The Impact of Mongol Invasion on the Muslim World and the Political, Economic and Social Ramifications

Abstract

The Mongol invasion of the Muslim world began in 1217 and continued upto 1305. The Mongols, after conquering north and east Iran, eventually embraced Islam as their religion. The Mongol empire changed after converting to Islam that helped to bring unity to their empire. Mongols made Persian and to some extent Turkish as their language and rebuilt Iranian cities they destroyed. Mongols controlled the ‘Silk Road’ and turned it into a ‘unified trade road’ of ‘cultural diffusion and assimilation’. Finally, in 1260, the Muslim Mamluks were able to defeat the Mongols in the battle of ‘Ain Jalut’ in northern Palestine. However, the total destruction of the Islamic empire was completed in 1258 through the capture and raze of Baghdad by the Mongols and brought an end to the ‘Golden Age’ of Islam. The subversive impact continued for centuries and Muslims, never could get back to their lost glories. Muslims had remained subdued for centuries and their economy and culture were at ruins. The ramifications were non-repairable, irreplaceable and insurmountable as the centre for education and scientific research was being shifted to the west. Muslim societies remained crippled for centuries and were turned into a class of rudimentary traders and workers. Majority of the Muslims, in a mixed society, were trounced down with a very limited access to higher education and prestigious jobs. However, with the retreat of the Mongols and the emergence of the ‘Ottoman Empire’, Muslims could regain some of their lost glories but never to become a unified power as it was in the pre-Mongol era. It was the converted Mongols that embraced Islam and assimilated into local cultures, who, in turn, had tried to reconcile, influence and strengthen the Muslim ‘Ilkhanates’ or regions. It is a fact that not much research has been done on negative impacts of Mongol invasion on Muslim population in the past, which, in turn, has motivated in undertaking this research.