The Near and Middle East (1252–1395 CE): Mamluk Power, Ilkhanid Persia, and the Gulf Thalassocracy

From the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates to the incense ports of Dhofar and the high walls of Cairo, the Near and Middle East in the Lower Late Medieval Age was a region of simultaneous devastation and renewal. Mongol armies and Black Death epidemics reshaped cities and frontiers, yet new centers of learning, commerce, and maritime enterprise rose from the wreckage, linking Iran, Syria, and Arabia in an intricate web of faith and exchange.

The Ilkhanate, founded in 1256, drew together Iran, Iraq, Armenia, and Azerbaijan under Mongol sovereignty. Its rulers—Ghazan (r. 1295–1304) and Öljeitü (r. 1304–1316)—converted to Islam and built monumental capitals at Tabriz and Sultaniyya, where Persianate administration and Mongol military discipline fused into a new imperial synthesis. Agrarian restoration followed: tax reforms, irrigation repairs, and standardized coinage encouraged recovery from the Mongol onslaughts of the previous century. When the dynasty collapsed after 1335, its fragments—the Jalayirids of Baghdad and Tabriz, the Chobanids of Azerbaijan, and the Muzaffarids of Fars and Isfahan—carried forward the artistic and bureaucratic legacy of the Ilkhans until Timur’s armies swept across the plateau in the 1380s and 1390s, subduing both Jalayirid Baghdad and Muzaffarid Shiraz by 1395.

In Syria, Egypt, and the Levant, the Mamluks—a military elite of Turkic, Circassian, and Kurdish origin—repelled the Mongols at ʿAyn Jālūt in 1260 CE and built an empire that stretched from Nubia to Anatolia. Under Sultan Baybars I (r. 1260–1277), a chain of fortresses secured the desert marches; the Crusader states fell one by one—Antioch in 1268, Tripoli in 1289, Acre in 1291—ending two centuries of Latin presence on the Syrian coast. Cairo, revitalized under the Qalawunid and later Circassian lines, became the pivot of a Sunni revival. Its madrasas, hospices, and waqf foundations endowed a new urban piety, while the Qalawun complex and the minarets of al-Nasir Muhammad defined the city’s skyline. In Jerusalem and Damascus, restoration of shrines and caravanserais followed, binding pilgrimage, scholarship, and trade into a single sacred geography.

Beyond the northern frontier, Cilician Armenia, long a crusader ally, succumbed to the Mamluks in 1375; Georgia and Armenia endured Mongol and later Timurid incursions but maintained resilient ecclesiastical traditions. On northeastern Cyprus, the Lusignan dynasty preserved a Latin outpost. Its ports of Famagusta and Kyrenia sustained Mediterranean commerce even as crusader dreams faded. There, Venetian and Genoese merchants turned to sugar cultivation, importing enslaved labor from the Black Sea and Africa—a precursor to Europe’s later plantation economies.

To the east, the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula entered a maritime renaissance. Along the coast of Fars, the island kingdom of Hormuz relocated its capital offshore about 1301, evolving into the dominant Gulf thalassocracy. From its island fortress, Hormuz taxed all shipping between India, Iran, and Arabia, exporting horses, pearls, and dates while importing Indian cottons, pepper, and spices. The Nabhani dynasty held the interior of Oman, while the Mahra sultans ruled the eastern Yemeni littoral and Socotra, policing the monsoon routes. In Hadhramaut, the oases of Shibam and Tarim prospered under Rasulid overlordship from Taʿizz and Zabīd, producing dates and jurists alike; the Bā ʿAlawī families of Tarim fused Sufi sanctity with mercantile enterprise, laying the foundation of the later Hadhrami diaspora that would link Arabia, India, and the Malay world. In Dhofar, frankincense groves continued to yield the aromatic resin that had perfumed temples since antiquity, while Socotra’s dragon’s-blood and aloe maintained niche trades to Gujarat and Calicut. The dhow fleets of al-Shihr and Mirbat rode the monsoons between Hormuz, Malabar, and the Swahili coast, tying the Gulf to the wider Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, on the Nile’s southern frontier, the Mamluk intervention in Nubia after 1276 CE ended the independence of Christian Dongola. Arab tribes—Beja, Jaʿalin, and Juhayna—migrated southward, intermarrying with Nubian nobles and spreading Islam through commerce rather than conquest. By the fourteenth century, Arab-Nubian Muslim dynasties ruled the valley, while the nomadic Juhayna ranged between the Nile and the Red Sea hills. Conversion, commerce, and intermarriage rather than war defined this gradual Arabization of the Sudanese corridor. Southward migrations of Luo and other Nilotic peoples followed, diversifying the upper Nile’s cultural landscape.

