The World in 1393 and How it Got There
Men of the Sword and the Book
II
Yamin ad-Dawlah ‘abd al-Malik Sulayman ibn Hassan ibn Mohammed
(1337-1370, reign 1359-1370)
There is no shortage of legends and histories about this man in the Muslim world, and at one point he was the quintessential Noble Heathen even among European sources. Today, however, he may not be as well-known as previously, and so perhaps it is time to examine his life from a more factual standpoint.
The date of his sudden death of what were perhaps natural causes is known; legend has it he was only thirty-three, a romantic age for a world-changing figure to die at, reminiscent of Alexander the Great or the prophet Issa. He was the fourth son of his father Hassan, who emerged as the heir in Baghdad after Adil Mohammed’s Empire fell apart. Hassan’s succession was not a smooth affair, but somewhere between 1358 and 1360 Sulayman became the uncontested power in Baghdad, and set about implementing his dramatic and ambitious vision into life.
He was committed to an ideal of a universal Muslim Empire, that would be able to overcome factionalism and tribal division, and he was convinced about the necessity of removing the power of the Christians as far away as possible from the centers of Islam. He also was the first in a long time to set Constantinople as a real goal for the future. The expansion against Christian states is of course what he is most famous for, and what won him the loyalty of many factions that would not obey his father. Nonetheless, he was far more in both reality and myth than a simple conqueror
Whether by luck or design, he had good teachers in his youth, and acquired a deep appreciation for the intellectual underpinnings of Empire building. Rather than simply pursuing a return to power like his father, he put a great effort into surrounding himself with the foremost minds of his era, writers and lawyers and historians who would define the goals for many future sultans and above all, recorded meticulously his every deed. Sulayman certainly was very apt in using this advantage, and had a pronounced sense of the dramatic moment. There’s any amount of anecdotes about his noble deeds, gallantry, or witty sayings, most of which we shall omit. In short, he was a legend within his lifetime.
The new Muslim Empire was contingent, however, on a few pragmatic goals being met first. The foremost was a necessary détente with the Timurids and with Ahmed Baghadur. The former was indeed accomplished, while in the case of Egypt Sulayman went much further, impressing the wily warlord so much that an official alliance was signed and pursued through the duration of his reign against defiant Jerusalem, the bothersome Knights of St.John and the tenacious Fatimids. The second was a need to deal with the threat of Mongol retaliation for northward expansion. His timing was perfect and two defeats in Anatolia convinced the Blue Horde to not only leave Baghdad in peace but actually retreat north of the Caucasus, leaving their clients in Kartli and Tabriz isolated. Victory over the Mongols brought him the allegiance of the Turkmen tribes in southern Caucasus, which allowed the conquest of the rival branches of the Seljuk royal house in Persia.
It was after such consolidation that he finally set out to remove the Christians from the Levant. For over a century, an alliance of Armenian Cilicia, Ilkhan Damascus and Knytling Tripoli held the Muslims at bay. This time, however, history was not on their side. After crushing them in the field, he expelled all three ruling houses and took the cities. For most part, his reputation for mercy was already widespread, and most towns – including the legendarily stubborn Baalbek – opened their gates without resistance. Within three years he was in control of the entire territory. With the northern flank secured, his armies headed south, to Jerusalem. Coordinating with the Egyptians, he overwhelmed the Christian armies. Fighting alongside the Greek kingdom were the Knights of St.John, and volunteers from various Christian states of Europe. The former’s stronghold at Damietta was taken by Ahmed Bahadur by storm even as Jerusalem itself fell, and together with the Monomachs, the Knights fled to Ascalon.
The advantage of Christian navies (with Cyprus a convenient naval base) over what the Muslims currently had became obvious as the siege of Ascalon dragged on. Likewise, Alexandria held out against Egypt. The two rulers agreed to sign a peace with the remaining Christians until enough naval power would be obtained. How committed Ahmed Baghadur was remains unknown, but Sulayman started a shipbuilding program in Syria and tried to get the one Turkish power with naval experience – the Osmanoglu – on board. They refused, proving themselves a potential rival. In addition to preparing the ships, Sulayman also started planning a future confrontation with the Anatolian beyliks. It was in the middle of that endeavour that he died.
In Syria and elsewhere, his behaviour with the population was exemplary, even better than what the Emperor Alexander did (which was in itself fairly mild for the time). Because so little resistance was offered, the Christians and the Mongols were largely left alone. In Jerusalem, however, the subsequent Monomachs were very stridently Orthodox and treated their Muslim subjects far more harshly than the other population, and resisted formidably. For that, the larger part of the Christians were expelled from the larger cities and allowed to go to Ascalon, while the remainder often paid heavy tax to avoid retribution. This perhaps was to be the pattern for future conquests, had he lived longer. As he died, however, it left a much-reduced Greek state in Ascalon with a sufficient population to attempt reconquest. The opportunity to do so came very quickly.
Sulayman only had one surviving son (Hassan), who was many years away from his majority. Sulayman’s nephews immediately fell into fighting for regency. This was combined with a fundamental falling out between the core of the empire and its periphery; although the Turkmen confederations (the Black and White Sheep) were loyal to Sulayman’s glory and genius, they were not really loyal to his universalist ideals. The traditionalist nomads rebelled almost immediately, asserting their old autonomy in the East. The crisis in Baghdad prompted Ahmed Baghadur to intervene. An Egyptian army marched into the city and after some deliberation, the Abbasid Caliphs who had long survived as figureheads in the Seljuk court were installed as rulers of Iraq, with the remainder of the Hassanid state subservient to Egypt. The spectacular reversal of fortune, however, only served to strengthen the myth of ‘abd al-Malik Sulayman – like Alexander the Great deep in antiquity, he left the survivors wondering: what if he had only lived a little longer?
Meanwhile, in Egypt, the era of another great, but controversial man was just coming to a close…
