Muslim rule in Anatolia

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz

Muslim rule established in Anatolia
On 11th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal in 572 AH, Qilij Arslan II, the Seljuqid Sultan of Roum (as Muslim-ruled Anatolia was known in those days) defeated Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos at the Battle of Myriokephalon. The defeat marked the end of Byzantine attempts to recover the Anatolian plateau, which was now lost to the Turks forever and today forms the centre of the Republic of Turkey. Qilij Arslan died in 1192 after a reign of 36 years. He promoted Persian culture and was succeeded by Kaykhosrow I.

Venetian traveler, Marco Polo
On January 8, 1324 AD, Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, died at the age of 69. He was 17-years old when he started his long journey, along with his father and uncle to China, visiting several Asian lands, including Iran, both on the way and while returning. During his return journey he escorted Princess Kokachin sent by Kublai Khan from China as a bride for his grand nephew, Arghun Khan, the Ilkhanid Mongol ruler of Iran-Iraq.
It took two years for Marco Polo and the bridal party to reach Hormuz by sea from southern China, and when they reached Maragheh, the then capital in Iran, the Khan had died and was succeeded by his son, Ghazaan Khan, who married the princess and on conversion to Islam changed his name to Mahmoud. When Marco Polo finally returned to his hometown, Venice, in 1291, it was after 24 long years, but with many riches and after travelling some 24,000 kilometer. He related his memoirs to Rustichello da Pisa while both were prisoners of Genoa, mentioning his observations at the court of China’s Mongol Emperor, such as use of paper money, in addition to his observations in other Asian cities and lands, including Iran.

Mirza Ispand, the governor of Baghdad Province
On 29th of the Islamic month of Safar in 848 AH, Mirza Ispand, the governor of Baghdad Province, passed away. In 840 AH, he invited prominent ulema of all denominations of Islam to hold a debate, in which the Shi'ites or followers of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt triumphed through their rational discourse on the basis of the holy Qur'an and the Prophet's Hadith. Mirza Ispand thereby declared the School of the Ahl al-Bayt as the official creed of his almost autonomous state under the Qara Quyunlu Turkic Shi'ite dynasty.

Sultan Mu'zeddin Ahmad Sanjar
On 14th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal in 552 AH, Sultan Mu'zeddin Ahmad Sanjar bin Malik Shah bin Alp Arsalan, died, and with him the Seljuqid Empire in Central Asia, Iran, and Iraq, came to its end after 120 years of domination by this Turkic tribe. A branch of the Seljuqs survived in Anatolia (or modern Turkey), and northern parts of Syria for another 150 years. Sanjar died in captivity of the Oghuz Turks in the Khorasani city of Merv (in present day Turkmenistan) three years after suffering a heavy defeat at the hands of the infidel Qara Khitai Turks at the Battle of Qatawan near Samarqand. The Seljuq Turks, who overthrew the Ghaznawid Turks in Khorasan and then wiped out the Daylamite Persian dynasty in Iran and Iraq, had adopted Persian culture and language, and were patrons of Iranian poets.

Mohammad bin Hakim, famous as Chang Ji Mai in China
On 14th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal in 1019 AH, Mohammad bin Hakim, known as Chang Ji Mai in Chinese language, was born in the Iranian city of Isfahan. His ancestors were from Samarqand (presently in Uzbekistan), and at the age of 9, along with his uncle, he migrated to China. Chang Ji Mai taught Islamic sciences as well as Arabic and Persian literature in China and trained talented students in different fields. The Grand Mosque of Ji Nien is his masterpiece. He is known as a great scholar and interpreter of the holy Qur'an in China.

Charlemagne, the king of Franks and the clock was sent to him from Baghdad
On January 28, 814, Charlemagne, the king of Franks, died at the age of 72. After his conquest of Italy and central Europe he was crowned the first Roman Emperor in Western Europe after three centuries by Pope Leo III. He was brutal in his suppression of opposition to his rule in the occupied territories, and used to constantly raid Islamic Spain, but was unable to defeat the Spanish Muslims. When a clock was sent to him from Baghdad by the scientifically advanced Muslims, Charlemagne and the Europeans who were living in the dark ages were for long suspicious of the mechanical object and thought that a genie was inside it, showing the time of the day and the passing hours.

