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***Battle of Dandanqan*** 1040
Sides: Turks vs. Ghaznavids @ Merv, Central Asia
Action: Tughril Beg led the Seljuks, a new Turkish
warrior group, into Ghaznavid territory. The Ghaznavids were another Turkic
group that had gone into India previously under Mahmud and established the
Sultanate of Delhi. Their power base was Afghanistan. Now Mahmud’s son Masud
fought the Seljuks with Arabs, elephants, and Kurdish cavalry on his side,
armed with maces, swords and poison tipped arrows. But the Seljuks overpowered
them with a startling array of mounted archers and then cut them up.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: Tughril Beg and the Seljuks went on to
conquer Abbasid Persia and then embark against Byzantium.
***Battle of Manzikert*** 1071
Sides: Seljuks vs. Byzantines @ Manzikert, Armenia
Action: In 1054 an advance guard of the Seljuks moved
into the Armenian province of the Byzantine Empire and were stopped. In 1071
they returned with 40,000 under Alp Arslan, heir of Turghil Beg, but Emperor
Romanus IV was ready to smash them with a large army of 50,000. Romanus set up
fort in Manzikert near Lake Van, and sent out a recon team, which was
slaughtered. Suddenly the Turks used their light cavalry to harry the Byzantine
positions, then escape. “We were chasing shadows,” a Byzantine soldier
recalled. At evening, the Byzantines were far from camp and that is when the
Turks emerged in force from the hills. Conscripted soldiers from Anatolia who
were Romanus’ rearguard fled, leaving him exposed. The Seljuks began a terrible
slaughter of all the Byzantine men, and took the emperor prisoner.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: This victory was enormous. The Seljuks
opened the way for the Turkish colonization of Anatolia, which they soon
occupied, and which they occupy to this day.
***First Battle of Kaifing*** 1126
Sides: Jurchens vs. Chinese @ Great Wall, Northern
China
Action: The nomadic warrior Jurchens inflicted the
first wound into Song China, showing again how disciplined light cavalry
operated by hardened steppe peoples can stand up to great settled
civilizations. The Chinese had 500,000 soldiers but could not stop the Jurchens
from besieging the Song capital of Kaifing. After 4 months the city relented
despite Chinese superiority in weapons- gunpowder tipped arrows especially. The
emperor was captured and the Song retreated south.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: Heirs to the Song reestablished rule in
southern China, giving up the north.
***Submission of Zhongdu (Beijing)*** 1215
Sides: Mongols vs. Chinese @ Beijing
Action: Genghis Khan led his Mongol army into
northern China, slaughtering villages that would not surrender without a fight
and besieging cities like what would become Beijing. This city was the seat of
the local Jin dynasty. Genghis Khan had Chinese engineers teach his warriors
how to build rams to destroy the walls, and at the same time expelled a Jin
relief army. For a year and more the city would not relent, despite starvation
and cannibalism, until one day they did.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: The Mongol conquest of northern China
made them the competing Yuan dynasty to the Song in the south.
***Battle of Kalka River*** 1223
Sides: Mongols vs. Russians @ Zaporozhe
Action: Tearing across the western Steppes, 40,000
Mongols encountered the Cuman tribe of Turks, who retreated west and allied
with a Russian force near the Sea of Azov. The Mongols sent their usual envoy
to offer kind treatment in exchange for surrender. The envoy was murdered and
the Mongols slaughtered many of the Russians and Cumans.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: The Scourge of God was a term applied to
the khans by the Europeans, for events like this.
***Second Battle of Kaifeng*** 1233
Sides: Mongols
vs. Chinese @ Great Wall, Northern China
Action: The former Song capital was now inhabited by
a local Jin (Jurchen) warlord, and was again besieged. This time the Song
actually helped the Mongols against the hated Jurchens. Grant calls it “an
extraordinary confrontation” because two nomadic steppe powerhouses clashed,
yet the Jurchens had adopted the style of a settled civilization. The Mongols
used their siege engines against the walls, and sapped them from below. The
Jurchens used gunpowder- a settled China weapon- in the first use of a bomb in
warfare. It blew up an area 300ft. square. It devastated the Mongols in the
area it hit, blowing them to bits. In a modified version of Greek Fire, the
Jurchens even filled bamboo shoots with incendiary and sent out 6ft. jets of
fire. How did all these fare? They didn’t. The Mongols won after a yearlong
siege.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: Mongol rule over Northern China was
uncontested.
