Yellow crusade
The preparation of the military expedition was carried out extremely carefully. To keep the pastures intact, the nomadic population was driven off the route of the army, pontoon bridges were built across the rivers, provisions were prepared, and a thousand specialists in throwing machines were called from China. Intelligence and diplomatic work was carried out among the nobility along the route of the campaign.
Khulagu Khan's wife, a Kerait woman Dokuz Khatun, was a Christian and patroness of Christians. The chief of staff, Naiman Kit-Buga-noyon, was a zealous Nestorian, and he selected assistants from among his fellow believers. Finally, the king of Lesser Armenia Getum I entered into an alliance with the Mughals, who in 1253 personally arrived at the headquarters of Munke.
In 1253, Hulagu's army set out on a campaign. They walked for a very long time - the journey from the Mughal capital, Karakorum, to the coast of the Caspian Sea, where the assassins were based, took three whole years. The main reason the army moved so slowly was Batu Khan, which was hanging over the rear of the Christian army of Hulagu. By 1256, Batu Khan went to the next world, and his place was taken by his son Sartak, who professed Christianity. Hulegu could breathe more freely: now he could not expect a blow in the back from his own.
Assassins are a sect of assassins for hire.
Throughout the vast length of the great thrust from the Amu Darya to the Mediterranean Sea, the Mughals purposefully destroyed the Muslim rulers. The followers of Christ were not touched. Christian Georgia, Cilician Armenia and the Principality of Antioch quickly recognized the power of the khan. At the insistence of Khan Hulagu, who concluded an alliance with the Nicene Empire, the Latin prince Bohemund VI was forced to return the Orthodox hierarch to Antioch and expel the Catholic patriarch (the Pope will not forgive this and will excommunicate Bohemond from the church).
In 1256 they occupied the fortress of the Assassins of Alamut, by the end of 1257 they had captured all the Ismaili fortresses in Iran, and already in February 1258 the two hundred thousandth army captured Baghdad. The Baghdad Caliphate of the Muslim Abbasid dynasty fell, and the last Caliph was executed. Now it was no longer about an armed struggle for control over a city, but about desperate efforts aimed at preserving Islam.
Light green - the Abbasid caliphate at the time of greatness. The dark green lands in Mesopotamia are all that remain at the end.
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The Armenian patriarch blessed the khan for a holy war, and the king of Lesser Armenia (Cilicia) Getum I and his son-in-law, the Antiochian prince Bohemund VI, annexed their troops to the Mughal. In 1258-1259, the Mughal army, with the help of the allies, defeated the minor sultanates of Mesopotamia and Syria. Muslim mosques in Aleppo, Damascus, Hama, Homs, Baniyas burned, and Christian churches were decorated with trophies.
Map of the Mughal campaign to Syria and Palestine.
Immediately after the fall of Damascus, two Mongol armies rushed to capture two Palestinian cities: in the center of Nablus and Gaza in the southwest. It seemed that the days of Islam's rule were numbered. Hulagu, without even waiting for the end of the Syrian campaign, sent an ambassador to Cairo demanding the unconditional submission of the country. The Mamluk ambassador was received, listened to and beheaded.
Horse warriors: Mamluk and Mughal.
Scales of Victory
The eyes of all Muslims were turned to Egypt, for it alone remained the last support of Islam. In Cairo, power for several months was in the hands of the Turkic military leader - the Mamluk (the prototype of the Egyptian Janissaries) Kuttuz. He immediately spoke the language of a holy war and called for a general mobilization against the enemies of Islam. As a result, the country went on a war footing.
In the impending skirmish, the Mamluks had several important advantages. Rich Egypt as a base of offensive was closer to Palestine than war-ravaged Iraq. The Mughal troops were weary of the campaign, and the Mamluks carefully prepared men and horses. And finally, the Mamluks had an unexpected ally, and the Mughals had two unintended enemies. Therefore, the scales of victory swayed.
Mamluks are smashing the Franks.
The Christian princes of Palestine, pressed by the Mamluks, were not delighted at the news of the approach of the Mughals. The top leadership of the Orders of the Temple (Templars) and St. John (Johannites), whose knights formed the basis of the Frankish army, openly declared that "if the Mughal devils come, they will find the servants of Christ ready for battle." Moreover, the military council discussed the issue of concluding an alliance with the Mamluks against the Mughals. Although the alliance was not officially concluded, the crusaders went to meet the Mamluk sultan.
The second unforeseen complication arose in Georgia. Until 1256, this country was considered an ulus of the Golden Horde, and after the death of Batu, it came under the jurisdiction of Khan Hulagu (the Christian party won in the horde). The Mughals considered the Georgians to be their natural allies and therefore did not deprive them of their self-government. Georgia was required only to pay taxes (the Mughals themselves also paid a poll tax) and to participate in the war with the Muslims, Georgia's original enemies. But in 1259 the Georgians revolted.
The royal follies cost Georgia a lot of blood, but for the Christian cause they turned out to be tragic, since the Mughals, instead of relying on the Georgian troops, spent their reserves and time to defeat them.
Mamluk attack.
Traitors and heroes
In the fall of 1259, in the midst of the Syrian campaign, Hulagu Khan received a notice of the death of his brother, Supreme Khan Munke (a situation similar to the "Western campaign").
