Polish Scientists confirm the Mongol invasion and its demographic change in Mesopotamia .

[StonyArabia]

Analysis of non-metric tooth crown traits of the ancient inhabitants of northern Mesopotamia conducted by the Polish team showed that there were no large migrations in this region from the 3rd millennium BC until the Middle Ages.

It was not until the invasion of the Mongols in the thirteenth century that a significant change of population occurred. Until now, researchers have believed on the basis of written sources that the movements of population in this part of the Middle East were much larger.



Recent research results have been published in Homo - Journal of Comparative Human Biology. The authors of the analyses are Arkadiusz Sołtysiak and Martha Bialon of the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw.



The researchers analysed the non-metric tooth crown traits, for example, the shape of the incisors, the number of nodules on the molars, which are largely inherited and can be used instead of DNA testing to track population changes in prehistory.



Political, social and economic history of ancient southern Mesopotamia is well known from its many surviving archives containing written cuneiform tablets.



"For northern Mesopotamia we have far fewer resources and thus our knowledge of the region is poorer. We have increased it by examining human remains from this region" - explained Sołtysiak.



The team from the University of Warsaw examined non-metric tooth crown traits of teeth from 350 individuals from three sites located in the centre of the Euphrates valley (eastern Syria), inhabited on and off from the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC to late antiquity, and later used as a burial places. It turned out that until the Abbasid period (8th - 13th century AD) there were no significant changes in population in this area, despite the turbulent history of this part of the Middle East, many times conquered by invaders from the south (Hammurabi of Babylon), the east (Assyrians and Persians) and the west (Alexander of Macedon).



"We expected the lack of major migration for the bronze age, but not for the time of the great empires which followed with the expansion of the Assyrian state in the 9th/8th century BC. For this period, the written sources record large migratory movements, starting with the mass resettlement of millions of people by the Assyrian rulers, through the expansion of the Greeks in the Hellenistic period, to the mass migration during the Roman-Persian wars" - added the archaeologist.



Polish study has shown that the movements of the population at that time did not have a significant impact on the local population living in the central part of the Euphrates valley and the only the invasion of the Mongols under the leadership of Hulagu, which devastated the whole Mesopotamia, changed the situation. Historical sources indicate that only in the 17th century the desolate middle Euphrates valley began to be resettled by Bedouins from the Arabian Peninsula. Only this migration led to significant changes in the occurrence of frequencies of the non-metric tooth crown traits - the researchers argue.



The research project was carried out with a grant from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

http://www.naukawpolsce.pap.pl/en/ne...sopotamia.html

[StonyArabia]

"Iraq in 1258 was very different from present day Iraq. Its agriculture was supported by canal networks thousands of years old. Baghdad was one of the most brilliant intellectual centers in the world. The Mongol destruction of Baghdad was a psychological blow from which Islam never recovered. With the sack of Baghdad, the intellectual flowering of Islam was snuffed out. Imagining the Athens of Pericles and Aristotle obliterated by a nuclear weapon begins to suggest the enormity of the blow. The Mongols filled in the irrigation canals and left Iraq too depopulated to restore them."
"They swept through the city like hungry falcons attacking a flight of doves, or like raging wolves attacking sheep, with loose reins and shameless faces, murdering and spreading terror...beds and cushions made of gold and encrusted with jewels were cut to pieces with knives and torn to shreds. Those hiding behind the veils of the great Harem were dragged...through the streets and alleys, each of them becoming a plaything...as the population died at the hands of the invaders

[LightHouse89]

So the Mongols screwed over the Arabs it would seem.....at least in the long run.

[StonyArabia]

So the Mongols screwed over the Arabs it would seem.....at least in the long run.

Yes the Mongol invasion totally destroyed the civilization and intellectual center. According to the Arab chronicles many of the locals in Mesopotamia fled into Egypt or as far as India. This of course does not end, since there was the arrival of Timur who gave the final blow and made Iraq into a Desert waste land. Iraq was heavily depopulated, aside from it's northern regions. Thus it's population would be revived by Arabian Bedouin tribes migrating from Arabia in the 15th century which only ended in the 19th century. Thus Iraq became nomadic region, and then it became battle field between the Ottoman Turks and Safavid Persians which also effected it negatively. It was only in 1822 that the Bedouin tribes would remove the Persian presence, there defeating 40, 000 Qajar Qizilbash Persians. Thus Iraq was changed for ever by the Mongol and Timurid invasions.

