IP: Re: "we closed our societies, ... to freedom and knowledge"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: "John S. Quarterman" <jsq () matrix net>
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> Cc: "John S. Quarterman" <jsq () matrix net>
> Subject: Re: IP: "we closed our societies, ... to freedom and knowledge"
> Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 22:08:05 -0500
> Sender: jsq () matrix net
>
>
> >>>Don't we remember what their kind did before that, in Egypt and other
> >>>places? Even in the Sudan, the land of tolerance, they carried out a mass
> >>>slaughter of worshipers in a mosque, [an act] unprecedented except for the
> >>>crime of the Cave of the Patriarchs committed by a Jewish extremist. If
> >>>among us there is anyone who hates the Arabs, the Muslims, their culture,
> >>>and their way of life so much that he wants to carry out barbaric mass
> >>>slaughter, is it any wonder that the Christian hates us and sees us as
> >>>barbarians like the [Tatar] Hulagu, [who fight] Western civilization.
>
> Hulagu wasn't just some random Tatar.  He was a grandson of Genghis Khan,
> and was sent by his brother Mangu, the Great Khan, to put down a revolt
> in Persia.  He did that, and then demolished Baghdad in 1258 and killed
> the Abbasid Caliph.  Hulagu proceeded to capture Aleppo and Damascus.
> Part of his army was heading for Egypt when it was finally stopped
> by the Mameluke Sultun Qutuz at the Battle of Ayn Jalut in Palestine
> on 3 September 1260.
>
> The fall of Baghdad was a shock to the Muslim world such as the fall of
> Constantinople would be to the west.  The battle of Ayn Jalut was as
> significant to the Moslem world as the Battle of Poitiers had been in
> stopping the Moslem advance into Europe.
>
> Most Muslim intellectuals would know these things; the mere mention of the
> name Hulagu would bring them to mind without need for further elaboration.
> The author is thus making a most economical and unflattering comparison.
>
> -jsq
>
> PS: Constantinople was at this time held by Latin Christians who had taken
> it in 1204, but the Byzantine Greeks got it back in 1261.  Qutuz was
> aided by Crusaders in 1260 (some of whom may have remembered Mongols
> at the gates of Vienna in 1241, and all of whom knew the Mongols had
> just invaded Poland), there were Armenian Christians in Hulagu's army,
> and Hulagu was distracted and not even present at Ain Jalut because his
> brother the great Khan had died in 1259 causing a succession struggle (the
> same reason the Mongols withdrew from Vienna when Genghiz died).  Also,
> Hulagu later converted to Islam, not to mention that his reign brought
> increased trade and some other benefits.  However, none of that affects
> the legendary stature of the fall of Baghdad and the Battle of Ayn Jalut.


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