|
Late Medieval Period: History
The Mongol invasions of the thirteenth
century, culminating in the subjugation of Baghdad in
1258 and the demise of the Abbasid caliphate, had an
enormous impact on large areas of the Islamic world,
which now experienced its greatest threat. These
conquests were carried out under the command of Hülagü,
a grandson of Genghis Khan, who assumed the title
Il-Khan, meaning "lesser Khan," a subordinate
of the Great (Mongol) Khan in China. The name Il-Khan (or
Ilkhanid) is also used to describe the branch of the Mongol dynasty that
ruled over Iraq, the Caucasus, parts of Asia Minor, and all of Iran, as
far east as Central Asia.
From
their capital at Tabriz, in northwestern Iran, the Ilkhanids maintained contact with such disparate
cultures as China and Christian Europe, thereby
invigorating the Iranian world with new mercantile
alliances and fresh artistic influences. Following the
death of the last Ilkhanid ruler in 1335, their empire
crumbled and was replaced by a number of local dynasties.
By the end of the fourteenth
century the minor principalities that had come to power
in Iran were overcome by a new wave of Central Asiatic
warriors under the command of Timur (known in the West as
Tamerlane). Of Turko-Mongol descent, Timur embarked upon
his conquests around 1370, becoming master of his home
province of Transoxiana and establishing Samarqand as his
capital. Before his death in 1405, as he prepared to
invade China, Timur subjugated all of Central Asia, Iran,
and Iraq. His other conquests included southern Russia
and the Indian Subcontinent; to the west, the Timurid
forces defeated the Mamluk army in Syria and that of the Ottomans at Ankara.
Under Timur’s less
militarily adept successors, the Timurid territories in Iraq were slowly
absorbed by two successive Turkman federations of the
Qara Quyunlu (Black Sheep) and Aq Quyunlu (White Sheep)
tribes. By the end of the fifteenth century only the
provinces of Khurasan and Transoxiana remained, and in
the last years of the dynasty these were ruled by
separate branches of the Timurid family. Members of this
dynasty were vigorous sponsors of Persian art and culture
whose patronage culminated in the late fifteenth century
with the brilliant Timurid court at Herat (in modern Afganistan), in Khurasan.
Although the dynasty came to an end in 1507, one member
of the Timurid house survived and went on to found the
Mughal dynasty in India.
Turning to the west, the
Mamluk dynasty supplanted Ayyubid rule in Egypt and
Syria. Under the later Ayyubids the army had been
transformed into a corps whose highest offices were reserved for Turkish-speaking former military slaves,
known as mamluks. By the death of the last Ayyubid ruler, his mamluks had
become sufficiently powerful to raise one of their own
members to the throne. In 1250 the first such mamluk was proclaimed sultan, inaugurating the period of Mamluk
rule and the greatest Islamic dynasty of the late
medieval period.
The Mamluks were, first
and foremost, soldiers who constructed a powerful
military machine formidable enough to halt the advance of
the Mongols and to expel the last Crusaders, who had long
occupied the Syrian coast. One of the most remarkable
aspects of the Mamluks is their creation of a new,
self-perpetuating ruling class composed of former
military slaves, which excluded members of the indigenous
population and often prevented even their own heirs from
succeeding to their position and property. In part as a
means of allowing their offspring to benefit from their
wealth, the Mamluks built and lavishly endowed
innumerable religious foundations, which were controlled
by their descendants. Cairo, their capital, became an
enormously rich city and a center of intellectual and
artistic activity. Even today it is marked by the tall
domes, lofty stone façades, and balconied minarets that
characterize Mamluk architecture.
In Spain a coalition of
Christian kings had forced the Berber Almohads to retreat to North Africa. All
remaining Muslim lands in the south fell to the
Christians, with the exception of the province of
Granada, which came under the control of the Nasrids, the last Islamic dynasty in
Spain. In order to preserve his kingdom, the Nasrid ruler
became a vassal of the Christian king in Castile, thereby
staving off the dual threat from the Christians in the
north and from the Muslims in North Africa, who sought to
regain Spain for Islam. Despite its ultimately untenable
political situation, the kingdom of Granada survived as a
great cultural center in the Muslim West for more than
two and a half centuries. In 1492 Granada fell to the
forces of Ferdinand and Isabella, who had united Spain
under their rule, bringing to an end not only the Nasrid
dynasty but more than seven hundred years of an Islamic
presence on the Iberian Peninsula as well.
During this period the
long reign of the Saljuqs of Rum in Anatolia was coming to an end;
they survived until the turn of the fourteenth century,
but under Mongol suzerainty. In the fourteenth century
Anatolia was apportioned into several principalities
under the rule of different Turkish dynasties. Foremost
among these were the Ottomans, who established themselves
in the northwestern corner of Asia Minor.
Throughout the fifteenth
century the Ottomans gradually consolidated their hold
over Anatolia, but their crowning military achievement
came in 1453, with the conquest of Constantinople and the
final destruction of the Byzantine empire. The golden age
of the Ottomans is considered in the section on the Late Islamic period.
Image in top banner:
Lamp, Egypt or Syria, Mamluk dynasty, ca. 1350; free-blown and tooled glass; 13 5/8 x 11 1/4 in. (34.50 x 28.58 cm); William Randolph Hearst Collection, 50.28.4
Browse the Islamic
art collection at LACMA
|
Late Medieval Period: Art 