Download PDF | Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260-1281 (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization) by Reuven Amitai-Preiss, Cambridge University Press 1995.
288 Pages
For some sixty years, commencing in 1260, the Mamluk state in Egypt and Syria was at war with the Ilkhanid Mongols based in Persia. This is the first comprehensive study of the political and military aspects of the early years of the war, the twenty-one-year period commencing with the battle of cAyn Jalut in Palestine in 1260 and ending in 1281 at the battle of Horns in northern Syria. Between these major confrontations, which resulted from Mongol invasions into Syria, the Mamluk-Ilkhanid struggle was continued in the manner of a 'cold war' with both sides involved in border skirmishes, diplomatic maneuvers, psychological warfare, ideological posturing, espionage and other forms of subterfuge.
Here, as in the major battles, the Mamluks usually maintained the upper hand, establishing themselves as the major Muslim power at the time. Using primarily contemporary Arabic and Persian sources, Reuven AmitaiPreiss sheds new light on the confrontation, examining the war within the context of Ilkhanid/Mamluk relations with the Byzantine Empire, the Latin West and the crusading states, as well as with other Mongol states.
Preface
This present study had its genesis as a Ph.D. dissertation, which was submitted to the Senate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in February 1990.1 wish to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to my supervisors, Professor David Ayalon and Dr. Peter Jackson, for having given unstintingly of their time and knowledge over a period of many years, even after my formal status as a student was ended. I would also like to thank the following: Dr. D.O. Morgan, for his sound advice and helping hand; Professor M. Sharon, for his encouragement and counsel over the years; Mr. A.H. Morton, who first introduced me to the Ilkhanid sources; Mr. R. Irwin, who contributed both helpful criticism and countenance, perhaps more than he is willing to admit; Professor U. Haarmann, who supplied me with an important microfilm at very short notice; Professor A. Khazanov, who read a very early version of chapter 1; Professor R.P. Lindner, for reading a draft of chapter 10.1 would also like to acknowledge the assistance of Professor E. Kohlberg for his advice regarding publishing this work. In addition, my thanks are due to Dr. Ellenblum for his translations from Latin, Professor M. Erdal for his help in transliterating Turkish and Mongolian names and terms, and Mr. D. Dector for assistance with Russian material. I am also grateful to Ms. Tamar Sofer and Ms. Noa Nachum of the Cartographic Laboratory of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for the maps which they produced for this volume, as well as to Ms. Sally Ayrton and Ms. Roza el-Eini for their careful reading of this study and their judicious comments. My wife Nitzan deserves special thanks for her continuous encouragement and support, along with her careful and critical reading of my text. The oft-repeated but ever-valid warning applies here: I alone am responsible for any mistakes or shortcomings contained in this study. I am grateful to the staffs of the following institutions for assisting my research: the Jewish National and University Library (Jerusalem); Hebrew University Map Library; Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies (London); Institute of Historical Research (London); Dept. of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books, the British Library; Bodleian Library (Oxford); Chester Beatty Library (Dublin); Topkapi Sarayi, Siileymaniye and Kopriiliizade Libraries (Istanbul); the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris); the Vatican Library; Princeton University Library; and the University of Pennsylvania Library (Philadelphia). Much of the revision of this work was done during the 1990-1 year as a visiting research fellow at the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.
I would like to thank the staff of the Department and its then chairman, Professor A. Udovitch, as well as Professor M. A. Cook, for helping to make my stay there so profitable. I would also like to express my gratitude to the following bodies which assisted in the financing of the research and writing of this study: the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Central Research Fund, Hebrew University; Golda Meir Fund (Jerusalem); Council for Higher Education in Israel. I am grateful to the following for permission to reproduce photographs: Professor M. Sharon, editor of Corpus Inscription Arabicarum Palaestinae (Jerusalem); Ms. Habie Schwarz (London); Libraire Orientaliste Paul Geuthner (Paris); Dr. T. A. Sinclair (London and Nicosia). I would also like to acknowledge the permission of Dr. D.O. Morgan to reproduce genealogical tables from his The Mongols (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986). I cite in this book sections from two of my articles, and express my gratitude to the publishers for permission to do so: al-Masaq: Studio Arabo-Islamica Mediterranea (vol. 3 [1990]), and Tarlh (vol. 2 [1992]). Finally, it is a special pleasure to thank the staff at Cambridge University Press, particularly the series editor, Marigold Acland, and the sub-editor, Margaret Sharman, for their diligent and professional work, as well as their patience and good grace. In conclusion, I would like to evoke the memory of the late Burton Barsky, my English teacher at Central High School in Philadelphia. The resemblance that this text has to standard written English is due largely to his stern teachings, for which I am ever grateful.
