Mongol Invasion
- Invaded Asia, conquered areas that included China, Russia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe
- Cities that resisted were subject to destruction, over 3 years the Mongols destroyed all of the major cities in Eastern Europe except two, and they conquered all of China during the invasion of China
- Mongol soldiers were men ages 14-60 and were organized into groups based on decimal system; transfers between units were forbidden, and leaders had the license to execute orders that they considered best
- Military: promotions were granted by ability, each soldier maintained 3 or 4 horses, 6 of 10 soldiers were cavalry horse archers and the other 4 were more heavily armored and armed lancers
- Weapons and Strategy: bow and arrow, swords, catapults, Kharash (putting local residents or surrendered soldiers in the front of the army to act as a human shield)
- Key Players: Genghis Khan- military leader with unbeatable and matched strategies, Kublai Khan, Marco Polo
- Major Battles: Invasions of India and Russia, Chinese Empire, Korea, Eastern Europe
- Lasting Effects in Iran: economy declined, Mongols didn’t accept Islam, Mongols killed many people and destroyed the civilization, took Iran many centuries to recover from the invasion, created a trade route with Europe and Asia.
Literature
- The Book of One Thousand and One Nights: collection of West and South Asian stories and folk tales, known as Arabian Nights in English
- King Shahryar: fictional Persian King who was known for executing his wives the day after their wedding so they wouldn’t have the chance to be unfaithful like his 1st wife was, his 1st wife had relations with a slave, betrayal of his wife made the king go mad and think that all women would betray him, king would marry virgins and executing them the next day.
- Genres: love stories, historical tales, fantasy and fairytales, mystery, tradgedies
- Morals: be careful what you wish for, fidelity, power of women, power to destroy
- Shahnameh- long epic poem written by the Persian poet, Ferdowsi, between 977 and 1010 AD consisting of about 60,000 verses, it’s regarded as a literary masterpiece, tells about mythical and historical past of Iran.
Religion
- Islam: Arabian Peninsula is the birthplace and formed by an illiterate nomadic culture
- 10th century: Abbasid Caliphates rule in most of Middle East, by the end of the century global Muslim population was at 4 percent of the total population, Spain ruled by Umayyads (previous dynasty)
- 11th Century: Mahmud of Ghazni died in 1030, first crusade happens in 1095 and the crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099, by end of 11th century Muslim population had spread to 5% throughout the world
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