The Mongols were known for unleashing a series
of unrelenting horrors upon the Islamic world, from the catastrophic destruction of the Khwarezmian
Empire to the sack of Baghdad. No shortage of Islamic authors over the thirteenth
century called the Mongols a punishment sent by God for their sins. Yet, many of the Mongols in the west of the
empire before the end of the thirteenth century converted to Islam, and in time some of the
heirs of Chinggis Khan held the sharia over the yassa. In today’s episode of our series on the
Mongols, we explore why so many Mongols chose to convert to Islam. The Mongols might have been religiously tolerant
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in the twelfth century as Islamic merchants brought valued goods such as textiles or metal
tools in exchange for furs and animals. At least two Muslims, Hasan and Ja’far Khoja,
were among Chinggis Khan’s close allies during his escape to lake Baljuna, where they
swore loyalty to him. As Chinggis Khan expanded the Mongol Empire,
initially Muslims found little reason to lament it. Muslim merchants continued to serve in prominent
roles, acting as emissaries and spies on behalf of the Khan, who rewarded them and encouraged
them to make the difficult journey to Mongolia. When Chinggis Khan’s great general Jebe
Noyan entered the Tarim Basin in 1218 pursuing their fleeing foe Kuchlug, he proclaimed that
all those who willingly submitted were free to worship as they chose. The region swiftly threw out Kuchlug’s garrisons
and accepted Mongol rule, not as conquerors but liberators. The next stage of Mongol expansion was not
so well received. The highly destructive conquest of the Khwarezmian
Empire resulted in the deaths of millions across what is now Uzbekistan through eastern
Iran and Afghanistan. Though most of Iran submitted peacefully to
the Mongol Noyan Chormaqun over the 1230s, with the arrival of Hulegu in the 1250s a
new wave of massacres were unleashed, culminating in the sack of Baghdad in 1258 and death of
the ‘Abbasid Caliph, an immense blow the psyche of the ummah. At the end of the 1250s, it seemed that soon
the whole of the Muslim world would become the subject of the Grand Khan. The initial period after the Mongol conquest
was, for many Muslims, not easier. Claims of Mongol religious toleration have
been greatly over-exaggerated and coloured by our modern perception of the term. While it is true that the Mongols generally
did not persecute on the basis of religion, the Mongols did persecute specific beliefs
they saw as contrary to steppe custom and the laws of Chinggis Khan, the great Yassa. These infractions, such as halal slaughter
or washing of dirty things in running water, resulted in Mongol oppression. Both Chinggis Khan’s son Chagatai in the
1230s and Khubilai Khan in the 1280s forbade halal slaughter on pain of death. A Khwarezmian refugee to the Delhi Sultanate
writing around 1260, Juzjani, wrote of his sincere belief that Chagatai and other members
of the Mongol leadership intended a genocide of the Muslims. Why did Islam succeed in converting the Mongols
of western Asia, after such a low point? It was a matter of proximity. The majority of the population in the major
centers in the Golden Horde, Ilkhanate, and Chagatai Khanate were Muslims, ensuring that
not only could Sufis and others proselytize to the Mongol leadership, but also their military. Efforts by Buddhists or various Christian
representatives, be they Catholic, Syriac or Nestorian, lacked comparable resources,
and their efforts were generally restricted to attempting to convert the highest-ranking
Mongols. While this brought them some influence, in
contrast to the image in most historical narrative sources monarchs tended to convert once enough
of their followers had done so for it to be a sound decision for their legitimacy. More Mongols simply had closer proximity to
Muslim populations than they ever did Christian or Buddhist, leading to a more thorough conversion
than any Franciscan friar could ever accomplish. Similar proximity prompted the slow sinicization
of the Mongols in Yuan China. The Mongols also found Muslims very useful. Islamic craftsmen, administrators, and healers
were quickly spread across the Mongol Empire, accompanying every Khan and Noyan on campaigns
and in their camps. In short order they commanded armies, often
of their own locally raised forces, to fight for the khans. The various Islamic peoples of Central Asia,
be they Turkic or Iranic, provided a plethora of skills and manpower the Mongols lacked. By the reign of Ogedai, Muslims were many
of the highest-ranking members of the bureaucracy. Mahmud Yalavach, his son Mas’ud Beg, and
‘Abd al-Rahman, served as heads of the Branch Secretariats the Mongols established to govern
Central Asia and China. These men were answerable only to the Great
Khan. The presence of many Islamic jurists in Chinggisid
courts is well attested, and a merchant with fiscal ability could be richly rewarded in
lucrative ortogh arrangements with Mongol princes. The Mongol search for skills they saw as useful