Introduction
The Mongols conquered the land and there came to them From Egypt a Turk, who sacrificed his life. In Syria he destroyed and scattered them. To everything there is a pest of its own kind.
Abu Shama (d. 1267)
For sixty years, commencing in AD 1260, the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria were involved in a more or less constant struggle with the Ilkhanid Mongols of Persia. During this period, the Mongols made several concerted efforts to invade Syria: in AD 1260, 1281, 1299, 1300, 1303 and 1312. With one exception, all the Mongol expeditions were failures. Even the one Mongol victory on the field, at Wadi al-Khaznadar in AD 1299, did not lead to the permanent Mongol occupation of Syria and the ultimate defeat of the Mamluks, as the Mongols evacuated Syria after an occupation lasting only a few months. Between these major campaigns, the war generally continued in a form which in modern parlance might be described as a "cold war": raids over both sides of the border, diplomatic maneuvers, espionage and other types of subterfuge, propaganda and ideological posturing, psychological warfare, use of satellite states, and attempts to build large-scale alliances against the enemy.
Here, as in the major battles, the Mamluks usually maintained the upper hand. Yet, in spite of a conspicuous lack of success on the part of the Mongols, they continued to pursue their goals of conquering Syria and subjecting the Mamluks, until their efforts began to peter out towards the end of the second decade of the fourteenth century. It was only then that the Mongols initiated negotiations which led to a formal conclusion of a peace agreement in AD 1323. The study of this conflict is essential to understanding both the Mamluk and Ilkhanid states. The early history of the Mamluk Sultanate is inextricably bound up with the Mongols. As will be seen, the establishment of the Sultanate was indirectly influenced by the early Mongol invasions of the Islamic world and the steppe region north of the Black Sea. The Mongols were the Mamluks' greatest concern in the realm of foreign relations during the formative first decades of the Mamluk Sultanate.
This was not only because the Ilkhanid Mongols were its greatest enemies, but also because the Mongols of the Golden Horde were its most important allies, not the least because it was from the territory of the latter that the vast majority of young mamluks were imported to the Sultanate.2 It is thus impossible to understand the development of the Sultanate without first analyzing the nature of the relationship with the Mongols.
The Ilkhanids, on the other hand, may have had more pressing matters on their minds than their conflict with the Mamluks, yet over the years it still remained a major concern, to which they repeatedly returned. If nothing else, an analysis of their failure to defeat the Mamluks should lead to a greater understanding of the Ilkhans and their army. Both the Mamluks and Mongols were military elites of Eurasian Steppe origin who ruled over large sedentary Muslim populations, and based their armies on disciplined masses of mounted archers. Yet fundamental differences existed between the two groups. First, the Mongols continued to maintain a tribal and pastoral nomadic way of life, whereas the Mamluks, born as pagans, had been plucked out of the nomadic environment, converted to Islam and functioned as an urban military caste. While the Mamluks were Muslims, the Mongols entered the Islamic world holding a mixture of Shamanistic, Buddhist and Eastern Christian beliefs.
The Mamluk sultans saw themselves as defenders of Islam and the Muslims, and portrayed themselves as such, whereas the early Ilkhans blithely killed the Caliph, destroyed mosques and sought alliances with local and Western Christians against the Muslims. Even with the eventual conversion of the Mongols to Islam, towards the end of the thirteenth century, the religious dimension of the conflict did not completely disappear. The purpose of this study is to present a political and military history of the Mamluk-Ilkhanid war from the first clash, at the battle of cAyn Jalut in AD 1260, until the second battle of Horns in 1281.
The plethora of evidence and the lack of space precluded dealing in a single volume with the entire war to 1320 and its subsequent resolution. It is my hope that in the future I will be able to publish further studies which will deal with Mamluk-Ilkhanid relations from 1281 to the demise of the Ilkhanid state in the 1330s. Previous scholarship For all the interest and importance of the Ilkhanid-Mamluk war, it has until now only been partially studied. The general works on Mamluk history in European languages - most noteworthy being those by G. Weil,3 P.M. Holt and R. Irwin5 - usually mention the war only in passing, perhaps discussing at length one of the battles or certain other aspects.
The same can be said of the surveys of Ilkhanid history, such as those works by A.C.M. D'Ohsson,6 J.A. Boyle,7 B. Spuler8 and D.O. Morgan.9 The standard narrative histories of the Crusades - by R. Grousset,10 S. Runciman11 and J. Prawer12 - discuss the Mongols only in as far as they are relevant to their central subject. This does not mean that these works are without value. They provide a historical framework in which to view the Mamluk-Ilkhanid war, and offer much information and many insights into the conflict itself. They do not, however, fill the need for a detailed study on the subject.
