cultures because of their expertise on horseback; referred to as mounted warfare; this gave them a strong advantage over the agricultural tribes.  They robbed and traded agricultural communities which brought wealth that would have been otherwise difficult to come by. They played a role in the weakening of the Chinese and Roman empires. They helped shape the Arab Empires by developing camel riding which gave the Arabs a military advantage in trade routes; Arab empire was referred to as a nomadic creation.

The Mongol Empire was not large in size compared to the Chinese and Roman, and they lacked any technological edge, but their armies were organized and disciplined. What Mongols lacked in size, Chinggis Khan possessed in cunning strategies. The armies were brutal and terrorized cities, but that was seen as an act of loyalty to Chinggis Khan, and their lives were spared from any destruction. The armies were loyal to their leader, and he compensated them from all of the wealth brought in from winning battles. Also, the individuals that were conquered became their laborers, building roads and bridges. They also taxed the communities in which they conquered. They invited all religions, as long as there was no opposition, but this enabled Christians and Muslims to strengthen their own numbers.

Some empires did not go down easily such as China, but the Mongols were instrumental in taking down Persia. These attacks were brutal in nature and when the Mongols assaulted the Russians from the edges of the steppes, they depleted many of the Russian crafts. Russia was of no use to the Mongols because the economy was so bad, but they exploited the Russians, with excessive taxation and sending thousands into slavery. The Mongols seemed ruthless like nothing seen before. Even though they dominated from a distance, the impact was severe, spilling over to other countries such as Germany. Who would have thought such a small army could be so devastating. It reminds me of the terrorism we see today. Certainly our forces or those of our allies should be able to wipe out the terrorist, but they operate at such an inhumane level, and know their terrain so well, it is difficult for civilized society to defeat them. Likewise, the Mongol empire was one of terror; the battles won were with brutality and lacked any sense of human feeling: how do you fight that?