[LightHouse89]

Yes the Mongol invasion totally destroyed the civilization and intellectual center. According to the Arab chronicles many of the locals in Mesopotamia fled into Egypt or as far as India. This of course does not end, since there was the arrival of Timur who gave the final blow and made Iraq into a Desert waste land. Iraq was heavily depopulated, aside from it's northern regions. Thus it's population would be revived by Arabian Bedouin tribes migrating from Arabia in the 15th century which only ended in the 19th century. Thus Iraq became nomadic region, and then it became battle field between the Ottoman Turks and Safavid Persians which also effected it negatively. It was only in 1822 that the Bedouin tribes would remove the Persian presence, there defeating 40, 000 Qajar Qizilbash Persians. Thus Iraq was changed for ever by the Mongol and Timurid invasions.

That's kind of like the Germanic tribes did in the British Islands which drove them from being Romanized celts back into savage celts hahahha. Not to mention the Saxons drove them into the fringes of the Islands.

[Anglojew]

"Iraq in 1258 was very different from present day Iraq. Its agriculture was supported by canal networks thousands of years old. Baghdad was one of the most brilliant intellectual centers in the world. The Mongol destruction of Baghdad was a psychological blow from which Islam never recovered. With the sack of Baghdad, the intellectual flowering of Islam was snuffed out. Imagining the Athens of Pericles and Aristotle obliterated by a nuclear weapon begins to suggest the enormity of the blow. The Mongols filled in the irrigation canals and left Iraq too depopulated to restore them."
"They swept through the city like hungry falcons attacking a flight of doves, or like raging wolves attacking sheep, with loose reins and shameless faces, murdering and spreading terror...beds and cushions made of gold and encrusted with jewels were cut to pieces with knives and torn to shreds. Those hiding behind the veils of the great Harem were dragged...through the streets and alleys, each of them becoming a plaything...as the population died at the hands of the invaders

If Islam went back to its Abbasid heights it would be a truly great religion again. It is my aim to help achieve this by encouraging Islam to reform to a pluralist ideology.

[StonyArabia]

If Islam went back to its Abbasid heights it would be a truly great religion again. It is my aim to help achieve this by encouraging Islam to reform to a pluralist ideology.

Yes but the problem was the Mongol invasion destroyed many books dealing with the religious and scientific as well secular works. It will be hard task in some ways but many are looking back at this trying to revive this. This was documented by the chronicles that says this:

Founded in 1227 by Caliph Mustansir Billah, the complex included both a library and a hospital. Ibn Batutah described the library in his book about a pilgrimage to the Middle East. The library with 80,000 volumes was established with donations including 150 camel-loads of rare books from the royal collection.

In 1258, Mongol invaders destroyed the library. Survivors say the Tigris River ran "black with ink" from the enormous quantities of books thrown into the river. The library was rebuilt and is now part of Al-Mustansiriya University.

Tigris ran black with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river and red from the blood of the scientists and philosophers killed.

[Anglojew]

Yes but the problem was the Mongol invasion destroyed many books dealing with the religious and scientific as well secular works. It will be hard task in some ways but many are looking back at this trying to revive this. This was documented by the chronicles that says this:

Founded in 1227 by Caliph Mustansir Billah, the complex included both a library and a hospital. Ibn Batutah described the library in his book about a pilgrimage to the Middle East. The library with 80,000 volumes was established with donations including 150 camel-loads of rare books from the royal collection.

In 1258, Mongol invaders destroyed the library. Survivors say the Tigris River ran "black with ink" from the enormous quantities of books thrown into the river. The library was rebuilt and is now part of Al-Mustansiriya University.

Tigris ran black with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river and red from the blood of the scientists and philosophers killed.

In my opinion, while you're right, the pursuit of knowlege and ability to challenge dogma eg pluralistic thought was lost and replaced with a totalitarian fundamentalist ideology that criminalised heretical ideas eg science and philosophy.

[MarkyMark]

It wasn't just the Arabs who suffered. The Jacobites, Nestorians, and Chaldeans suffered massively from the Mongols and Timurlane as well. This is why I argue that modern day Syrians and Iraqis are not native and are pretty much arabs, because that native population never recovered. Even now the Jacobites now are only 700k.

[StonyArabia]

It wasn't just the Arabs who suffered. The Jacobites, Nestorians, and Chaldeans suffered massively from the Mongols and Timurlane as well. This is why I argue that modern day Syrians and Iraqis are not native and are pretty much arabs, because that native population never recovered. Even now the Jacobites now are only 700k.

This is indeed correct to an extent. I disagree about Syria, they did not suffer as much population replacement like Iraq did, only the southern and eastern regions of Syria suffered. Though it must be noted that Arabian tribes were already present in region mostly as elite, aside from the Syrian Desert. However the Iraqi Arabs are for the most part from Arabia as they are the ones who revived it, since the area was deserted and very depopulated. As for Tamerlane yes he depopulated Mosul and Tikrit for example.