The Lost account of how the First Islamic Republic came into existence
It saved Muslim identity after the Islamic Caliphate had fallen
In the 12-13th century, the Slave Dynasty existed in two parts of the world: Egypt and Indian Subcontinent. Egyptian Slave Dynasty got famously known as the ‘Mamluks’. Historical records denote that around 13th century, Qutbuddin Aybak ruled over the Delhi Sultanate in India and Egypt was under rule of Izz-al-Din Aybak. They were the ‘representatives’ of Slave dynasties that existed in respective countries. The Aybak surname being same which depicted their link to Turkish/Central Asian lineage. The reign of Mamluks stretched from 13th to 14th century in both areas.
Around 1220-21, the Shah of Khwarezm was fighting against Mongols in Central Asia but was beaten back to Ghazna while the city of Lahore provided help as secondary refuge on basis of same faith. Few decades later in the year 1260, the Mongols had invaded Muslim world up till Borders of Egypt, a country which was ruled by Mamluks. The City of Bayt Al Muqaddas (Jerusalem) had fallen back into hands of Christian Crusaders from Europe as a result of Mamluk-Ayyubid rivalry regarding deference to the Abbasid Caliphate. Mongol ‘Golden hordes’ under Berke Khan (who later embraced Islam and allied with Egyptian Muslim Mamluks against iIlkhanate’s Hulagu Khan) had also captured half of Europe by defeating armies of Germany, France and Hungary in Battle of Mohi and Legnica during second quarter of 13th century.
These events occurred after the periodical reign of Kurdish Sultan Salahuddin Ayyubi spanning in between years 1173-93. The Mamluks in Egypt were the ‘Slave warriors’ who were high notables and worked under Syrian Ayyubids, who had consolidated the Muslim Kingdoms into an Islamic Republic as the potency of the Islamic Caliphate centered in Baghdad faded.
As the Syrian Ayyubids grew weak due to internal strife and rivalry with Mamluks, it was a time when Islamic Caliphate was facing two strong enemy forces i.e. the Mongol invasion and Crusader Onslaught. Baghdad and Damascus were destroyed and entirely razed to the ground with the whole population killed. Mamluk dominion of Damietta fell to Crusaders but Qutuz managed to repel their forces back to Holy Land. After the fall of Khwarezm in 1220-21 and Baghdad and Syria in 1260, the land of Egypt was the last citadel of Islam in the Middle East, and the existence of crusaders along the coast of the Levant was also forming a serious menace to the Islamic World.
However, there is more to it than what meets the eye than mere Crusader onslaught or Mongol invasion or Muslim resurgence after survival of Islamic presence in the Middle East. The level of devastation and destruction was of cataclysmic proportion but nature had a higher role to play.
Jalaluddin Mingburnu was the Shah of Khwarezm who struggled against Mongols from 1220-1231. The Central Asian Muslim empire of Khwarezm stretched from entire Central Asia to the whole of Persia. Ghazna and Kabul were in it, too. After fall of Central Asia to the Mongols in 1220-21, Jalaluddin Mingburnu made Ghazna his capital. There, the Muslims re-amassed and drove away Mongols at Battle of Parwan but were once beaten back into Indian subcontinent up till Lahore – from where they got military re-enforcements.
Jalauddin Mingburnu and his wife along with some members of the family perished in the sacrifice to save their country in the Battle of Indus where they faced the wrath of Mongol Army under command of Genghis Khan. Nature had other plans. It is said that the child of Jalauddin Mingburnu i.e. Mahmud Bin Mamdud was bought as Slave when their caravan was attacked after Jalaluddin had them escape from Ghazna to Lahore. The people who dealt with Mingburnu’s son didn’t know the truth about the identity of Mingburnu’s children.
Luckily, their master treated him and his cousin as his own children. They were educated and sported in many activities. Time passes and the very child of Jalaluddin Mingburnu is in Egypt as a high notable, answerable to Sultan Izz-Al-Din Aybak and renamed as ‘Saif-ud-Din Qutuz’ by his master. In old times, traveling was common in Muslim lands as seen from Sufistic presence and exchange of ‘slave warriors’ along with gifts as a gesture of goodwill in Indian subcontinent and other parts of Muslim world existing at that time. The Abbasid Islamic Caliphate had been destroyed and was no more in existence by 1258. The only city that remained as Middle Eastern Muslim stronghold was Cairo, Egypt where the Mamluks (Slave dynasty) were in Power in year 1260, when Mongols had reached the borders of the Holy Land. It was at this time that the Christian Pope in Vatican sent a message to Jerusalem’s Christian King to withhold their rivalry with Muslims and allow Mamluks the safe passage to Holy Land in order to face the Mongols.
