The Fall of Baghdad
Tuesday, 01 April 2008
Written by Administrator
In a historical meeting, Holako and his war committee drew the plan to invade Baghdad. They were cautious about the Muslims in their army, so they were watched over in case they decided to betray the Mongols. That war committee meeting was held in Hamadan (in Iran) about 450 km from Baghdad (north east).
The army was divided into 3 divisions:
· The first division: under Holako himself, the main division; will be joined by Pato’s army (from the golden tribe) and the other forces from Armenia and Karj. This division will pierce the land in west Persia towards Baghdad through “Karmansha” city and this division will surround Baghdad from the east.
· The second division: is the west wing, led by Katbaga. It will head towards Baghdad also, but from the south (the idea is to prevent the Muslim intelligence, if any, from evaluating the Mongols properly. We should mention that in spite of the 450 km distance, we see that Holako was extremely careful to hide his army, and that massive army was 200,000 soldiers.
· The third division: it’s the division under Pigeo, which is located in Anatolia (northern Turkey). That army was supposed to go all the way from Turkey to reach Baghdad from the north, but go around to surround Baghdad from the west. This way, Baghdad would be surrounded from the east, west and the southeast.
There were two problems facing this third division though. The first is that Pigeo had to adjust his timing perfectly to reach Baghdad at the exact same time when Holako’s army reached Baghdad; other wise one of the two divisions would unexpectedly face the Abassy army alone. Considering that there were no communications other than knights traveling on horses, we realize how hard that was. In spite of all these difficulties, Pigeo had made it at the right time moving with this huge force.
The second problem was that this third division had to go through 500 km in Turkey and another 500 km in Iraq, which was all Muslim land. There were no planes to offer air cover for the forces; they had to go through 1000 km of Muslim land risking being discovered or worse, being fiercely resisted, as the way was full of condensed heavily populated areas. Remember that this land had not been seen by Pigeo ever before, but, he managed the risky job and made it through 950 km towards Baghdad; the Abassy army discovered Pigeo and Holako’s armies 50 km from Baghdad (one single day).
To explain how Pigeo did it we realize that first, there were absolutely no Abassy intelligence to scan the area around Baghdad; besides the terrible inefficiency in the Muslim forces they lacked any kind of knowledge of the art of war. Second, Pigeo’s mission was facilitated by the Muslim leaders who allowed these forces to pass through their land without warning Baghdad.
A shameful betrayal from these leaders, Kikawes, Qaleq Arslan (of Anatolia) and worse, betrayal from Badr El-Deen (of Al-Mosel) who even sent a force to help out with “liberating” Baghdad. It might be worth mentioning that Badr El-Deen was 80 years old (in some references, 100), he died a few months after!
The Situation in Baghdad:
Baghdad was one of the most protected cities on the face of the earth at that time; high, strong fences, very secure castles; endless money was spent to ensure the security of this great city, the capital of the Islamic Kalipha. But, all was good except that Baghdad still needed good strong committed men for its army. That was not available!
The head of the state was Al-Mostasem, who was mentioned in history books as a nice, kind, good-looking man who spent money on the poor and respected scholars. He was described as a Sunni and Salafi (a sect of Sunni), but I wonder, was the Salafi sect ignorant about the need to protect Muslim land, the need to have a strong army, the need to learn about other nations and the need to help other Muslims nearby who were being slaughtered by Mongols?
The caliphate was a good man but did not have the qualifications of a good leader. He lacked the ability to manage his kingdom in crisis, he lacked leadership, ambition, aspirations and he lacked the courage that would help him take a decision to go to war at the right time. He lacked the ability to unite his people and he lacked the ability to pick the right advisers who would give him sincere advice.
At his time, all government agencies were corrupt, police were corrupt, people found it easy to steal, bribe, and abuse others. Casinos with dancers and sex trade workers were all over Iraq, no hiding was needed. Yes, the caliphate was a good man but he did not take his responsibilities as a leader seriously and he did not have any excuse, he became caliphate at the age of thirty-one and he had been raised to be a ruler of Iraq. He had been caliphate for sixteen years before the Mongols arrived. During that time he did not strengthen his army, did not raise the spirit of jihad among his people, he did not even think about resigning his glamorous position if he couldn’t carry out his responsibilities fully. He had to pay the price for his negligence, along with his people, who accepted his reign for sixteen years.
We can’t excuse the public from the responsibility either. Iraqis were at least three million at that time, which made Baghdad one of the most populated cities in the world. This big population did not have much of a prospective because they were only interested in theoretical academic Islamic education. They learned Qur’an and hadith, they prayed in their mosques, but they forgot the real challenge: being able and willing to defend their religion and their land.
They kept busy buying bigger houses, bigger gardens, better interiors, more slaves, more camels and horses and so on. Above all, Iraqis had heard for over forty years about the massacres that their brothers were undergoing in Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Persia, and Chechnya and they did nothing to stop it. More over, they knew that their own caliphate (Al-Nasser) grandfather of Al-Mostasem, helped the Mongols against Muslims, and still did nothing. That explains the tragic end and shameful fate the Kaliph and his people had to face.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|