HISTORYAT A GLANCE |
INVASIONS OF THE
MONGOLS AND TAMERLANE
After the death of Malik Shah in 1092, Iran once again reverted to petty
dynasties. During this time, Genghis (Chinggis) Khan brought together a number
of Mongol tribes and led them on a devastating sweep through China. Then, in
1219, he turned his 700,000 forces west and quickly devastated Bukhara,
Samarkand, Balkh, Merv, and Neyshabur. Before his death in 1227, he had reached
western Azarbaijan, pillaging and burning cities along the way.
The Mongol invasion was disastrous to the Iranians. Destruction of qanat
irrigation systems destroyed the pattern of relatively continuous settlement,
producing numerous isolated oasis cities in a land where they had previously
been rare. A large number of people, particularly males, were killed; between
1220 and 1258, the population of Iran dropped drastically.
Mongol rulers who followed Genghis Khan did little to improve Iran's
situation. Genghis's grandson, Hulagu Khan, turned to foreign conquest, seizing
Baghdad in 1258 and killing the last Abbasid caliph. He was stopped by the
Mamluk forces of Egypt at Ain Jalut in Palestine. Afterward he returned to Iran
and spent the rest of his life in Azarbaijan.
A later Mongol ruler, Ghazan Khan (1295-1304), and his famous Iranian vizier,
Rashid ad Din, brought Iran a partial and brief economic revival. The Mongols
lowered taxes for artisans, encouraged agriculture, rebuilt and extended
irrigation works, and improved the safety of the trade routes. As a result,
commerce increased dramatically. Items from India, China, and Iran passed easily
across the Asian steppes, and these contacts culturally enriched Iran. For
example, Iranians developed a new style of painting based on a unique fusion of
solid, two-dimensional Mesopotamian painting with the feathery, light brush
strokes and other motifs characteristic of China. After Ghazan's nephew, Abu
Said, died in 1335, however, Iran again lapsed into petty dynasties -- the
Salghurid, Muzaffarid, Inju, and Jalayirid -- under Mongol commanders, old
Seljuk retainers, and regional chiefs.
Tamerlane, variously described as of Mongol or Turkic origin, was the next
ruler to achieve emperor status. He conquered Transoxiana proper and by 1381
established himself as sovereign. He did not have the huge forces of earlier
Mongol leaders, so his conquests were slower and less savage than those of
Genghis Khan or Hulagu Khan. Nevertheless, Shiraz and Esfahan were virtually
leveled. Tamerlane's regime was characterized by its inclusion of Iranians in
administrative roles and its promotion of architecture and poetry. His empire
disintegrated rapidly after his death in 1405, however, and Mongol tribes,
Uzbeks, and Bayundur Turkomans ruled roughly the area of present-day Iran until
the rise of the Safavid dynasty, the first native Iranian dynasty in almost
1,000 years.
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