Throughout the region, plague and climate tested resilience. The Black Death (1347–1351) decimated populations from Tabriz to Cairo, emptying markets and caravanserais, yet irrigation and trade revived quickly where canal and qanāt systems endured. In Iran and Mesopotamia, the Tigris–Euphrates canal tracts and Fars orchards continued to yield grain, dates, and cotton. Syrian iqṭāʿ-holders restored orchards and olive groves; artisans in Aleppo and Damascus revived the glass, textile, and metal industries that made them famous from Genoa to Samarkand. The overlapping networks of merchants, Sufi orders, and urban guilds maintained a measure of stability when dynasties faltered.

Religiously, Islam’s geographic breadth encouraged plural expression. The Ilkhanids’ conversion sanctioned a synthesis of Persian bureaucratic culture and Mongol political forms. The Mamluks enshrined Sunni orthodoxy through law colleges and endowments; the Suhrawardi and Kubrawi Sufi orders crossed linguistic frontiers, linking Khurasan to Cairo. Christian and Jewish communities—Armenian, Georgian, Nestorian, Coptic, and Rabbanite—remained active in manuscript art, translation, and trade. The multicultural workshops of Tabriz and Damascus produced illuminated Qurʾans and Gospel codices alike, hallmarks of a cosmopolitan Middle East.

By 1395 CE, the region had re-formed into a constellation of complementary powers. Mamluk Syria and Egypt stood as guardians of Sunni learning and Mediterranean commerce; Jalayirid Baghdad and Muzaffarid Shiraz sustained Persianate art until Timur’s armies imposed a new imperial order. Hormuz ruled the Gulf as an island empire of merchants, while the Hadhrami and Dhofari coasts linked Arabia to India and Africa. Cyprus remained Latin and commercially vibrant, the last echo of crusader Christendom. Along the Nile, Arab-Nubian fusion gave rise to new societies that would shape the Sudan for centuries.

The fourteenth century thus closed not in decline but in transformation—a world of rebuilt capitals, re-channeled rivers, and re-charted seas, where Persian administrators, Egyptian Mamluks, Gulf mariners, and Hadhrami saints together forged the polycentric Middle East that would carry its traditions into the early modern age.

Middle East (1252 – 1395 CE): Ilkhanid Persia, Mamluk Syria, Caucasian Frontiers, and the Persian Gulf Thalassocracy

Geographic and Environmental Context

The Middle East includes Iraq, Iran, Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, eastern Jordan, most of Turkey’s central and eastern uplands (including Cilicia), eastern Saudi Arabia, northern Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, northeastern Cyprus, and all but southernmost Lebanon.

• Anchors: the Tigris–Euphrates basin, the Iranian plateau with Azerbaijan–Tabriz, the Caucasus (Armenia–Georgia–Azerbaijan), the Cilician uplands and Syrian plains, the Persian Gulf rim (Hormuz, al-Ahsa, Bahrain, Oman), and northeastern Cyprus as a crusader–Mamluk frontier node.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• Transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age (~1300) brought more variable rainfall: steppe margins and uplands suffered droughts, but irrigated zones (Khuzestan, Tigris–Euphrates alluvium, northern Syria, Fars) remained productive with careful canal upkeep.

• Plagues, especially the Black Death (1347–1351), devastated urban populations in Tabriz, Baghdad, Aleppo, and Damascus, undermining tax bases and military manpower.

Societies and Political Developments

• Ilkhanate and Successor States:

  • Founded in 1256, the Ilkhanate encompassed Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and eastern Anatolia.

  • Under Ghazan (r. 1295–1304) and Öljeitü (r. 1304–1316), Islam became the state religion, reforms standardized taxes, and monumental capitals rose at Tabriz and Sultaniyya.

