by: George Hall Reid
In 1200 A.D., Khwarism was the land inhabited by wild Moslem nomad Turks, between the Caspian and the Aral Seas. Their economy, almost identical to that of the Mongols, from whom they had probably fled under demographic pressure some centuries before, was based on the horse, and to a lesser extent on goats. Their horses were similar to what we now call Mongol ponies, extremely hardy and nimble. Their arms were the lance, the composite bow, and the steel scimitar. Their armour was a hardened leather cuirass and skullcap, plus a small round shield. Their army was totally cavalry, about 5 horses per man, giving the impression of vast numbers. Their warriors were merciless killers in the field, and they could exist on mares' milk and blood indefinitely, whilst their steeds fed on wild steppe grasses without weakening, helped through their riders' constant change of mounts.
At that time, a certain Mohamed [II] Shah became their king. He was a military genius, and within 20 years had led them to conquer all the territory between the Euphrates and the Indus, including Eastern Persia.
[ed. The Caliph had recognised Muhammad's father as Ala'd Din and as Shah, but never recognised Muhammad himself, even when he claimed those titles by birthright and conquest.]
Unfortunately for him, this was also the period of Mongol expansion under Jenghis Khan, who, in 1215, sent an embassy to Persia, demanding Mohamed Shah's submission [ed. or so Mohamed interpreted the embassy]. Rather rashly Mohamed expressed his irritation by having the ambassador cut up into small pieces, an act which J.K. strongly resented. He therefore attacked M.S. in overwhelming numbers (as was his wont) scattering the Khwarismian army. M.S. himself escaped, but died of despondency a few years later (1220) on a tiny island in the Caspian Sea where he had taken refuge. In the meantime, the Mongols had sacked with horrific slaughter the Khwarismian cities of Samarkand, Bokhara, Merv, and all villages in between. Their booty was tremendous. They also grabbed most of Persia.
M.S., however, had a son, Jelal ad Din, who had retreated through Afghanistan into India, defeating en route an over-confident Mongol army sent in pursuit. J.K. thereupon sent a bigger, better army, which decisively defeated Jelal in the Indus Plain.
At this point in history, Jelal had a tremendous stroke of luck, in that Jenghis Khan died (1227) and all his sons and major commanders returned to Karakorum to elect a new Great Khan, tho' not before all of Jelal's sons had been slaughtered in the presence of their sisters, who in turn were then enslaved by Mongols.
Jelal responded by collecting the scattered remains of his father's and his own army, and driving the Mongols out of Persia, where he set up his main base in Ctesiphon, near Baghdad. He completely overawed the Abbasid Caliph (Arabic = Al Khalifa) there, and reduced his role to that of purely religious leader of Islam, thus marking the end of the Abbasid dynasty, which had existed since the mid-seventh [ed. as a dynasty: actually -eighth] century.
You will recall that in 1180 approx. Selah ed Din = Saladin Ayub had abolished the Fatamid dynasty in Egypt by ensuring that the males had no living progeny; that he had made himself Sultan of Islam; had conquered Damascus, then almost annihilated the Crusaders in the disastrous (for them) Battle of Hattin 1187, near Tiberias; that having already taken Gaza, Ashkelon, and Jaffa, he then took Acre and Jerusalem, so Palestine was his.
Shortly thereafter, Richard Coeur de Leon of England retook Acre and Jaffa, in 1192, and subsequently Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit their Holy Places on payment of taxes to the Moslem governors, depending on the temper of the Sultan of the day.
Meanwhile, the man who was to be the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, had been born in Sicily, where he learnt to speak Italian, Greek, Arabic, and Latin. He later became King of Germany and Sicily, learning German and studying the Christian, Islamic, and Buddhist religions. His nick-name was Stupor Mundi, he was of outstanding intellect and puny stature, and, being a Hohenstaufen, was an enemy of the Pope, who had excommunicated him, after he had been elected Emperor Frederick II.