***Battle of Vladimir*** 1238
Sides: Mongols
vs. Russians @ Vladimir, Central Russia
Action: The Mongols came in force, 150,000 warriors
strong, in an all out invasion of Russia. Batu Khan and Subotai, general at the
Kalka River, led them. They rode in the dead of winter, their horses crossing
rivers that were frozen, which would usually have given the Russians in their
own heartland some time by delaying the attack. The Russians retreated to the
walled cities of Ryazan, Moscow and Vladimir, which the Mongols then burned in
succession. Yuri II, Grand Prince of Vladimir, met them and was slaughtered.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: The Mongols moved south to Ukraine and
Poland.
***Sack of Krakow*** 1241
Sides: Mongols vs. Poles @ Krakow, Poland
Action: After having defeated two armies of knights a
distance away at the battles of Tursk and Chmielnik, the Mongols sacked Lublin
and Sandomirez, and then approached the Polish capital. News of the impending
siege reached Krakow, and people escaped the city to the forests and swamps.
Only Wawel Castle and St. Andrew’s church were left defended within the walls,
and everyone who was left crowded into one or the other. The Mongols arrived,
and a trumpeter sentry at the top of the tallest church, St. Mary’s, played a
warning song. After 30 seconds a Mongol arrow pierced his throat. To this day that
30-second song (called the Hejnal) is played from the church tower every day in
commemoration. In the event, the Mongols captured the city, burned it for ten
days, pillaged what they could, massacred local residents, and moved on.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: The most powerful dukes of western
Poland and eastern Germany grouped for a defense around the city of Leignitz.
***Battle of Leignitz*** 1241
Sides: Mongols
vs. Germans and Poles @ German-Polish border
Action: Subotai and Kaidu, grandson of Ogodei, moved
their 20,000 warriors through the Ukraine and Poland. West of Krakow, a German
and Polish force under Henryk II the Pious, last of the Piast line of Polish
dukes, along with Teutonic Knights, stood against him. The Christians absorbed
the Mongols’ superior hail of arrows, but when it came to fighting hand to
hand; the European knights cut them down. Their retreat was feigned, however,
for when the knights charged with cavalry and did battle, Mongol adaptability
with horse and speed allowed them to surround the cavalry, and kill many
Christian nobles, the ears and heads of which the Mongols put on spikes as
trophies.
Casualties: 30,000 Germans and Poles
Consequence: While a decided draw, this marked the
farthest advance of the Mongols into Europe. Their lines were stretched too far
and news of the Great Khan’s death in Karakorum, 4,000 miles away, put them
into disarray.
***Fall of Baghdad*** 1258
Sides: Mongols
vs. Abbasids @ Baghdad, Persia
Action: In the continuing conquests of the Mongols, Hulegu,
already Ilkhan of Persia, struck west to the Abbasid capital of Baghdad. Though
power in the Caliphate was in the process of being transferred west to Cairo,
partially due to the Mongol threat, Baghdad was still the most important center
of Islamic power. The Abbasids met the Mongols on marshy ground, and then
realized they had been tricked. Mongol engineers broke the dykes on the
Euphrates, surrounding the Abbasids. Then the Mongols struck and decimated
their army. Hulegu then had a bridge made of connected boats across the Tigris
and surrounded Baghdad. He put a siege train up and battered the walls for a
week until they started to collapse and the Abbasid general surrendered. His
men were disarmed and slaughtered, except for the Caliph, who was tortured
until he revealed the location of some hidden treasure.
Casualties: 80,000 Baghdad residents
Consequence: The whole population was then massacred
over the course of a week, during which Hulegu pillaged the city until the
stink of the bodies was too strong.
***Battle of Ain Jalut*** 1260
Sides: Mongols vs. Egyptians @ Sea of Galilee
Action: Abbasid power was now centered in Cairo, far
from Mongol domination, but two years after Baghdad the Mongols struck again.
They captured Aleppo and Damascus, which meant Egypt was the only independent
Muslim area. Hulegu sent a message to the sultan demanding they accept Mongol
rule. The sultan killed the messengers, literally, and Hulegu was about to
strike but the Great Khan Monke in China died, so he left a contingent of
20,000 Mongols in the Levant and bolted. Now the sultan saw an opportunity and
sent 30,000 Egyptian Mamelukes (slave soldiers) after the Mongols. They found
the Mongols in Galilee, hid part of their cavalry, then attacked. The attack
brought the Mongols into formation and they charged, and the Mamelukes
retreated, but then the other force emerged and hit the Mongol flanks, while
the main force turned. Only a few Mongols escaped and they were bested.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: The Egyptians retook Aleppo and
Damascus, and in an act of treachery, the Mameluke general, not a slave
himself, assassinated the sultan and took control of Egypt!