Now, there is so much to know about Mamluks. The Mamluk group was created under Kurdish Ayyubids rule over Egypt. Salahuddin Ayyubi had not only united Muslims lands but he gave them a direction. The Ayyubid rule over Syria and Egypt was strengthened through consolidating the Muslim Kingdoms, Turkish polity and Persian Seljuks into Kurdish dominion. Previously, there had been rivalry between these factions. The brilliant administrative reforms, great organisational skills and good governance under Salahudddin and his brother’s (TuranShah) reign led to establishment of first Islamic Republic as focus shifted from ‘territorial expansionism’ or ‘ignorant materialism’ to making Islam a ‘race or nation-making force.’
In time, the Syrian Ayyubids grew weak and their control waned over Muslim lands but their secondary state, Egyptian Mamluks, grew strong enough to replace as rulers over the ‘Islamic Republic’. At time of destruction of Islamic Caliphate in Baghdad, the next city that was at aim of Mongols was Damascus.
Before Mongol reached Damascus, the Crusaders saw this as an opportunity in order to capture the Holy Land i.e. (Present day Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel) with help of Mongols. The Egyptian Mamluks (secondary state created by Ayyubids) had come in power in Egypt for the Syrian Ayyubids had become weak due to the threatening presence of Crusades, rapid advance of Mongols and incessant internal strife. Damascus was ‘over-run’ and captured by Mongols.
Saifuddin Qutuz, the son of Khwarezm’s Sultan Jalaluddin Mingburnu, was the new Sultan of Egypt at that time. This was the very son of Sultan Jalauddin Mingburnu who had escaped to AfPak region (North Western part of Indian subcontinent) during Mongol invasion of Central Asia and Persia. Mingburnu’s new capital was Ghazna but he stayed in Lahore (India) for refuge and help.
Qutuz was Turkic origin. He was captured by highway robbers when he was young and sold as a slave. Later, he traveled to Syria where he was sold to an Egyptian slave merchant who then sold him to Izza-Al-dIn Aybak, the Mamluk sultan in Cairo. According to some sources, Qutuz claimed that his original name was Mahmud ibn Mamdud and he descended from Ala-ud-Din Muhammad II, a ruler of the Khwarezm. He became the most prominent Mu’izi Mamluk of Sultan Izza-Al-Din Aybak and he became his vice-Sultan in 1253. Aybak was assassinated in 1257 and Qutuz remained vice-Sultan for Aybak’s son, Al-Mansur Ali.
Jalaluddin Mingburnu was martyred while fighting Mongols in Af-Pak region. Years later, his son became the only hope of the Muslim world. Saifuddin Qutuz became the Sultan of Egypt. His army defeated the Mongols at Battle of Ayn Jalut (The spring of Goliath), the same place where Khalid Bin Waleed defeated Byzantines and Salahuddin defeated the Crusaders in the Battle of Hitteen. The Mongols had been unstoppable and undefeated but the Mamluk victory proved to be a decisive standstill for further Mongol advance. The period between 1200-1700 A.D. proved to be a period of massive changes in Islamic world as moral struggle of Muslims took a nosedive decline and Militarism replaced the concept of Ijtihaad.
All these Mamluk successes against Mongol and Crusaders came through long term planning and strategy of Kurdish Sultan Salahuddin Ayyubi. He had united the divided Muslim kingdoms and polity under Ayyubid rule. This included area of some parts of Persia with whole of Iraq, Hijaz, Yemen, Egypt and Levant and Syria. This was first concept of establishing an Islamic Republic Order. It created the Mamluk establishment in Egypt that came under rule of Jalaluddin Mingburnu’s son, Saifuddin Qutuz, at time of Mongol invasion and Crusader onslaught. There was a concept of Slave warriors who were educated and sported and were treated as High notables. Kurds used this (availability of slave warriors) as their power and strength, while this payed off for the Muslim Ummah in the most dire need of time. An Islamic Republic arose for the first time in the Islamic history, which restored the lost Muslim identity after the Islamic Caliphate had fallen.
www.nation.com.pk/11-Jan-2017/the-lost-account-of-how-the-first-islamic-republic-came-into-existence
