A Literary History of Persia (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1906. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... The great dividing line in the Muhammadan period of Asiatic history is the Mongol Invasion, which inflicted on the Muslim civilisation a blow from which it has never reinnLcnofthe coverecl> and, by destroying the Caliphate and its '-nu DEGREESth metropolis of Baghdad, definitely put an end to the unity of the Muslim empire. This Mongol Invasion, beginning early in the thirteenth century with the conquests of Chingiz Khan, culminated in the sack of Baghdad and murder of al-Musta'sim, the last 'Abbdsid Caliph, by Hulagu Khan in A.d. 1258. The devastation wrought by it throughout Persia was terrific. The irresistible Mongol hordes were bloodthirsty heathens who respected nothing, but slew, burnt, and destroyed without mercy or compunction. "They came, they uprooted, they burned, they slew, they carried off, they departed" ("Amadand, u kandandy u sukhtand, u kushtand DEGREES u burdand, u raftand")1--such was the account of their methods and procedure given by one of the few who escaped from the sack of Bukhara, wherein 30,000 were slain; and there were other cities which fared even worse than Bukhara. The invasion of Timur the Tartar, horrible as it was, was not so terrible in its effects as this, for Timur was professedly a Muslim, and had some consideration for mosques, libraries, and men of learning; but Chingiz and Hulagu were bloodthirsty heathens, who, especially when resistance was encountered, and most of all when some Mongol prince was slain in battle, spared neither old nor young, gentle nor simple, learned nor unlearned; who stabled their horses in the mosques, burned the libraries, used priceless manuscripts for fuel, and often razed the conquered city to the ground, destroyed every living thing within it, and sowed the site with salt. Hence, as it se...