Rise of the Turks Turks and Persian Support Crusaders and Mongols

 The family, Umayyads, came to power in the 7 th century and soon moved the Muslim capital to Damascus  Umayyids did not lead simple lives, but surrounded themselves with wealth and pomp  These actions gave rise to a fundamental division in the Islamic faith  In interest of peace, Muslims accepted the Umayyads, but resist did fester and later spawned violence and division  Rebel groups led violent opposition to the Umayyads  Umayyads lost power to the Abbasids by 750

 Abbasids came to power and murdered the Umayyad family (only one family escaped, went to Spain)  Berbers, Muslim armies from Northern Africa, had already conquered Spain by 750  Abbasids moved Muslim capital to Baghdad, Iraq which was located on key trade route  Abbasids developed a strong bureaucracy to conduct affairs, manage money flow and manage an army

 The Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean were two major trade networks  Water and land networks allowed Muslim Empire to engage in trade with Europe and Asia  Muslim merchants needed only to know Arabic to travel the empire  Muslim money changers were set up throughout empire  Banks offered letters of credit that could be exchanged for cash at any bank throughout Muslim empire  European called these letters “Checks”

Extent of Abbasid Control Southern Spain IraqIran Egypt Byzantine

 Abbasids constantly struggled to maintain control of their empire  Spain broke away from Abbasid control by 756  Abbasids lost their control of Morocco, Tunisia, parts of Persia and Egypt by mid-9 th century  Persians invaded Baghdad in 945, but Persians also lost grip of power to the Turks

 Chinese have written records of people called Tu-Kiu living west of their borders (as early as 1300 BCE)  The Tu-Kiu may well have been Turks (scholars are uncertain)  Nomads rode horses, herded goats and sheep and lived in tents  The Abbasids came in to contact with the Turks and took note of their military skills  Abbasids bought Turkish children; raised them as slaves, soldiers and bodyguards  In the tenth century Turks began migrating into the Abbasid empire and converting to Islam  The migrating Turks were known as Seljuks and they eventually grew powerful enough that they conquered Baghdad from the Persians in 1055  By 1071 the Turks were powerful enough that they occupied most of Anatolia from the Byzantines

 Seljuks worked for the support of Persians in order to receive loyalty in return  Turks appointed Persians as gov’t officials and also showed admiration for Persian learning.  Seljuks arrived basically illiterate and were unfamiliar with the tradition of Islam which they adopted  Seljuks looked to Persian subjects for guidance in language, arts and way of life  Seljuk leaders (like Malik Shah) had mosques built throughout empire  Arabic was kept alive by Qur’an scholars (The Turks’ preference for Persian culture led to almost complete disappearance of Arabic language in Persia)

The Great Mosque, Isfahan, Iran. Built during the time of Malik Shah

The Diyarbakir Great Mosque (Armenia); city was ruled by Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Arab Armies, Turks; Mosque was originally a church, then a mixed-use church and mosque and then rebuilt into mosque under orders of Malik Shah in 1091.

 After Malik Shah’s death in 1092, no capable Shah took his place  The Seljuk empire began to disintegrate into loose collection of small kingdoms  At this time, the West launched counterattack against the Turks and other Muslims for control of the Holy Land in the Middle East (known as the Crusades)  Pope Urban II launched the first Crusade in 1095  He called on Christian kings and knights to drive Turks out of Anatolia and recover Jerusalem  Christians captured Jerusalem in 1099 and killed the Jewish and Muslim inhabitants  Muslims recaptured the city in 1187 and signed an agreement with King Richard I of England  Jerusalem will remain under control of the Muslims, but western Christians were granted pilgrimage access to holy places  Popes and Kings will continue to call for Crusades to the Holy Land, well into the 13 th century, but Turks were able to withstand European invasions

 Mongols were a nomadic tribe from Asian steppes  They grew into unified force under Ghengis Khan by the early 1200s  They conquered China and swiftly moved through Russia and western Asia  By 1258, Ghengis’s grandson Hulagu, led forces to the outskirts of Baghdad  Mongols besieged Baghdad for 50 days, built catapults and laid waste to the city with stones, fire and arrows  Halugu finally took the city and killed thousands of people  The last Abbasid caliph was wrapped in carpet and trampled to death by horses  Warrior Mongols knew little about administration and their empires crumbled after a few decades  A new Turkish empire will come out of this: the Ottomans  Ottomans will build an empire that will last into the 20 th century