Moğolların Türkistan Fethi ve Sonuçları (13.-14. Yüzyıllar)

Abstract

The subject of this thesis is the transformation of Turkistan under Mongolian dominance. Mongols who entered into world politics by Genghis Khan are accused of terminating data of the civilisation in general and sources of Islam in specific. In more recent studies to evaluate these sources, the fact that almost all movements of conquest in Middle-Age include violence is ignored. In fact, the real happening was the fight of centuries between the migrants and the already settled groups. But this time, the migrants won. This time, the issue was different; the migrants didn’t receive what they need and return; they are institutionalised. They had laws and this time the common phenomenon that brings them together was not unity of race. They got together for common benefits. They wanted welfare and prosperity. What is more, they had a charismatic leader taking its power from the god. Just like what their ancestors did, they attacked China which is the source of wealth. This has already been tried by others and it did not look possible in short run. If it was not possible to capture the source, it might be more logical to attack the roots to feed the source. For this reason, the target was Turkistan this time. This place was the heart of commerce between Europe and Asia. Here, there was a web of super-politics economic structure. However, the wealth was obtained by big cartels. Welfare was not able to infiltrate into all strata of the society. Although the region has become a refuge for ones who escape social pressures, problems that arouse due to the cosmopolitan accumulation in this region were surfacing at an increasing extent. While the western parts were engaged in sectarian conflicts, in the east sides, there were massacres started by Qara Khitans against the Muslims. Mongols paid their first step into Turkistan in such an environment. In the majority of the conquest, they did not face a significant resistance. It is surprising that; the cities with significant resistance and the ones that is subjected to a considerable amount of violence was the ones dominated by mighty cartels. Results such as; resettling the terminated cities nearby its previous place, assigning governors who are aware of the social and cultural considerations of the region and all conquered areas to be included in a more effective and rapid web of communication shows that; Mongol dominance in Turkistan was not a regular invasion but a planned action of conquest.