Ghazan Khan's Invasions of Syria. Polemics on His Conversion

chapter 12 Ghazan Khan’s Invasions of Syria. Polemics on His Conversion to Islam and the Christian Troops in His Army

We might have expected Ghazan Khan’s official conversion to Islam, just before he was enthroned in 680/1295, to put an end to the enmity between the Ilkhans and the Mamluks. His conversion certainly had a great impact in the Muslim world, especially in Damascus where Shaykh Ṣadr al-Dīn Ibrāhīm b. Ṣaʿd al-Dīn Muḥammad,1 who had received his profession of faith, told the story in the Ribāṭ al-Sumaysāṭī beside the Umayyad Mosque. But far from bringing in an era of peace, Ghazan Khan was in fact responsible for more attacks upon Bilād al-Shām than any other Ilkhanid ruler. His first campaign took place in the winter of 699/1299–1300. The Ilkhan seized part of Syria and briefly occu- pied Damascus.2 The second invasion began in autumn 700/October 1300, but ended without the Mongol troops having engaged the Mamluk forces. Finally, the third campaign began in Jumādā 702/January 1303 and ended with the Mamluk victory at Marj al-Ṣuffar,3 on 2 Ramaḍān 702/20 April 1303.4

* This chapter is a revised and very amplified version of a paper published under the title: “La légitimité islamique des invasions de la Syrie par Ghazan Khan,” Eurasian Studies V/1–2 (2006): 5–29. 1 Ṣadr al-Dīn Ibrāhīm’s father was disciple of Najm al-Dīn Kubrā, see Charles Melville, “Pādisāh-i islām: The Conversion of Sultan Maḥmūd Ghāzān Khān,” Pembroke Papers 1 (1990): 165. He was a member of the great Damascene Sufi family of Iranian origin, the Banū Ḥamaway, who enjoyed great renown in the city, see Louis Pouzet, Damas au VIIe/XIIIe s. Vie et structures religieuses dans une métropole islamique (Beirut: Dar El-Machreq, 1991), 213–214. That the shaykh had been the one to recieve Ghazan Khan’s profession of faith no doubt won the latter support among part of the population of Damascus. 2 On this military campain, see Reuven Amitai, “Whither the Ilkhanid Army? Ghazan’s First Campain into Syria (1299–1300),” in Warfare in Inner Asian History (500–1800), ed. N. Di Cosmo (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 225–253; “The Mongol Occupation of Damascus in 1300: A Study of Mamluk Loyalties,” in The Mamluks in Egyptain and Syrian Politics and Society, eds. M. Winter and A. Levanoni (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 21–39. 3 Marj al-Ṣuffar was a prairy lying south of Damascus, and was and excellent place for armies as fodder and water. 4 On these three campaigns, see Anne F. Broadbridge, Kingship and Ideology, 73–93, and an abstract of Ghazan Khan’s campains in Syria in Angus D. Stewart, The Armenian Kingdom

Ghazan Khan undertook his first invasion whith the king of Cilicia, Hetʿum II (r. 1289–1307), and Georgian Christians.5 But the Mongol ranks included also a certain number of renegade Mamluks, led by the former governor of Damascus, Sayf al-Dīn Qipchāq al-Manṣūrī (d. 701/1310–11) who was nāʾib of Damascus at the end of al-Malik al-Manṣūr Lāchīn (r. 696–98/1297–99)’s reign.6 The Mamluk soldiers helped Ghazan Khan gain victory at Wadī al-Khaznadār on 27 Rabīʿ I 699/22 December 1299. Al-Malik al-Naṣīr Muḥammad and his army ran away to Egypt. On 12 Rabīʿ II 699/6 January 1300, Sayf al-Dīn Qipchāq seized power in Damascus, but the Citadel put up a vigorous resistance under the instructions of his governor, ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Jamdār Arjūwāsh al-Manṣūrī. The talks aiming at broking the surrender of the Citadel of Damascus without a fight failed. Its siege began at the start of Jumādā I 699/24 January 1300 but, in mi-Jumādā II 699/early February 1300, Ghazan Khan suddenly decided to return to Persia, leaving his great emir Quṭlugh-Shāh and Sayf al-Dīn Qipchāq at the head of a small contingent of troops in Syria.7 Shortly after, the Mamluks took back the power in Damascus. Sayf al-Dīn Qipchāq then abandoned his allegiance to the Mongols of Iran. Ghazan Khan’s reign, thus, by no means led to harmony between the Ilkhans and the Mamluks. Apart from his commitment to the Mongol ideology of con- quest according to which all peoples should submit to Mongol rule, Ghazan Khan seems to have aspired, as a Muslim sovereign, to control the eastern Muslim world. The title of “King of Islam” (pādishāh al-islām) which he took upon his conversion supports this supposition. According to Rashīd al-Dīn’s account, religious motives spurred his first invasion of Syria in 699/1299– 1300. Al-Malik al-Nāṣir Muḥammad’s soldiers entered Ilkhanid territory, at Mārdīn, where, during the month of Ramaḍān 698/June 1299, they had given

and the Mamluks. War and Diplomacy During the Reigns of Hetʿum II (1289–1307) (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 136–153. 5 On the relations between Mongols and Armenians, see Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog, “Some Dynamics of Mongol-Armenian Interactions,” Bazmavep 3–4 (2010): 597–615; The Mongols and the Armenians (1220–1335) (Leiden: Brill, 2011). The principal Arabic sources on this campaign are: al-Yūnīnī/Li Guo II:99–124 (Arabic text); I:135–164 (English translation); Kanz IX:15–36; Beiträge, 56–79; Niḥāyat XXXI:380–400; Zubdat, 328–345; Ibn Abī-l-Faḍāʾil XIV:471–506. 6 Sayf al-Dīn Qiqchāq was of Mongolian origin. He was Damascus governor from 687/1297 to 698/1298, see Durar III:213–215. 7 The reason for the Ilkhan’s hasty retreat from Damascus is not clear from the Mamluk sources. Rashīd al-Dīn (Ta⁠ʾrīkh-i mubārak-i Ghāzānī, 130) states: “As the weather was becoming hot [. . .] the sovereign withdrew from Damascus.” On the logistical difficulties encountered by the Mongol troops in Syria, see David Morgan, “Mongols in Syria, 1260–1300,” in Crusade and Settlement, ed. P.W. Edelbury (Cardiff: University College Cardiff Press, 1985), 231–235.