The Event or Incident of Tartar Attacks
In the 13th century, Central Asia was ruled by Khuwarizm Shah. Once the Mongol leader, Changaez Khan sent one of his ambassadors to the court of Sultan Alauddin Shah. But owing to some misunderstanding, the Tartar ambassador was killed. This so enraged Changaez Khan, that with his tribal army he attacked the Muslim empire. His grandson, Hulagu Khan, made the conquest complete by destroying the Muslim world from Samarkand (Russia) to Aleppo (Syria).
The historian Ibn-e Aseer has held this event in Muslim history to be the deadliest of all. The Muslim world yearned for retaliation. Political activities were launched leading to the battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 AD. In this battle, the Muslims did gain some partial success, but they failed to expel the Tartars from the Muslim world. Finally, people lost any hope of defeating the Tartars. The Muslims began saying that if anyone said that the Tartars had been defeated or made prisoners, this should be treated as mere rumors. (Al-Kamil Fi al-Tarikh,
Vol. 10, p. 353)
There was no conscious effort by anyone to give the Muslims the message of re-planning. However, the pressure of circumstance also acts as a teacher. As such, a new silent process set in amongst the Muslims of those times. Although this process was the result of circumstance, in effect, it took the form of
re-planning, that is, opting for the method of peaceful dawah work and abandoning futile engagement on the battlefield.
On this subject, the British author T.W Arnold (1864-1930) wrote a well researched 388-page book “The Preaching of Islam” first published in 1896.
In this book, Professor Arnold writes in detail as to how under the pressure of circumstance a new line of thinking developed amongst the Muslims of those times. This was based on peaceful dawah instead of armed struggle. The work of peaceful dawah was undertaken amongst the Tartars on such a large scale that finally the majority of the Tartars accepted Islam. Referring to this event, Phillip K. Hitti writes in his book, “History of the Arabs” that: “The religion of the Muslims had conquered where their arms had failed.” (History of the Arabs, 1970, p. 488)
This statement of Professor Hitti can be differently worded, “Where the first planning of the Muslims had failed, the second planning had succeeded.” The process began with the event of the conversion of the Tartars, which has been thus described by Arnold:
“This Prince, Tugluq Timur Khan (1347-1363), is said to have owed his conversion to a holy man from Bukhara, by the name of Shaykh Jamal al-Din. This Shaykh, along with a number of travellers, had unwittingly trespassed on the game-preserves of the prince, who ordered them to be bound hand and foot and brought before him. In reply to his angry question, how they had dared interfere with his hunting, the Shaykh pleaded that they were unaware that they were trespassing on forbidden ground. Learning that they were strangers and were quite unaware that they were trespassing on forbidden ground, and also learning that they were Persians, the prince said that a dog was worth more than a Persian. “Yes” replied the Shaykh, “if we had not the true faith, we should indeed be worse than the dogs.” Struck with his reply, the Khan ordered this bold Persian to be brought before him on his return from hunting, and taking him aside asked him to explain what he meant by these words and what was “faith”. The Shaykh then set before him the doctrines of Islam with such fervor and zeal that the heart of the Khan that before had been hard as a stone was melted like wax, and so terrible a picture did the holy man draw of the state of unbelief, that the prince was convinced of the blindness of his own errors. However, he said, “Were I now to make a profession of the faith of Islam, I should not be able to lead my subjects on to the true path. But bear with me a little, and when I have entered into the possession of the kingdom of my forefathers, come to me again.” Later he accepted Islam.” (The Preaching of Islam, London, 1913, pp.180-81)