particularly rewarded Muslims with aptitude in alchemy and astrology. The Khans of the Ilkhanate spent considerable
sums on alchemists who claimed to be able to produce gold or prolong life, much to the
chagrin of the Ilkhanate’s viziers. Astrologists who could determine the future
also received great rewards, for the Mongols put great stock in this. The duties of Mongol shamans fell to influencing
events within the current life, rather than with the next level of existence. Thus, for the Mongols, it was useful to accumulate
holy men to interact with the supernatural beyond what their own shamans could. It also explains why, once they did convert,
the Mongols continued to commune with shamans, which makes it difficult for many to accept
their conversions as sincere. As historians like Devin DeWeese or Peter
Jackson have argued though, we cannot gauge the authenticity of any Mongol conversion
as our vantage point centuries later, and the nature of our sources leaves us unable
to determine the conviction of each convert. The Mongols actively selected aspects of sedentary
societies which benefitted themselves and therefore could choose to profess Islam while
continually observing shamanic practices and standard cultural actions. The conversions of the Mongols and their servants
began in the 1240s. One of the first prominent figures to convert
was not a Mongol, but an Uyghur named Korguz, Ogedai’s appointment to head the Secretariat
of Western Asia. One of the most powerful officials in the
empire, Korguz’s conversion from Buddhism to Islam at the start of the 1240s marked
the highest-profile convert yet in the Mongol government. According to Juvaini, Batu, while preparing
for the confrontation with the Hungarians at Mohi in 1241, ascended a hill to pray to
Eternal Blue Heaven, and asked the Muslims in his army to pray for victory as well. It is unclear if they were Muslim troops raised
from Central Asia and the steppe or Mongol converts. One of the main units in Mongol expansion
and consolidation was the tamma, a garrison force permanently stationed in a region made
up of nomadic and sedentary troops. The Mongols in a tamma were forbidden to bring
their families with them. Separated from their homeland, families, and
shamans, and taking new wives who were generally Muslims, these Mongols were thus removed from
the infrastructure that encouraged the maintenance of their traditional religion and made them
more susceptible to conversion. This can best be observed in the case of tammchi
Baiju, stationed in the Caucasus and Anatolia from the early 1240s until the 1260s. Over roughly twenty years he appears in a
variety of historical accounts which demonstrate not only the presence of many Muslims in his
camp, as advisers, administrators, and Sufis but also the gradual conversion of his men. By the end of his life, Baiju became a Muslim
and asked to be washed and buried in Muslim fashion on his death. Perhaps the most famous convert was Berke
Khan, known for his war against his cousin Hulegu over the Caucasus. Conflicting accounts are given for his conversion:
either he was raised a Muslim or converted in the 1240s through the efforts of the Sufi
Shaykh Sayf al-Din Bakharzi. Certainly, by the 1250s, Berke was a Muslim
as multiple independent sources attest to his adherence, though Mamluk embassies indicate
that Berke continued to dress and wear his hair in the distinctive Mongolian style rather
than don Islamic clothing. While Berke’s war with Hulegu is often portrayed
as his anger over the death of the Caliph, it seems this was a secondary concern to him. His own letters to Sultan Baybars blame the
conflict on Hulegu’s infringement of the Yassa by failing to send Berke loot from Baghdad
and Iraq or consult with him. The fact that war began three years after
Baghdad’s fall, and that Hulegu occupied Jochid territory in northern Iran and the
Caucasus after Mongke’s death, suggests that Berke’s immediate concerns were more
strategic than spiritual. Islam for the early converts like Berke was
not a change of identity, but an acceptance alongside their existing beliefs and incorporated
into a Chinggisid worldview. Almost certainly Berke, like his Islamic successors,
continued to consult with shamans and the Yassa, yet never felt disloyal to the sharia. While Berke’s conversion was accompanied
by some of his brothers and commanders, there was no immediate Islamization of the emerging
Golden Horde. Only at the start of the 1280s did both westernmost
khanates of the Mongol Empire have Muslim rulers: Töde-Möngke [r.1280-1287] in the
Golden Horde, and Tegüder [r.1282-1284] in the Ilkhanate. Once more, the sources hint that shaykhs and
Sufis were behind the conversion of both men, and continued to be held in great esteem in
their courts. For the Ilkhan Tegüder, who upon his enthronement
went by the name of Sultan Ahmad, we have a variety of sources that describe his commitment
to Islam, which vary widely and demonstrate why many doubt the authenticity of the early
conversions. In a letter Tegüder sent to the Mamluk Sultan
Qalawun, Tegüder spoke of establishing sharia law in the Ilkhanate and that their shared
