Short Description
The Tatars emerged as a power in the beginning of the 7th century A.H. In order to understand the conditions in which this power emerged, let us have a quick look at the reality of the world at that time. In the 7th century A.H. there were only two main superpowers in the world:
Emergence of the Tatars
Introduction
The Tatars emerged as a power in the beginning of the 7th century A.H. In order to understand the conditions in which this power emerged, let us have a quick look at the reality of the world at that time.
In the 7th century A.H. there were only two main superpowers in the world: the Muslim Ummah and the Crusaders.
The first superpower, i.e. the Muslim Ummah occupied as much as about half of the inhabited land on earth. The borders of the Islamic territories began from the West of China, extending across Asia and Africa to the West of Europe, where Andalusia lies.
As extremely vast as this area was, unfortunately, the conditions of the Islamic world at that time were very painful. In spite of the vast area of land, the huge number of people, and the great potentials of wealth, materials, weaponry and knowledge, the Islamic world was extremely divided, and the political conditions of most Islamic countries had deteriorated to an awful extent.
Those unfortunate conditions became evident few years after the end of the 6th century A.H. Before that, the Muslims had been a leading, strong, victorious, and united nation. However, the established norm should be enacted: {And these days [of varying conditions] We Alternate among the people.} [Quran 3:140]
The second superpower on earth at the beginning of the 7th century A.H. was the Crusaders. Western Europe was their main center where they had many strongholds. They were involved in continual warfare with the Muslims. The Christians of England, France, Germany and Italy launched a series of successive Crusades against territories in Egypt and Ash-Shaam. The Christians of Spain, Portugal and even France entered into continual warfare with the Muslims in Andalusia.
Besides the huge gathering of Crusaders in Western Europe, there were other gatherings of Crusaders in different parts of the world, and they had feelings of severe resentment towards the Muslim Ummah. The wars between both were unremitting. From among those gatherings, a mention may be made of the following:
1- The Byzantine Empire and its wars with the Muslims were fierce and historic. But at that time, it was relatively weak and rather, shrinking in force and size, which made it of insignificant danger, given the high consideration of the Byzantine Empire in general.
2- The kingdom of Armenia, that lies to the north of Persia and the West of Anatolia. It was involved also in continual warfare with the Muslims in general, and the Seljuks in particular.
3- The kingdom of Kurg (currently Georgia), and its wars with the Ummah of Islam never ceased, namely with the Khwarezmid State.
4- The Crusade emirates in Ash-Shaam, Palestine and Turkey, which occupied those Islamic regions since the end of the 5th century A.H., namely, beginning from 491 A.H. in spite of the great victories achieved by Saladin over the Crusaders in Hitteen and Bayt Al-Maqdis, those emirates remained in existence, and attacked, from time to time, the unoccupied neighboring Islamic territories. The most famous of those emirates were Antioch, Acre, Tripoli, Saida and Beirut.
In this way the wars continued in almost all parts of the Islamic world, and the Crusaders became more resentful about the Ummah of Islam.
However, it was the Will of Allaah, the Almighty that the end of the 6th century A.H. would be very happy for the Muslims, and adverse for the Crusaders. By the permission of Allaah, the Almighty, the Muslims achieved two great victories over the Crusaders. The great hero, Saladin, May Allaah have mercy upon him, emerged victorious over the Crusaders in the Battle of Hitteen of Ash-Shaam in 583 A.H. 8 years later, the Islamic glorious hero, Ya‘qoob Al-Mansoor, Almohad Caliph, the leader of Almohads, may Allaah have mercy upon him, emerged victorious over the Christians of Spain in the eternal battle of Al-Ark in 591 A.H.
Nonetheless, at the beginning of the 7th century A.H., the Muslims became extremely weak, especially after the Ayyubids disbanded in the wake of the death of Saladin, and the Almohads in the wake of the death of Al-Mansoor. But at the same time, the Crusaders were in the same state of weakness with which they were unable to take control of the Muslim territories, even though they became more desirous to put an end to the Muslims.
These were the conditions of the world at the beginning of the 7th century A.H. Such being the case, a new superpower emerged that turned the balances, and changed the world map, and imposed itself as a third superpower on earth, or, to tell the truth, the first superpower on earth during the first half of the 7th century A.H. That superpower was the State of Tatars or Mongols.
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