The notorious anti-Muslim King James I of Aragon
On February 2, 1208 AD, the notorious anti-Muslim King James I of Aragon was born. He occupied the prosperous Spanish Muslim Ta'efa of Valencia (Arabic Balansiya), through treachery, granting asylum to its deposed ruler, the apostate Zayd Abu Zayd, who adopted the Christian name Vicente Bellvis, married a Christian woman, and betrayed the Muslims. The Siege of Burriana (1233) and the Battle of the Puig (1237) launched by James were bravely resisted by Zayyan ibn Mardanish of Valencia, who was overpowered in 1238, thereby ending over five centuries of glorious Muslim rule over this region on the eastern coast of Spain. Emboldened by his seizure of Valencia, James next attacked and occupied the Muslim-ruled Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea, exterminating the local Spanish Muslim population and settling Christian Catalans in their place.

The 6th Ottoman Sultan, Murad II
On February 3, 1451 AD, the 6th Ottoman Sultan, Murad II, died after a reign of almost three decades during which he expanded the Turkish Empire into Europe, defeating the Christian coalition of the holy Roman Empire, Poland and Serbia-Hungary in several battles in the Balkans and in Hungary. He was, however, unsuccessful in the east in Anatolia (most of modern day Turkey) against fellow Turkic rulers, especially the forces of the Iran-based Empire of Shahrokh, the son of the fearsome central Asian conqueror, Amir Timur. On this same day Murad was succeeded by his son, Sultan Mohammad II, who accomplished his father's goal of exterminating the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire and liberating the city of Constantinople; subsequently renamed Islambol or Istanbul – as it is known today. On entering this once formidable city, he recited the Persian couplet of the famous Iranian poet, Shaikh Mosleh od-Din Sa'di: "The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars; The owl calls the watches in the towers of Afrasiyab."
An accomplished scholar with fluency in several languages such as Turkish, Persian, Arabic and Greek, he was a great builder of schools, mosques and libraries, and during his 30-year reign, he further consolidated Ottoman rule in southwestern Europe and in Anatolia.

The 12th Ottoman Sultan, Murad III, who styled himself as the 4th Turkish caliph
On January 15, 1595 AD, the 12th Ottoman Sultan, Murad III, who styled himself as the 4th Turkish caliph, died after a reign of 21 years, during which he earned notoriety for his fratricide (strangling five of his brothers to death), massacre of fellow Muslims, and institutional decline of the empire. Son of Sultan Salim II, “the Drunkardâ€‌ and his Jewess concubine, Rachel, he ended the long Peace of Amasya with Iran, by starting the 12-year war in the Caucasus. As a result of the growing inclination of the Turkish tribes of Anatolia towards the school of the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt, he made a pact with France, stopped the Ottoman push into Europe, and massacred thousands of Shi'ite Muslims in his dominions. As a result, his armies suffered defeats in Europe as well, at the hands of the Austrian Hapsburg Empire.

Mustafa II, the 22nd Ottoman Sultan and the 14th self-styled Turkish caliph
On February 6, 1664 AD, Mustafa II, the 22nd Ottoman Sultan and the 14th self-styled Turkish caliph, was born in Edirne to Sultan Mohammad IV and his Greek Cretan slave-girl, Evemia Voria, who on becoming Muslim was given the Persian-Arabic name Mahparah Amatullah Rabia Golnoush. He succeeded his uncle, Sultan Ahmad I in 1695 and died in January 1704, a few months after being deposed by the Jannisarries, in favour of his younger brother, Ahmad II, for his indulgence in pleasures and negligence of state affairs. In 1696, he had lost Azov at the mouth of the Don River in the Crimean Peninsula in what is now Ukraine to Russia. In the next year, he suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Zenta, resulting in the death of 30,000 Turkish troops, and killing his military ambitions in Europe. The subsequent Treaty of Carlowitz in 1699 forced the Ottoman Empire to lose much of its Balkan territories: Hungary and Transylvania to Austria, Morea to the Venetian Republic and Podolia to Poland.