The natural Harbor of Beilik Limani between Alanya and Antalya
Anatolia’s Mediterranean shores are one of the more peaceful and beautiful places in the world. It is a natural paradise full of ancient sites which we are going to visit this summer. The beaches are stacked with umbrellas and deck chairs, the coast is lined with hotels, the sea busy with private sail boats and black painted “pirate” ships with their loud techno-sound. Tourists come and go in millions. Who would not want to be here with sea temperature at 27 Celsius and sunshine every day. It feels like heaven.
Unfortunately, many beautiful Beaches are now the Site of Holiday Resorts
Am pretty sure that nobody associates these shores with the Mongols who terrorized Eurasia in the 13thcentury and conquered most of it. Only Western Europe & Southern India were spared. The Mongol years were terrible. It is estimated that 10% of the world’s 400 million people died during these wars. Genghis Khan and his followers were brutal. If a town did not immediately surrender when attacked, men were slaughtered, women and children abducted as slaves to “seed” a new Mongol population, the old left behind to tell the gruesome story. The death toll was so immense that atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels dropped. It is all visible in Greenland’s ice cores. WTF.
Mongol Expansion in the 13th Century reached the borders of Byzantium, Poland & Hungary
When China proved to be too tough a nut to crack, the Mongol hordes moved west in 1220. Once arrived on the steps of Turkmenistan, they invaded Persia and established their Ilkhanate in 1222. In Anatolia they met the Seljuk Turks who also came from the Mongolian heartland but had migrated a few centuries earlier to the Middle East. The Seljuks were employed by the Khalifs of Baghdad as mercenaries first. Later, they became a force in their own right. In 1071, at the famous battle of Manzikert, they captured the Byzantine Emperor and took him prisoner. After 1071, nothing stopped them from migrating to and settling in Anatolia – which triggered the Pope’s call to arms to liberate the Holy Land (Crusades).
The Turks migrated over a period of 1'000 years from Mongolia to the Middlle East
The Mongols did not migrate. They came as a thundering force. Their pony-based army was nothing the world had seen before. With 200’000 horsemen, they dwarfed the Persian and Roman armies of antiquity. What made them almost invulnerable was their superior logistics and their sophisticated bows. Their composite bows made from horn and hard wood had a 30% longer reach than ordinary bows. Mongols could fire at their enemies without being exposed. Their logistics was a marvel of resilience. Mongol horses needed nothing but grass. As every Mongol warrior travelled with 2 - 3 ponies, they lived from their milk and meat and occasionally drank their blood. It was the most flexible and independent fighting force you could imagine. Living on nothing, faster as any news could travel, larger than any opponent and with an unmatched fire power.
Thanks to stirr-ups Mongol Riders could also fire backwards when retreating
Relations between Mongols and Seljuks were peaceful for the first twenty years. The Seljuk’s recognized the Mongols as the gorilla in the room and paid annual tribute. But when they reneged twenty years later, the clash became all but inevitable. Mongols and Turks fought it out at the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243. The Seljuk were no match for the hardened Mongols. But the result of the battle was surprising – it was far less bloody and gruesome than usual. Once tributes were reinstated and Mongol suzerainty recognized again, the Seljuk Sultan was let go home. Seems there was still some mutual respect. But the peace was uneasy. There were several small Turkish rebellions. By 1255, the Mongols occupied Anatolia and established a big garrison in Ankara. The Sultanate of Rum was gone. The Mongols dealt directly with the local Turkish nobles, the Beylics, who became their vassals. One of them was Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Dynasty, who started printing his own money in 1230. The Mongols stayed until 1335 when the Ilkhanate collapsed. In official Turkish history the 100 years of Mongol rule almost doesn’t exist. As if Anatolia had been in a beauty sleep.
Most People do not know that the Mongols once shared a Border with Byzantium
The Mongols were not only fearsome warriors. Once established as rulers, they showed a keen eye for commerce. You can plunder a country once. But you can tax it permanently. Not surprisingly, the Byzantine Emperors viewed the Mongols as the enemy of their enemy and established diplomatic relationships quickly. As Europe’s most important trading hub, Constantinople knew how to benefit from the direct link the Mongols established between Europe and China. The land-based silk road gained in importance. It ended on the Crimea where good were sold to Venetian and Genovese merchants trading on behalf Byzantium. To strengthen their diplomatic ties with the Mongols, the Emperors even offered their daughters as brides. The Mongols gladly accepted. Why stealing women when you can get them by trading. Eventually, this strange alliance withered as the Mongol Empire faltered. The Turks, this time under Ottoman leadership, were back in the game and Byzantium shivered again.
Byzantine Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes was the first
European Monarch who had diplomatic relationships
with the Mongol Empire
It is hard to say how Mongol rule looked like on the shores of the Mediterranean. Their presence is not mentioned in any official textbook. It could well be that there was only a tiny Mongol garrison in Antalya and that the local Beylics did all the governing. If anybody knows more about the Mongol presence in and around Antalya, I would be most interested to learn more. Maybe the true horror of Mongol conquest did not play out on these shores. Something I wish for the people then living here.