  • Collapse after 1335 led to regional successor dynasties: the Jalayirids (Baghdad–Tabriz), Chobanids (Azerbaijan), and Muzaffarids (Fars–Isfahan). By the 1380s–1390s, Timur’s invasions shattered them, culminating in victories over Jalayirids and Muzaffarids by 1395.

• Mamluk Syria and Cilicia:

  • Mamluks defeated Mongols at ʿAyn Jālūt (1260) and absorbed the Syrian coast, toppling the Crusader states: Antioch (1268), Tripoli (1289), and Acre (1291).

  • Cilician Armenia, long allied with crusaders, fell to the Mamluks in 1375, ending the kingdom.

  • Northeastern Cyprus remained in Latin hands under the Lusignan dynasty, serving as a crusader–commercial outpost until Ottoman advance.

• Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan):

  • Georgia endured Mongol suzerainty and fragmentation; Timurid raids (from 1386) devastated Kartli and Kakheti but church culture persisted.

  • Armenia was divided between Ilkhanid and Turkmen spheres, later overrun by Timur.

• Eastern Jordan and Eastern Arabia:

  • Bedouin and tribal emirates balanced between Ilkhanid, Mamluk, and local suzerainty.

  • In al-Ahsa and Qatif, the Jarwanids (14th c.) controlled pearls and trade.

• Oman and Hormuz:

  • The Nabhani dynasty held the Omani interior; coastal ports came under Hormuz, which relocated to an island base c. 1301.

  • By the 14th century Hormuz had become the preeminent Persian Gulf thalassocracy, taxing Gulf trade and controlling routes between India, Iran, and Arabia.

Economy and Trade

• Agriculture:

  • Mesopotamia’s canals supported dates, wheat, and flax when maintained.

  • Fars, Isfahan, and Azerbaijan produced cotton, silk, and fruit.

  • Syrian plains yielded grain, olives, and fruits under iqṭāʿ assignments.

• Maritime trade:

  • Hormuz dominated Gulf tolls, channeling Indian pepper, cottons, and spices northward, and exporting Arabian horses, pearls, and dates.

  • Omani and Bahraini ports linked fisheries and pearl-beds to wider circuits.

• Overland caravans:

  • Tabriz–Sultaniyya–Rayy–Khurasan remained Silk Road arteries, routing Chinese silks and Central Asian horses westward.

  • Aleppo and Damascus linked the Indian Ocean–Persian Gulf circuits with Mediterranean trade (Genoese, Venetian).

• Currency: Ilkhanid monetary reforms under Ghazan stabilized coinage; Mamluks minted dīnārs and dirhams; Hormuz issued its own copper and silver for Gulf trade.

Subsistence and Technology

• Hydraulics: canal dredging on the Tigris–Euphrates, qanāt networks in Iran, water-lifting wheels in Syria and Fars.

• Military: steppe cavalry and mamluk armies; siege artillery and early gunpowder bombs appeared in late-14th-century warfare.

• Craft industries: Syrian glass and textiles, Persian inlaid metalwork and miniature painting, Armenian manuscript arts.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Silk Road trunks: Tabriz ⇄ Baghdad ⇄ Aleppo ⇄ Damascus; branches to Sultaniyya and Khurasan.

• Persian Gulf: Hormuz ⇄ Basra ⇄ Wasit and Hormuz ⇄ Oman ⇄ India, timed to the monsoon.

• Caucasus passes: Darial and Derbent funneled steppe nomads and caravans.

• Cilicia–Levant routes: Sis ⇄ Aleppo–Damascus for trade and crusader/Mamluk conflicts.

• Northeastern Cyprus: Lusignan harbors (Famagusta, Kyrenia) tied to Genoese and Venetian networks.

Belief and Symbolism

• Islam:

  • Ilkhanid Islamization fused Persianate culture with Mongol rulership; Sufi orders (Suhrawardiyya, Kubrawiyya) proliferated.

  • Mamluks institutionalized Sunni madrasas and waqf endowments in Damascus, Aleppo, and Jerusalem.

• Christianity:

  • Armenian and Georgian churches endured under Mongol, Mamluk, and Timurid pressures.

