Comparing The Abbasid Caliphate, The Ottoman Empire And The Mongols

The Abbasid Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire and the Mongols were all very powerful groups in the history of the Middle East, all using different tactics and techniques to obtain their common goal of conquering and ruling territory. Violence is a common theme throughout history in general, as these three groups follow that tradition, they all use their own form of violence whether it be more physical or verbal and manipulative. Through their journeys of creating brand new communities they discover new things, create their own styles and make breakthroughs in ways they never though could make such a huge impact.

The Abbasid Caliphate’s initial followers were Muslim groups of one belief or another; including the Shiites who strongly believed that

Muhammad’s family should be in power, and all other Muslim groups who unanimously did not like the Umayyad Dynasty and it’s leaders. As these people joined together, they took out the Umayyad Dynasty and Abul Abbas al-Saffah named himself Caliph or leader. He had a confrontation with the Umayyad leader and his family where he violently killed them all before he named Baghdad as his capital city (saylor.org, 1). In this round city, the community came together to begin developing theories on science, mathematics (trigonometry), astronomy, geography, Arabic numerals, algebra and medicine there were scholars called ulama who came together at “the house of wisdom” to work on and develop these ideas (class notes, Abbasid period). They did also study about their religion and the followers of the prophet Muhammad; even more impressive they studied about cultures that were not only within Baghdad, but that surrounded their city, proving that they were embracive of other cultures and people, especially the Persian culture. Along with the educational aspect of the new uprisings within the city, the people of Baghdad improved farming and crops, making it easier for them to be independent when it came to survival and livelihood. (saylor.org, 2)
As great as this community seemed, the violence and dictatorship was still very much present as the leader, Al-Ma’mun named scholars to study the Greek theology that “God could be understood through rational inquiry” and “belief or practice should be subject to reason”, if they did not follow his orders on this matter they would simply be killed or put in prison. At this time, societies who had the luxury of having a leader independent of the Abbasid Caliphate began to distance themselves from the Abbasid and slaves who never had any sort of power began to take control of other people within the community (saylor.org, 3). After this incident Al-Mu’tasim moved the capital away from Baghdad, his brother attempted to move it back to Baghdad but he lost his territory when guards murdered him and the Mongols took over Baghdad.
The Mongols were by far the most violent group of it’s time as they took out al-Nasir and his group after wanting to team with them to then head to Baghdad and destroy the whole city, including all the monuments, buildings and the House of Wisdom that was all created by the Abbasid Caliphate.

The leader and creator of the Mongols, Genghis Khan was born in Asia where tribes were fighting when he was born; after his father was killed, he killed his own brother to be head of his household. Much like the Abbasid Caliphate, he was quickly effective, with great power and gained followers from different backgrounds including Muslims, Buddhists and Christians who assisted in killing all rival threats. After this point he was named “universal ruler” and he claimed a decent amount of land in a small amount of time (modern day Mongolia)(Gascoigne,

1).
Though Khan was violent, he did make some laws about things he believed in such as forbidding kidnapping and theft of livestock; he also created a writing system like the scholars of the Abbasid Caliphate did, allowing a freedom of religion throughout his empire. Khan and his people continued on their conquest to take out the Jin Dynasty and then Khwarezm, which is four separate countries in modern day. The skilled workers who were most likely at the bottom of the food chain were saved and the unskilled workers/rich people were either killed or saved to be used as human shields in other battles. Right before the Mongols took Baghdad, Khan died from internal injuries; his successors continued to violently take Japan, China, and parts of Europe and the Middle East before they fell apart. (history.com, 1)
The rise of the Ottoman Empire began with leaders of Turkish warriors and of Islam faith who took over the Mamluks; the founder of the dynasty was Osman I.

The Ottoman Empire’s first attack on the Byzantine Empire left them enemies but also attracted the attention of nomads and unemployed people (Yapp, 1-2). With the help of his supporters, Osman took over most of the territory ruled by the Byzantine Empire; though unlike the Mongols and Abbasid Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire was not so quickly successful, at first the Ottoman Empire could not take the major parts of the Byzantine Empire due to lack of forces. Eventually The Ottoman Empire made military advancements and with the help of Christian troops, the nomads, the power of gunpowder/cannons and others who had joined their forces, they were finally able to take all of the Byzantine Empire.(class notes, Ottoman Empire) The Ottoman Empire used the same capital city of Constantinople that the Byzantines had used and just renamed it to Istanbul, not only did they established a military and system of administration like the Abbasid Caliphate had previously done in Baghdad but they established economic power by ridding their new area of monopolies (Yapp, 2). In the city of Constantinople the population doubled after it was overthrown and turned into Istanbul, the people of Istanbul were of different religions and cultures but lived together more peacefully than ever before. The Ottomans were even more accepting of cultures

than the Abbasids and more supportive of freedom of religion than the Mongols. The Ottomans created millets, which were different religious communities within Istanbul with their own religious leaders for each millet. The Ottomans, much like the Abbasid Caliphate and the Mongols, created different systems politically; people of higher class were considered the European elite and they managed treasury and collected taxes while the slaves were on the administrative level where they were representatives of the Sultan and made up the military, including foot and horse soldiers (class notes, Ottoman Empire).
These three powerful groups clearly all had their own way of obtaining their goals of ruling territory and creating societies, laws and ways of life. The Mongols ended up killing over 200,000 people by the time they were through overthrowing different groups in power; they also completely destroyed the homes of many people including the Abbasids’ buildings and creations. Though they were the most violent, they were accepting of different religions as were the Ottomans when it came to coming together as a community. The Mongols rose to power and assembled followers fairly quickly, following the Abbasids who also quickly gained many followers which allowed both groups to effectively overthrow different groups and communities. The Ottomans on the other hand took some time and building before they could conquer all the territory and people that they were headed toward. One of the most important things these groups did was discover aspects of education that is still used today; the Abbasid Caliphate and the Mongols both created a writing system which allowed them to communicate with each other and possibly with cultures surrounding them, The Abbasid community went even beyond writing and initiated the fields of medicine and science/math. Arguably the single most important aspect for success was the creation of a military and form of government, which the Ottomans and Abbasids seemed to master once they were established in their communities as they created administrative and political standards to maintain and organize their communities.