In 1226 the Sultan of Egypt was the Ayubite, Al Kamil, who intended to seize Damascus from his half-brother Al Mu'azzam. Fred II entered into negotiation with Al Kamil, whilst Al Mu'azzam allied himself with Jelal ad Din in Persia/Iraq. However, Al Mu'azzam died in 1227 (fateful year), and Al Kamil marched up from Egypt and besieged Damascus, in 1228.
Meanwhile, ignoring the Pope's excommunication, Fred II landed a considerable crusader force (mainly German and Italian) in Acre, and marched down to Jaffa, which he proceeded to fortify.
To protect his lines of communication, Al Kamil signed a 10-year peace pact with Fred, acknowledging the latter as King of Jerusalem, with the right to refortify the city, and the Franks were to have back Jerusalem (except the Temple Area, the Dome of the Rock, and the Aqsa Mosque, all with free access and worship to Moslems) plus Bethlehem, Nazareth, western Galilee, and Sidon, and a corridor from Jerusalem via Lydda to Jaffa.
Instead of regarding this as a significant Christian victory, the Frankish Barons strongly objected because Fred was not lawfully King, only Regent for his son Conrad by his Crusader wife Yolanda whilst Conrad was a minor. And the Templars were furious because they had not recovered the Temple Area. The Pope refused to withdraw the excommunication, and the R.C. Patriarch of Jerusalem (residing in Acre) issued an interdict on Jerusalem. Nonetheless, Fred journied there and crowned himself King in the Holy Sepulchre, 1229. The Pope was then raising an army to drive Fred out of Italy, so Fred left Palestine from Acre, being pelted with offal as he left the city, never to return. Before he left Jerusalem, he had rebuilt the Tower of David as a citadel, but no further refortification had been made, so the city was vulnerable to Ayubite assault. Nevertheless, it was garrisoned by Crusaders.
That same year, Al Ashraf Ayub, brother of Al Kamil, ousted Al Nasir from Damascus, but recognised Al Kamil as his overlord. Al Nasir was given Kerak (Jordan).
In 1230, Jelal ad Din moved in from Persia and captured the great Damascene fortress of Akhlat (near Lake Van and Manzikert) then moved on to attack the Anatolian Seljuks under their Sultan Kaikobad. Al Ashraf hurried up north from Damascus, joined with Kaikobad, and together their armies decisively defeated Jelal ad Din and his Khwarismians near Erzinjan.
Jelal fled, and finally took refuge with a Kurd, who murdered him because Jelal had killed his brother years before.
From 1231-5 there was continuous war between the Seljuks of Anatolia and the Ayubites, whilst the Khwarismians hired themselves out as mercenaries.
In 1237 both Kaikobad and Al Ashraf died whereupon Al Kamil, Sultan of Egypt, annexed Damascus, tho' he died there shortly after that. His eldest son, Al Ayub, hired the Khwarismians, who helped him seize Egypt after a short civil war, but in the meantime he lost Damascus to his uncle Salih Ismail. Al Ayub had also been helped by An Nasir of Kerak, whom he now made Governor of Palestine. And the Khwarismians roamed Syria, raiding villages and being a pest to Damascus.
In 1239, Fred II's peace treaty with Sultan Al Kamil ended, and the Pope send another Crusade to Acre, whence they marched south and raided Gaza and Ascalon. There they were ambushed by Mameluke Egyptian forces, and almost annihilated, with many imprisoned.
Ayub now wanted to oust Salih Ismail from Damascus, but Salih gave the Templars the fortresses of Safad and Beaufort, which they accepted. To counter this, Ayub offered the Hospitalers Ascalon and all the Christians taken at Gaza; an offer which Tibald, the Crusader leader, accepted, breaking the treaty with Damascus.
At this point Tibald returned to Europe, and was replaced by Richard of Cornwall, who confirmed the treaty with Ayub, but negotiated the addition of all of Galilee. The Crusaders now had all of Palestine down to Ascalon, excluding Nablus District (Samaria), whilst Jerusalem was unfortified, the Tower of David having been destroyed by Nasir of Kerak in retaliation for a Templar sacking of Nablus.
