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Iran
INVASIONS OF THE MONGOLS AND TAMERLANE
After the death of Malik Shah in 1092, Iran once again reverted
to petty dynasties. During this time, Genghis (Chinggis) Khan
brought together a number of Mongol tribes and led them on a devastating
sweep through China. Then, in 1219, he turned his 700,000 forces
west and quickly devastated Bukhara, Samarkand, Balkh, Merv, and
Neyshabur. Before his death in 1227, he had reached western Azarbaijan,
pillaging and burning cities along the way.
The Mongol invasion was disastrous to the Iranians. Destruction
of qanat irrigation systems destroyed the pattern of
relatively continuous settlement, producing numerous isolated
oasis cities in a land where they had previously been rare (see
Water , ch. 3). A large number of people, particularly males,
were killed; between 1220 and 1258, the population of Iran dropped
drastically.
Mongol rulers who followed Genghis Khan did little to improve
Iran's situation. Genghis's grandson, Hulagu Khan, turned to foreign
conquest, seizing Baghdad in 1258 and killing the last Abbasid
caliph. He was stopped by the Mamluk forces of Egypt at Ain Jalut
in Palestine. Afterward he returned to Iran and spent the rest
of his life in Azarbaijan.
A later Mongol ruler, Ghazan Khan (1295-1304), and his famous
Iranian vizier, Rashid ad Din, brought Iran a partial and brief
economic revival. The Mongols lowered taxes for artisans, encouraged
agriculture, rebuilt and extended irrigation works, and improved
the safety of the trade routes. As a result, commerce increased
dramatically. Items from India, China, and Iran passed easily
across the Asian steppes, and these contacts culturally enriched
Iran. For example, Iranians developed a new style of painting
based on a unique fusion of solid, two-dimensional Mesopotamian
painting with the feathery, light brush strokes and other motifs
characteristic of China. After Ghazan's nephew, Abu Said, died
in 1335, however, Iran again lapsed into petty dynasties--the
Salghurid, Muzaffarid, Inju, and Jalayirid--under Mongol commanders,
old Seljuk retainers, and regional chiefs.
Tamerlane, variously described as of Mongol or Turkic origin,
was the next ruler to achieve emperor status. He conquered Transoxiana
proper and by 1381 established himself as sovereign. He did not
have the huge forces of earlier Mongol leaders, so his conquests
were slower and less savage than those of Genghis Khan or Hulagu
Khan. Nevertheless, Shiraz and Esfahan were virtually leveled.
Tamerlane's regime was characterized by its inclusion of Iranians
in administrative roles and its promotion of architecture and
poetry. His empire disintegrated rapidly after his death in 1405,
however, and Mongol tribes, Uzbeks, and Bayundur Turkomans ruled
roughly the area of present-day Iran until the rise of the Safavid
dynasty, the first native Iranian dynasty in almost 1,000 years.
Data as of December 1987
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