There are several specialized studies which have proved invaluable for this work. D. Ayalon, in a series of articles on the yasa, or Mongol law code,13 discussed some of the salient features of the conflict, while analyzing possible Mongol influence, including the yasa, on the Mamluks. Many of Ayalon's other studies supplied important relevant information. P. Jackson has given us two lengthy studies,14 which provide a clearer understanding of some of the important aspects of the early stages of the war. J.M. Smith, Jr.'s article on c Ayn Jalut15 is actually a wide-ranging study of the tactical and strategic sides of the war, among which he discusses Mongol logistical problems. D.O. Morgan16 has also written on this latter topic. A.P. Martinez17 has published a long and detailed study of the Ilkhanid army and the transformations it may have undergone.
Finally, P. Thorau's recent biography of Baybars18 has been extremely helpful, both in providing much useful background information and discussing Mongol-Mamluk relations. A preliminary study of the Ilkhanid-Mamluk war is F.H. cAshur's al-c Alaqat al-siydsiyya bayna al-mamalik wa'l-mughiil ft al-dawla al-mamlukiyya al-uld ("The Political Relations between the Mamluks and the Mongols during the First Mamluk Dynasty").19 Other studies will be mentioned in the course of this work.
Although I have at times disagreed with some of the points raised by several of these scholars, they are responsible for shedding much light on the conflict and helping to clarify my own thinking.
Sources20 This study is based primarily on contemporary or near-contemporary sources composed in the Mamluk (in Arabic) and Ilkhanid realms (in Persian, Armenian and - to a much smaller extent - Syriac and Arabic). Both Mamluk and Ilkhanid sources have been analyzed elsewhere,21 and therefore a lengthy discussion here would be superfluous. The following survey will be limited to remarks outlining the way in which the present study was conducted. First and foremost, there are three contemporary biographies of the Sultan Baybars, by Muhyl al-Dln Ibn cAbd al-Zahir (d. 692/1292), his nephew Shafic b. cAli (d. 730/1330), and Ibn Shaddad al-Halabl (d. 684/1285).
These works are rich in information relating to the conflict with the Mongols, but they are not without their problems. Ibn cAbd al-Zahir, a high government official, was essentially an official biographer of his employer. ShafT's work is more independent, but much of the time it is merely a compendium of his uncle's work. Ibn Shaddad, also a high official, is much less explicitly panegyrical than Ibn cAbd al-Zahir, and his work contains much unique information. Unfortunately, only the later part of his work is extant.
This is partially compensated for by the extracts from his work found in later chronicles. Ibn cAbd al-Zahir and ShafT both wrote biographies of Qalawun, which were also of some use. Mamluk chroniclers can be divided into several groups. First there are those writers who could be described essentially as late Ayyubid historians who continued to write into the Mamluk period: Ibn al-cAmid (d. 672/1273), Abu Shama (d. 665/1267), and Ibn Wasil (d. 697/1298). The work of the last mentioned writer, who concluded his chronicle in AH 660 (1261-2), was continued by his kinsman, Ibn cAbd al-Rahim up to AH 695 (1295-6). Next, there are two Mamluk writers who in their youths lived through the period dealt with in this study, but who wrote their works only at a later date: Baybars al-Mansurl (d. 725/1325) and al-Yunlnl (d. 726/1326).
These two authors relate information from earlier writers (those mentioned above), eye-witness reports, and their own youthful experiences of the conflict with the Mongols. Al-Yunini was one of the earliest of what could be called the Syrian school of fourteenth-century historians, a group which includes al-Jazarl (d. 739/1338), al-Birzall (d. 739/1339), al-Dhahabi (d. 748/1348), al-Kutubl (d. 764/1363), and Ibn Kathlr (d. 775/1373). I used extensively only the last three of these works. While repeating much of the evidence found in al-Yunlnf s work, all three add interesting information. Most of the relevant parts of al-Jazari's work have been lost,22 while the one manuscript of al-Birzall23 remained inaccessible to me. This is unfortunate, since these are both seminal works and had a direct influence on the rest of the Syrian historians, including al-Yunlnl.
The inaccessibility of these two manuscripts was partially mitigated by the extensive citation of these works, often by name, by both Syrian and other writers.24 Two other later chroniclers deserve mention: al-Nuwayri (d. 732/1332) and Ibn al-Furat (d.807/1405). For his annals relating to Baybars's reign, alNuwayri relies heavily on Ibn cAbd al-Zahir's biography. In a separate volume of his work, Nihayat al-arab, he also provides a treatise on the Mongols, which contains important information. Ibn al-Furat was one of the main sources of this study. Although he is a relatively late writer, he cites extensively, often naming his sources, both earlier writers and eyewitnesses. One of his most important sources was Shafic b. "All's no longer extant Nazm al-suluk, which appears to have been a vast repository of information on the events during the early Mamluk Sultanate. Ibn al-Furat also cited at length lost portions of Nuzhat al-anam, written by his younger contemporary Ibn Duqmaq (d. 809/1406). The importance of Ibn al-Furat's work is clearly seen when compared to Kitab al-suluk of al-Maqriz! (d. 845/1442).