religion made it easier for the Mamluks to submit to him. Cilician Armenian writers like Het’um of
Corycus and Step’annos Orbelian generally portray Tegüder as a prosecutor of Christians. Yet at the same time, the Syriac churchman
Bar Hebraeus wrote of Tegüder as a friend to Christians, an upholder of religious toleration
who exempted them from taxation and allowed Hebraeus to build a new church, while the
Mamluks were largely skeptical of his conversion. Taking the throne in 1295, the Ilkhan Ghazan
portrayed himself as the first true Muslim Ilkhan. For this reason, the Islam of two of his predecessors,
Tegüder and Baidu, was denigrated in official accounts from his reign, predominately the
great work of his vizier Rashid al-Din. Ghazan only came to Islam a few weeks before
his enthronement, urged to convert by his commander Nawruz Noyan and the Shaykh Sadr
al-Din al-Hamuwayi during his rebellion against Ilkhan Baidu. While his biographer Rashid al-Din portrays
Ghazan’s conversion as causing his commanders and soldiers to follow suit, it seems almost
certain that it was in fact the opposite, and that by converting Ghazan hoped to gain
the wavering support of Baidu’s Muslim followers, which quickly happened. Upon becoming Ilkhan, on the instigation of
his zealous general Nawruz, Ghazan ordered the destruction of Christian, Jewish, Buddhist,
and Zoroastrian centers in Muslim cities in his empire and imposed the jizya. However, these harsh measures were quickly
rescinded with Nawruz’s downfall in 1297, though Buddhists did not return to the prominence
they had previously enjoyed. Ghazan before the end of the 1290s donned
a turban and even declared jihad against the Mamluks. Yet his efforts did not convince everyone. Outside of Damascus in 1300, the great Mamluk
jurist Ibn Taymiyya accused both Ghazan and his vizier, the Jewish convert to Islam Rashid
al-Din, of being false Muslims, and that Ghazan continued to worship Chinggis Khan in place
of sharia. The life of Ghazan’s brother and successor
Oljeitu is the most extreme example of a Mongol prince’s flexible approach to religion. His father Arghun had the young Oljeitu baptized
a Nestorian Christian and given the name of Nicholas. As a teen, he converted to Buddhism, taking
the name of Oljeitu. Under the influence of a wife, he converted
to Sunni Islam and became Muhammad Khudabanda. First attached to the Sunni school of Hanafism,
then to Shafi’ism, frustration with fighting between them drove him back to Buddhism before
in 1309 choosing Shi’a Islam. A number of sources offer explanations for
what drove Oljeitu to become a Shi’a, generally focusing on how advisers, scholars, and emirs
in his court convinced him of its merits. In some accounts, Oljeitu converted back to
Sunni Islam shortly before his death in 1316. Following Ghazan’s reign [1295-1304] the
Ilkhanate is considered an Islamic state, with the majority of its army and upper echelons
Muslim The process was slower in the Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate. In the Golden Horde, it took until the reign
of Özbeg Khan [r.1313-1341], who seems to have converted shortly after his accession
to gain the support of influential noyans within the Horde. In legendary accounts, Özbeg was converted
by a Sufi named Baba Tükles, who proved the veracity of his religion by passing unscathed
through an oven wearing nothing but chain maille, while the shaman he challenged was
burnt to death. However, Baba Tükles does not appear in sources
until centuries after Özbeg’s death, though likely he was influenced by Sufis and jurists
in his entourage. To cement his reign and religion, Özbeg ordered
the executions of over a hundred Chinggisid princes and noyans, larger than purges carried
out by other prominent converts, such as Ghazan in the Ilkhanate and Tughluq Temur in the
eastern Chagatai Khanate. Özbeg’s violent efforts succeeded in permanently
making the Jochids Muslims. Still, in policy Özbeg, Ghazan and Oljeitu
largely matched their forebears in providing taxation exemptions, favours, and other privileges
to Christians, especially Franciscan missionaries, though on a lesser scale than earlier in the
thirteenth century. Their successors, Özbeg’s son Janibeg and
Oljeitu’s son Abu Sa’id, proved less welcoming, as even Christians found their privileges
revoked. Janibeg ordered his men to dress in the fashion
of Muslims, while Abu Sa’id sought to become the protector of the Holy Cities of Mecca
and Medina, one year even sending an elephant there for inexplicable reasons. Still, these monarchs showed themselves to
continue in their traditions, such as acts of levirate marriage, marrying their father’s
wives, something forbidden by their new religion. Islam proved an aspect of these monarch’s
identities, but it took many generations in Iran for all elements of Mongol culture and
Chinggisid ideology to be driven out, and in the steppes the process, it can be argued,
never truly fully replaced the memory of the house of Chinggis Khan. More videos on Mongol history are on the way,
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