The thirteenth century to the seventeenth century can be considered a period of ascendancy as there are many examples of dominance and the fight for superiority between various groups and empires: most notably through the Mongol Empire, the destruction of the Abbasid Empire, and the consolidation of the Ottoman Empire.
In the thirteenth century, Mongol invasions were rampant all over Asia, leading through the Middle East and into Europe. They were sent by the Mongol Empire to gain territorial expansion across Eurasia and the Middle East. Mongol armies led by Genghis Khan invaded Iraq and Iran beginning in the 1220’s, devastating both areas and causing large amounts of destruction (Cleveland and Bunton 34). The sole intention of these invasions was to cause destruction and establish superiority and dominance for the Mongols (Cleveland and Bunton 34). This showcased the idea of ascendancy at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the idea that at this time these empires were beginning to fight for control and dominance. These invasions led to the Turks gaining control over many powerful locations, including Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. The Mongol Empire was known for these invasions, which allowed expansion of the territory at a rapid rate. By 1279 the Mongol Empire had almost doubled in size since the death of Genghis Khan in 1227 (Morgan and Morgan 429). It was divided up into smaller independent states that all governed according to one central power (Morgan and Morgan 429). This allowed the control of the Mongol Empire to spread from China throughout the Middle Eastern regions including India, Persia, Iraq, and Anatolia (Morgan and Morgan 429). This reinforced the power that this empire had until it dissolved in the fourteenth century.
The Abbasid Empire fell in 1258 after the sack of the city of Baghdad by the Mongols (Cleveland and Bunton 20). This ignited a major change among the power in the Middle East because the Abbasid Empire had been a symbol for “universal Islam” for the last 500 years (Cleveland and Bunton 34). Subsequently, the end of the Abbasid Empire led to a conflict between various parties and states for political and cultural control. The result was a rise in successor states that sought to preserve and enrich the Islamic culture through their own control (Cleveland and Bunton 20). Some of these groups that ascended to power after the Abbasids were dissolved were foreign military elites as well as some individual religious leaders (Lapidus 262). Since the Abbasids were no longer in power, more Turkish people entered the regions previously controlled by the empire and grew to power there (Lapidus 177). This gave way to more potential occupational organizations who all wanted to control the Middle East. As a result, changes occurred to the regimes and social structure of many areas. In some regions, power transferred completely from the bureaucratic elites to the nomadic tribes and slave armies that had been brought in (Lapidus 177). This also led to the rise of the Mughal Empire as well as the Safavid Empire, both of which ruled within the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Mughals and Safavids both dissolved by the eighteenth century due to “the pressure of tribal invasions” (Pamuk 226), however they displayed part of the various groups vying for control at this time.
The Ottoman Empire was “the most imposing of all the Islamic empires” (Cleveland and Bunton 33). It ruled for six centuries until it was finally dissolved after World War I (Pamuk 226). The Ottomans expanded the Middle Eastern population, and by the seventeenth century it had reached 30 million people, spread throughout the Eastern European provinces, Anatolia, Istanbul, and some Asian and African provinces (Pamuk 226). Many changes took place under the control of the Ottomans that created significant cultural and societal developments within the various provinces of the Middle East. The population under this control lived through a long period that included economic stability and agricultural prosperity (Pamuk 226). In addition, the Ottomans differed from the other empires at the time because they embraced technological innovation and took advantage of the fact that there were many different regions and ethnicities living under one single empire (Pamuk 228). This strengthened the empire because people who were both Muslim and Christian could live, work, and serve alongside one another without any high tensions. Throughout the mid-fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, the Ottoman empire experienced many wars that caused a gradual decline in the empire (Guilmartin 721), showcasing the fact that ascendancy was still a significant part of this time. However, during this time the empire still managed to achieve a rapid expansion and claimed many territories (Guilmartin 725). This dictates the power of the empire and the superiority the Ottomans had over all of the other empires in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The Ottoman empire ended the period of ascendancy because it brought stability to the Middle East in the vast reaches of its control.
The period between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries in the Middle East are considered a time of ascendancy because of the different empires and groups who all exerted their own superiority and dominance during this time, as well as those groups who fought for control. The most notable of these empires and groups are the Mongol Empire, the Abbasid Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. All of these different empires gave way to the conflict between various other empires, such as the Safavids and the Mughals, who rose to power in their own different territories and regions.
Works Cited
Cleveland, William L. and Bunton, Martin. A History of the Modern Middle East. Boulder, CO:
Westview Press, 2009.
Guilmartin, John F. “Ideology and Conflict: The Wars of the Ottoman Empire, 1453-1606.” The
Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press,
2014.
Morgan, David and Morgan, David O. “The Decline and Fall of the Mongol Empire.” Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society 19.4 (2009): 427-437.
Pamuk, Sevket. “Institutional Change and the Longevity of the Ottoman Empire, 1500-1800.”
The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35.2 (2004): 225-247.