In 1241 Richard of Cornwall left for England. In 1242, in breach of the treaty with Ayub, the Templars sacked Hebron, whereupon Nasir cut the Jerusalem / Jaffa road, and imposed heavy taxes on the Christian pilgrims. The Templates then sacked Nablus, burning the Great Mosque and slaughtering the Moslems. Ayub blockaded Jaffa for a while in retaliation.
In 1243 the discord between Ayub of Egypt and Salih Ismail of Damascus plus Nasir of Kerak became acute. By astute negotiation, the Templars got all three Moslem parties to agree to withdraw from the Temple Area and restore it to them, and also to allow Jerusalem to be refortified.
In 1244 the Templars returned to Jerusalem, but then war had broken out between the Khwarismian army of 10,000 light cavalrymen in Northern Syria. They then ravaged the Damascus area, tho' they had no siege engines to take the city, then sacked Tiberias, Nablus (!) and Jerusalem, slaughtering the inhabitants, and destroying all the Christian holy places, before joining Ayub at Gaza. Jerusalem was thus lost to Christianity until the British Army captured it from the Turks in 1917.
On 4 Oct. 1244, outside Gaza, the Northern allies consisted of the armies of Damascus and Homs under the Emir Al Mansur, plus Nasir of Kerak, and the Hospitallers plus the Templars, and the Crusaders from Acre, many newly arrived from Europe; they were faced by the Mameluke general Rukn ad Din Baibars with the Egyptian army and their 10,000 Khwarismian allies. Against the advice of Al Mansur, the Northern allies attacked first, but whilst the Mamelukes held, the Damascenes broke against the Khwarismians, who then attacked the Crusader / Templar flank, and destroyed all but a few who were taken prisoner. This was as great a defeat as Hattin, and the Crusader force never recovered. Ascalon and Gaza were, however, too strong to be taken immediately, and Ayub used the Khwarismians to help him drive Salih Ismail out of Damascus. He was given Baalbeck and the Hauran District instead.
After Gaza, the Khwarismians had expected to be given a fertile slice of Egypt as recompense, but Ayub posted a screen of Mamelukes to keep them out. After Damascus, they again expected a gift of territory, but did not receive it. They therefore switched sides, and helped Salih Ismail in an effort to regain Damascus. Ayub then persuaded the Emirs of Homs and Aleppo to march on Damascus, so the Khwarismians with Salih Ismail headed north to confront them. The armies met on the road between Baalbeck and Homs, where the Salih Ismail forces were completely defeated, with the Khwarismians being utterly shattered. Most of the few survivors then fled east to join up with the Mongols, who were then back in control of Persia.
In all the countries where the Mongols penetrated after the Khwarismians had been there, the Mongols were preferred as rulers, once the initial conquest was over, being better administrators and less religiously oppressive.
In 1260, the Mongols of Mesopotamia had sacked Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus, and they had occupied Nablus and Gaza. Kubilai, the Great Khan and grandson of Jenghis, had died in Karakorum, and there was a struggle for succession, so no reinforcements were available for Palestine, where the Mongol general was a Christian called Kitbuqa, under the Khan Hulagu. [ed. The Khan who'd died in Karakorum was Mongke. The Mongols for their Great Khan would settle upon Kublai who would reign until 1294. Still too far and too late to do any good.]
The Ayubites in Egypt had been murdered and/or disposed of by the Mamelukes, whose Sultan was then Qutuz. Hulagu sent an embassy to Cairo, demanding the submission of Qutuz, who killed the ambassador. Qutuz then marched his large army north to meet Kutbuqa's Mongols in Galilee at Ain Jalud (the Spring of Goliath), where he decisively defeated them, and afterwards beheaded Kutbuqa himself.
This was one of the most important battles in history. It stopped for ever the Mongol advance south of Syria, establishing Egypt as the chief power in Middle East for the next two centuries, until the Ottoman Empire.
There was now no power to protect the Crusader posts, and they were subdued successively until by 1291 they had all been destroyed or vacated, with the Mamelukes in possession.
It may be worthy of note that, in the Battle of Ain Jalud, a small remnant of the Khwarismian Horde fought on the Egyptian side. This is the last mention of them in Crusader history.
