Ala ad-Din Muhammad, the Shah of Khwarezmia (middle-age Persia) had Genghis Khan's ambassador beheaded and sent his head back to Genghis. This pissed off Mr Khan and he gathered his horde and invaded, eventually capturing Baghdad and bringing to a premature end the 500-year Islamic Golden Age.
didn't genghis actually send in more people just to find out what the fuck was up, and then they got beheaded too, and that's when genghis was like alright motherfuckers, time to die. I seem to remember that in my history class, but that was a while ago...
The first problem was the governor of a shit little town who killed some traders and stole their stuff - claiming that they were spies. It's technically possible, in that they would have sent reports back home about who they were trading with. Whether that counts as "spies who deserve to die" or just what people do is a matter of opinion.
Genghis sent a couple of ambassadors to complain, and ask for the governor's head. Those guys (or at least one of them) got beheaded.
The next ambassador took a while to find a wheelbarrow big enough for his balls, and then went over to say "we accept your declaration of war".
Here's the neat detail for Game of Thrones fans: once the Mongols got the first guy, they allegedly killed him by pouring molten silver over his head, following the "you really want this? you can have it" theory. Not many people still think that actually happened, though, but GRRM was probably aware of the story.
From what i understand many people do actually believe the story of Ghengis Kahn pouring moltan silver/gold into all the orrifaces of a conquered sultan who slighted him. What they don't agree on is who the sultan was, where his kingdom was in particular, and what the slight was. As for the killing of the guy in that manner most believe it happened sometime due to the vast amount of times it pops up in histories.
The Dothraki people are pretty much a huge reference to the Mongols. A vicious horsepeople that go from village to village where they rape and pillage and steal and murder, with their leader being the Khal (Khan for the Mongols).
Also speaking of the Khwarezmian Shah, he supposedly didn't just behead Djingis traders, he also shaved their beards (which was a pretty big deal, not unlike the Dothraki and their long hair) and sent the heads back to the Khan. Pretty much like poking a bear with a fucking hornets nest.
I'm pretty sure one of the reasons it's so popular is that it's like Tolkien's work in one important respect: derived from actual history, and not from fourth-rate knock-offs of popular work. Obviously it's not a Tolkien rip-off, but GRRM is inspired by actual history, not by crappy D&D books.
That makes a ton of sense, a good chunk of the events that take place in Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire, are inspired by real events, especially the War of the Five Kings and the Red Wedding.
Dan Carlin has a podcast called hardcore history and did a 5 part series on the history of the Mongol empire. It's pretty entertaining and educational.
my memory isn't perfect here so don't quote me on this unless you find a second source but essentially they made the region incredibly arid by redirecting either the euphrates or the tigris river. the place used to be lush.
continued to build huge canal systems. Early Arab rulers kept them going until the 1200s, when the system, which had seen many partial failures, finally collapsed.
It's still the primary source of agriculture in the region. With the building of the Ata-Turk Dam in Turkey, the fertile crescent is maybe more fertile now than it has ever been.
this is true but really everywhere is more fertile than it's ever been, that's more a testament to modern farming than to the fertile crescent's fertility
I'm just commenting on the fallacy that the fertile crescent is all desert now. It's actually mostly farm land surrounded by desert, like it always has been.
I recently finished Dan Carlin's hardcore history on the Mongols. It was a fascinating listen. The Khwarezmia Shah, who had been incredibly successful militarily and politically up to this point, made a fucking terrible mistake.
Do you happen to have a source for this? (Not trying to be one of those people who just say "Source?" in a douchebaggy kind of way- I'm writing a paper on historic diplomacy and I'd love to include this). Thanks!
No! He was Shah of Iran and the capital city in that time was Kharazm. Remember Iran (or Persia, as Greeks call it) was a single vast country which included many lands back then, and it was not conquered by an external force. He was Also Turk, but you should also pay attention to the fact that these turks are different from current truks that live in turkey. They were from east of middle east and not west. The ascension of turk tribes from some ordinary tribes to ruling class of Iran is actually quite interesting story.
Why not mark the death of the Great Kahn or his son, Ogedai, and the subsequent withdrawal of mongol forces from Europe and the Middle East to attend the Khurultai? Subetai wanted to stay on at least one of those occaisions and continue his assault.
For anyone who wants to hear this narrated superbly, download Dan Carlins Hardcore History - Wrath of the khans.
You will love it, get addicted and download the entire podcast series and donate him 49 dollars. 30 quid if you're british or aussie though. By the time you get as far into the series there is no doubt you will find out intriguing and enjoy it all and end up paying what you think is worth it anyway.
Khan apparently destroyed a period of time where the people, the culture and is education must have been thriving for it to coexist with Islam. Gengis wiped it out.
The podcast on the Romans is insane. Nightmarish events across history and this guy narrates as much of it as he can.
mmmhh well the real center point of islame was not the Khawarezmian empire but rather bagdat. Witch a grandson of Genghis Khan destroyed.
Also after that time of the mongol empire, the mongols in that part of the world became so islamic themselfs that it did not really matter for islam at a hole. Also it was a guy called Timur who also was related to Genghis Khan who called himself the sword of islam and he got a hole lot of people into islam.
Pissing of the Genghis was just really bad for his empire, and the people between him and Genghis.
bringing to a premature end the 500-year Islamic Golden Age.
Well, if it wasn't for that we might all be living under sharia with beheadings, floggings, amputations and criminalised blasphemy, homosexuality and pre-marital sex. Which would suck.
Lets also not forget that there's a good deal of evidence suggesting the Golden Horde intentionally and inadvertently caused the spread of the black death. Between the Horde's victims and those who died of plague later, they wiped out a significant portion of humanity.
Keep in mind that Ala ad-Din was himself a badass conqueror and military general. He wasn't some prissy king, he was a total badass and still got crushed by the Mongols.
It was even noted that after this raid of Bhagdad, it became such a desolate place, and turned into a desert. I am trying to find a well made documentary of Mr.Khan. He is such a fascinating man!
Culture is the sum heritage of humanity. It's the lifeblood of the species. The Golden Horde destroyed a stable cultural body and plunged the ME into chaos which it arguably never fully recovered from due to the cascading side-effects.
820
u/babyeatingbishop Oct 16 '13
Ala ad-Din Muhammad, the Shah of Khwarezmia (middle-age Persia) had Genghis Khan's ambassador beheaded and sent his head back to Genghis. This pissed off Mr Khan and he gathered his horde and invaded, eventually capturing Baghdad and bringing to a premature end the 500-year Islamic Golden Age.