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Based upon both Arabic and Chinese sources, this study is an attempt to examine the consequences of the Mongol invasion of social, and economic conditions have been surveyed briefly in the Baghdad. It has been commonly accepted that the Mongols destroyed c - the once prosperous civilization of the Abbasid Dynasty (132-656/ 750-1258) and were responsible for the backwardness bf the Muslim world today,. that they massacred all the people of Baghdad, devastated the countryside, burned its libraries, and above all, that they destroyed the irrigation canals--the life line of 1esopotamia. All these allegations are now found to be without foundation, for medieval Muslim historians failed to observe the declining conditions of the latter c Abbisids while laying too much stress on the prosperous side of its earlier period. In order to have a clearer picture of the decline of the c Abbasids, the political, first chapter where it is shown that long before the Mongol invasion of Baghdad, the once great Empire had already been in trouble and that its downfall was only a matter of time. The elimination c - of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad only accelerated this process. c - Having established that the Abbasid Dynasty was no more than the ghost of its past glories, an attempt was made to show that the Muslim authorities tended to exaggerate the number of people massacred and the devastation of the cities wrought by the invaders. No contemporary authorities supply us with any figures , which were only even by later chroniclers whose estimates became larger as time elapsed. In fact, not only did the Mongols contribute very little to the devastation of Baghdad and its countryside, but they also kept its administration intact, albeit on a much smaller scale as a result of its being reduced from the metropolitan city to a provincial capital. c - Under the Mongol rule, al- Iraq soon regained The Mongols in Persia were not the destroyers of the Mustoe prosperous conditions of its past through reconstruction of silted canals and the promotion of trade. However, the policy of the Mongols in Persia was hindered by worsened relations with their cousins--the Mongols of the Golden Horde, and of the Chagatai -- on the one hand, and the continuous threat posed by Mamluk Egypt on the other hand. The Mongols in Persia were not the destroyers of the Muslim civilization, but helped to spread Islam to the peripheral areas of the Muslim worlds This was the result of their impartial policy towards religions Although Christians and other religious groups were placed in an equal position with the Muslims' the latter suffered little suppression. In fact, the Mongols were finally converted to Islam. In conclusion, the study calls for further study of the subject on a broader perspective so that a true picture of the Mongol invasion of the Muslim world may be achieved. |