The latter work has long been a mainstay of modern research in Mamluk and Crusader history, due to a large extent to both M.E. Quatremere's pioneering translation and M.M. Ziyada's excellent edition. However, a systematic comparison between the two works for twenty-two years of annals (AH 658-80), shows that, for this period at least, al-Maqrizfs work is virtually a precis of Ibn al-Furat's vast chronicle.25 This in itself would not be a bad thing, but al-MaqrizI often did his work in a haphazard manner, distorting the meaning of his source. This phenomenon will be seen to occur several times in this study. Among the other Mamluk authors repeatedly cited are the early fourteenthcentury writers, Ibn al-Dawadan and Qirtay al-Khaznadari, and the midfifteenth-century al-c Aynl (d. 855/1451) and Ibn Taghrl Bird! (d. 874/1470).
The former two writers were useful sources, but both (especially Qirtay), suffer from a credibility gap, as will be seen below. Professor Little,26 basing his study on research conducted on annals from a later period, has drawn attention to the importance of al-cAynI's work. Without detracting from this view, in the period covered in this study al-cAyni generally cited known sources, especially Baybars al-Mansurf s Zubdat al-fikra. This, however, is at times an advantage, for it helps us to reconstruct lost passages of this latter work. Ibn Taghri Bird! is important for his citation of passages from the lost parts of Ibn Shaddad's biography and the unavailable work of al-Jazari. This is not an exhaustive survey of all the Mamluk chronicles which have been used, but only of the most significant ones.
Additional annalistic works are cited on occasion, and provide important details. Besides the biographies and annalistic sources, extremely useful works include Ibn Shaddad alHalabfs historical geography al-Az laq al-khatira, the relevant sections of the encyclopedias by al-cUman (d. 749/1349) and al-Qalqashandl (d. 821/1418), and the biographical dictionaries of Ibn al-Suqac i (d. 726/1326) and al-Safadi (d. 764/1363). It is not uncommon for a piece of information which appears in one Mamluk source to be copied more or less exactly in several others. If every appearance of a particular detail or story were to be faithfully recorded, the result might be an unwieldy list of authorities.
Thus, in the notes I have usually given what seems to me to be the original source for a story and two or three additional sources which transmit it. These are generally arranged in rough chronological order; to emphasize the dependence of a particular writer on another, I use the word "whence." In the case of Ibn al-Furat's chronicle, most of which - at least for the part relevant to this study - is still only in manuscript form, I have always given the parallel (and generally shorter) passage in alMaqrlzi's Suluk. This is because of the wide availability of the edition of the latter, and the extensive use which it hitherto has enjoyed.
The pro-Mongol sources are divided into three groups. First are the Persian sources, the most important being Rashld al-Din (d. 718/1318). This writer served as a wazir to the Ilkhans, and it is clear that his work is not unaffected by his desire to please his employers. A second source is Wassaf (fl. 698-723/ 1299-1323), also employed by the Mongols, albeit in a more modest capacity. Wassaf provides some information on the war with the Mamluks, but it generally seems of a somewhat exaggerated or even fictional nature. This author's convoluted style makes the use of this work difficult at best. Other Persian sources of importance are Ibn Bibi (fl. 681/1283), for events in Seljuq Rum (Anatolia), and Juwayni (d. 681/1283), for background. The second group of pro-Mongol sources comprises the Armenian authors. These works have been consulted either in English and French translations from Armenian, or in the Old French originals of certain works.
The sources are especially important for the discussion of the role of Lesser Armenia. On occasion, however, they provide information on wider matters. The third group consists of two non-Persian sources from inside the Ilkhanid Empire: Bar Hebraeus (d. AD 1286) and the Arabic work questionably attributed to Ibn al-Fuwatl (d. 723/1323).27 The former, a Jacobite prelate, originally wrote his chronicle in Syriac (which was read here in translation), and later prepared a condensed version in Arabic. Finally, additional details have been provided from Frankish (i.e. European Christian) sources. As a final note, I should mention that most of the information at our disposal on the Mamluk-Ilkhanid conflict is derived from the pro-Mamluk Arabic sources. It is true that the corpus of Mamluk historical works is much larger than its pro-Mongol counterpart, and this might be one reason for this phenomenon, but I would suggest that other explanations are involved. I will return to this point in chapters 5 and 10.
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