Review of Reports on Mongols' looting,A Critical review of the narrations of looting and savagery of the Mongols in Khorasan and Transoxiana Savagery and Bloodshed in the Invasion of Iran

Document Type : جغرافیای تاریخی خراسان بزرگ

Abstract

A number of historians and scholars have reported on the extent of the killing and looting of the Mongols by describing them as a savage, vicious, bloodthirsty, predatory, cursed, and far from all human morality with no purpose but to kill people. The extent to which such characteristics can be attributed to the Mongols is in keeping with their historical realities and practices, and the question whether the Mongols were the only culprit in attacking and destroying Iran, are the focus of the present study. Descriptive-analytical research method was used for this purpose. An examination of the situation in Iran on the eve of the Mongol invasion and their behavior during the invasion and rule in Iran show that not only the situation in Iran before the Mongol invasion was calm and with no war and bloodshed, but also the Mongols were not so savage and bloody and were not the only culprit in destruction. it is also believed that Iran, as some historians say, was not so devastated by the Mongol invasion so that it could not find itself in good situation until a thousand years later. In fact, the political and social situation in Iran was very agitated on the eve of the Mongol invasion because of the conflict between the claimants of power, and the Mongols invaded a land where murder and looting had already initiated, and they accelerated the intensity and extent of the killings and destruction with their attacks.
Keyword: Mongols, Khorasan, Transoxiana, Looting, Brutality