***Battle of Xiangyang*** 1268
Sides: Mongols vs. Chinese @ Hebei, Southern China
Action: It was the turn of the Song. The Mongols
wanted to finally take the whole Chinese prize. They moved south through
difficult landscape for horses (rivers, farmland, rice paddies) under Kublai
Khan. After Monke died, Kublai continued leading the conquest as the Great Khan
himself. They took a fortified city and then Xiangyang. After multiple battles
and skirmishes near the city, including in a river where the Mongols fashioned
fast moving boats with catapults. The city fell, which opened the way to the
Song capital of Guangzhou.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: For 3 years later Kublai built a fleet
and used it to attack Guangzhou via the South China Sea. In the resistance the
last Song emperor, a child, was killed. China was conquered and the Yuan
Dynasty established.
***First Attack on Japan*** 1274
Sides: Mongols
vs. Japanese @ Sea of Japan
Action: Kublai Khan attacked Japan with 900 ships
manned by Mongols, Chinese and Koreans. They approached offshore islands and
slaughtered everybody. The fleet landed at Hakata Bay and for the first time,
samurai warriors faced foreign foes and they were startled by the lack of
ceremony and ritual in the Mongol army, which paid no heed to the “rules of
battle.” Ignoring calls for single combat by champions, the Mongols simply ran
at the samurai, “grappling with any individuals they could and killing them.”
The outnumbered Japanese fled the bowmen and catapults, and when they turned in
force the foreigners were gone.
Casualties: Unknown
Consequence: Having completed what was essentially a
recon mission, the Mongols would return in 1281.
***Battle of Ngasaunggyan*** 1277
Sides: Mongols vs. Burmese @ Pagan, Burma
Action: The chief of the Burmese received envoys sent
by Kublai Khan. They demanded tribute and were killed by the chief. Kublai sent
Turkish horsemen to punish them, and they met on a battlefield near the
capital, Pagan. 2,000 Burmese war elephants moved and the horses of the Turks
shied away, but the Mongol commander ordered the horses abandoned and for
infantry war to begin. Now 12,000 attackers struck with sword and mace, causing
the greater force of 60,000 Burmese to flee. Pagan was captured and the Burmese
kingdom destroyed. Marco Polo witnessed the event.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: Pagan became a Mongol provincial capital
until burned 20 years later by the Shans.
***Second Attack on Japan*** 1281
Sides: Mongols
vs. Japanese @ Hakata Bay, Japan
Action: Like Xerxes of Persia before him, Kublai
returned with a huge force of 4,400 warships carrying 150,000 fighters to face
40,000 Japanese defenders. Japan prepared a coastal defense, however,
consisting of stone barriers 12 miles long. The first fleet devastated the
coastal islands, but the Japanese defense was extreme. Small boats of samurai
raided them, and the fleet withdrew to the main fleet further off. Now fortune
favored the Japanese, when a typhoon- called kamikaze (divine wind) by the
Japanese- struck, scattered and sunk most of the invading fleet. The remainder
turned back.
Casualties: 100,000 invaders
Consequence: The Mongols made no further attempt to
conquer Japan.
***Red Turban Revolt*** 1368
Sides: Mongols
vs. Chinese @ Eastern China
Action: While most Chinese did not like the Yuan
Mongol rulers, seeing them as aliens, most lives were not effected until
decades later when banditry rose around the country and safety was no longer
maintained due to inefficient government. Also the Yuan printed paper money on
mulberry tree bark, but did not keep the sufficient gold reserves to back up
the money. Sound familiar? Soon the Chinese no longer trusted the money, and
the Red Turban group was formed to purge the Mongols from China under leader
Zhu Yuanzhang, a humble peasant. Zhu joined a local band of the Red Turbans and
quickly arose to lead the group. He took action by seizing the city of Nanjing
and establishing orderly government there. From that power base, he attracted
followers and the word spread. His force attacked bandits and restored order- a
civil police force. Then the Yuan came to stop them, and at a focal point on
the Yangtze River, Zhu’s small boats and the large Yuan warships fought it out.
Both sides mounted “cannons” consisting of a fireball projected from a bamboo
shoot. The maneuverable ships of the Red Turbans peppered the Yuan ships until
they were taken into the Red Turban fleet.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: Red Turban peasant armies moved on
Beijing, the Yuan capital. The Mongols fled and not long later, the Ming
Dynasty was established, which would last for 300 years. Zhu sent the following
letter to the Byzantine Emperor: “When the nation began to rouse itself, we, as
simple peasants, conceived the patriotic idea to save the people.”