  • Northeastern Cyprus and Cilician Armenia hosted Latin cathedrals and monasteries.

• Judaism: thriving communities in Baghdad, Damascus, and Tabriz engaged in scholarship and commerce.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Political layering: successor dynasties (Jalayirids, Muzaffarids) maintained irrigation and caravan routes after Ilkhanid collapse.

• Route redundancy: if Levantine ports faltered, trade diverted via Hormuz–Tabriz or the Black Sea (Trebizond).

• Urban–Sufi–guild networks: mediated crisis during plague years, sustaining social cohesion.

• Maritime resilience: Hormuz’s dominance ensured Gulf commerce continued despite upheavals inland.

Long-Term Significance

By 1395, the Middle East had reconfigured into polycentric powers:

• Mamluk Syria consolidated Sunni legitimacy and Mediterranean trade.

• Jalayirids and Muzaffarids carried Ilkhanid legacies until Timur’s conquests.

• Hormuz anchored the Persian Gulf as a global maritime crossroad.

• Armenia, Georgia, and Cilicia suffered fragmentation and invasion but preserved ecclesiastical traditions.

• Northeastern Cyprus remained Latin, a final outpost of crusader Christendom.

This constellation — Persianate successor courts, Mamluk Levant, Gulf thalassocracy, and Caucasian frontier polities — defined the region’s transition into the 15th century under Timurid shockwaves and the oncoming Ottoman challenge.

A brief resurgence of Georgian power in the fourteenth century ends when the Turkic conquerer Timur (Tamerlane) destroys Tbilisi in 1386.

Tokhtamysh, khan of the Golden Horde, battles the Turco-Mongol warlord and conqueror Timur, in the areas of the Caucasus mountains, Turkistan and southern Russia in the 1380s and early 1390s.

The war between the two Turkic rulers plays a key role in the decline of the Turkic power in southern Russia.

Georgia, a Christian kingdom in the Caucasus, is subjected, beginning in 1386, to several disastrous invasions by the conqueror Timur, whose vast empire stretches, at its greatest extent, from Central Asia into Anatolia.

These conflicts are intimately linked with those between Timur and Tokhtamysh.

Timur plans a face-to-face confrontation with the chronically ungrateful Tokhtamysh in the Golden Horde’s Kipchak Khanate, departing in 1391 with an army of over one hundred thousand men to discipline his former protégé and from there launch an invasion of Russia.

Timur leads his army north for more than seven hundred miles across the empty steppe north of the Caspian Sea to reach the Great Bulgar state.

Learning that Tokhtamysh and his army march on the western side of the Ural River, Timur plans an attack, though mindful that his movement necessitates marching his undersupplied army across desert regions.

He then rides west about a thousand miles, advancing in a front more than ten miles wide.

During this advance, Timur's army gets far enough north to be in a region of very long summer days, causing complaints by his Muslim soldiers about keeping a long schedule of prayers.

Tokhtamysh, seeing Timur’s army approaching his rear guard, attempts to halt the confrontation with gifts and fawning diplomatic gestures, but an implacable Timur, once betrayed, advances, boxing in Tokhtamysh's army against the east bank of the Volga River in the Orenburg region.

In the ensuing three-day Battle of the Steppes (or Kandurcha River), Tokhtamysh’s forces nearly destroy Timur’s left flank until his reserve troops, positioned at the rear of the center, encircle and break Tokhtamysh’s rear to defeat his troops, demoralized by a rumor from Timur’s camp that Tokhtamysh had been slain.

After the battle Tokhtamysh and some of his army are allowed to escape.

After Tokhtamysh's initial defeat, Timur invades Muscovy to the north of Tokhtamysh's holdings.

Timur's army burns Ryazan and advances on Moscow.

He is pulled away before reaching the Oka River by Tokhtamysh's renewed campaign in the south.

Tokhtamysh’s cavalry attacks the right flank and the center of Timur's army at the Terek River, in the North Caucasus.

However, some Golden Horde emirs go over to Timur's side, which helps Timur defeat the left flank of Tokhtamysh's army and then the whole army itself.

The victorious army of Timur pursues that of Tokhtamysh's, annihilating cities while staying on the Volga.

Timur in the same year also plunders Ukek, ...

…Majar, …