***Battle of Isfahan*** 1387
Sides: Timurid
Turks vs. Persians @ Isfahan, Persia
Action: Tamerlane the Whirlwind, a Turk born in
Uzbekistan who was Emir of Samarkand, looked to Genghis Khan as his idol. After
the Mongol dynasties crumbled, he would invade Persia, India, Anatolia and
China, fighting well into old age. It began in 1387, when he got the Shah of
Persia to pay homage, but the shah died. So, he went in to secure the homage of
the new one, who fled Isfahan in fear. Tamerlane entered the gates without
opposition, and left a force to collect tribute from the city. The Turks went
house to house, but many people refused to hand over their valuables. A
messenger informed Tamerlane, who turned his 70,000 army around and sacked the
city, ordering every soldier to bring the severed head of one resident of the
city to his camp outside, and to pour boiling metal in their throats, among
other terrible fates.
Casualties: 70,000 Persians
Consequence: The heads were put on the wall of the
city in pyramids.
***Battle of Terek*** 1395
Sides:
Timurids vs. Golden Horde @ Beslan, Ingushetia
Action: Tamerlane moved on the Mongol Golden Horde,
still in control of Southern Russia. After a 3-day intense battle, 100,000 were
dead. Not long after, they clashed again and Tamerlane was almost killed, he
had his sword broken in battle, and was only saved when his retainers formed a
living wall around him. After his forces pushed the Mongols off, they were on
the run, and were mercilessly pursued until most were cut down.
Casualties: 100,000
Consequence: With the huge death toll, it was a pyric
victory for Tamerlane. It also weakened the Mongols in Russia, who would soon
face the Czars.
***Capture of Delhi*** 1398
Sides:
Timurids vs. Sultanate of Delhi @ Delhi, India
Action: Grant calls Tamerlane “an intolerant follower
of Islam” and noted that he was angry that the Sultan of Delhi wasn’t keeping
his Hindu subjects in proper submission. He was unsure of
Punjab geography but went in anyway. His men did not fare well in the Hindu
Kush, sledging and sledding their way down awkwardly. But when they reached
open fields, they came as a terrible whirlwind by surprise, pillaging
everything, taking 100,000 Hindu captives whom Tamerlane had slaughtered, and
huge amounts of plunder. The Sultan had 50k soldiers waiting at Delhi, hiding
behind war elephants and firing incendiaries. Tamerlane “drove off the
elephants like cows” and the city was sacked.
Casualties: 100,000 Indians
Consequence: Tamerlane rode back now for the next
year, over the old Royal Road and the Silk Road. Having punished India, he
sought to break through into Syria and Anatolia.
***Battle of Aleppo*** 1399
Sides:
Timurids vs. Mamelukes @ Aleppo, Syria
Action: The Aleppo Citadel was the strong point of
the region, and Tamerlane set it on fire. He faced a formidable force- the
Mamelukes- the Egyptian slave army that checked the Mongols and earlier drove
the Christians out of Palestine following Muslim conquest. But this was a new
day, and Tamerlane annihilated the Mamelukes in front of Aleppo and executed
all POWs.
Casualties: unknown
Consequence: After Aleppo, no one was left to defend
Damascus, the true prize, which Tamerlane now sacked- though with more leniency
than usual because it surrendered without resistance. Now he would
contend with the rising power of the Middle East, destined to rule it for 500
years: the Ottomans.
***Battle of Ankara*** 1402
Sides:
Timurids vs. Ottomans @ Angora, Anatolia
Action: In the 14th century Osman Bey led
the Turkic Ottomans from Central Asia to Anatolia, as the Turghil Beg had led
the Saljuks 300 years earlier. The Ottomans were successful against the
battered Christians of the area, and now it was Turk vs. Turk. Timur defeated
the Ottomans at Sivas in 1400 at the very time Thunderbolt Sultan Bayezid I was
laying siege to Constantinople. He had to pull his army out of the siege to
face Timur, and met him at Angora (Ankara). The armies missed each other and
doubled back, and Timur unleashed war elephants and secured the only water
supply. Timur pounded the Ottomans and many switched sides. Bayezid retreated
and was caught.
Casualties: 15k Turks
Consequence: Bayezid died in an unknown way, but this
would be the last great victory of Tamerlane, who would die a couple years
later.
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