Iraq has a glorious Islamic past

When in February 1258 the killing had stopped and the looting had paused, Hulagu, grandson of the creator of the world's prevailing superpower Ghengiz Khan, and the destroyer of the Abbasid dynasty, asked the Iraqi ulema, or religious heads, a simple question. "Which man is better as a sovereign? An unbeliever who is just, or a Muslim who is unjust?"

The question is not substantially different from the one posed to the people of Iraq by George Bush, son of the victor of the second Gulf War and undisputed leader of the prevailing superpower. The 13th century clerics were silent until one of the sages in their midst, Radiuddin Ali, accepted new realities and wrote down the collective answer:

"The unbeliever who is just should be preferred to the unjust believer."

It would be convenient to report that this is where the matter ended. But there was more than one answer given by the Arabs, and delivered over time. Not one of these responses ever suggested that the last Abbasid Caliph Mustaffim, who was deposed and murdered, be restored to the palaces of Baghdad.

That era was dead, killed by its own excesses and buried by the Mongol avalanche, and the Arabs recognised it. But to reject the Abbasids was not synonymous with accepting the Mongols.

The Mongols promised that the new regime in Baghdad would be run by Iraqis, not them. They too established the difference between control and administration. The former lay with Hulagu and his generals. The latter was left to the Iraqis. Hulagu retained Ibn Alkamiya as the vizier, or the prime minister, who had served the last Caliph.

To this day, Arab schoolchildren are taught the sentence: "Cursed by God be he who curses not Ibn Alkamiya." Hulagu's armies were not without Muslims in their ranks when he marched on Baghdad, although they were not too many.

His few Muslim supporters were Shias, not Kurds: Kurds then had total empathy with the fellow Sunni Arabs, for the ruling dynasty of Saladin was indeed Kurdish. Some of the Muslim support for Hulagu was destroyed by guilt, as was the case of Teghel Argun who slipped away from the Mongol ranks after witnessing the destruction of Baghdad.

He was later captured by the Mongols and put to dead in the marketplace of Tabriz.Many of the regional Muslim lords became submissive to the new power. Azizuddin Kavus offered Hulagu a magnificent pair of leather boots as a gift. He also had his own portrait drawn on the boots so that Hulagu could have him permanently at his feet. Yet others tried craft.

The old and wily Badruddin Lulu of Mosul, on being summoned to Hulagu's presence, promised his terrified followers that he would emerge with his honour intact. In fact, he suggested, he would not return before he had gone so far as to tweak Hulagu's ears!

He lived up to his promise. He offered Hulagu a magnificent pair of rare pearls and then asked for the honour of placing them on the conqueror's ears. He was granted permission to do so. He tweaked Hulagu's ears when putting on the earrings, and glanced at his entourage while doing so to indicate that he had kept his promise.

But there were also those who responded to the deepest crisis in the history of Islam by discovering conviction, and then the courage to stand up against a power that since Ghengis Khan had never been defeated between the eastern shores of China to the doors of western Europe beyond Russia, and now to the heart of the Muslim world in Baghdad. Then, as now, the fall of Baghdad opened the way to Damascus and Syria. Then, as now, the temptation seemed irresistible. Nassir, sultan of Damascus, played for time, sending his son to Hulagu with the excuse that he could not come personally because he feared that in his absence the Crusaders would march on Damascus. Hulagu was unimpressed by the explanation.

He sent Nassir a message, the essence of which was: "Know that we are God's army on earth." He, like others after him, saw his conquest as moral purpose. "Those who oppose us must flee, and we must hunt them... Resist, and face annihilation. Accept, and find safety. Accept our law, so that our laws can be common... Answer quickly, or your country will be turned into a desert."

Nassir's reply was braver than the strength of his forces warranted. He said, "Resistance to you is obedience to God... If we slay you, our prayers have been answered. If you slay us, we go to Paradise."

Hulagu had no desire to come in between Nassir and Paradise. On September 12, 1259, some 19 months after the destruction of Baghdad, he marched into Syria. The story began on a familiar note, with the successive destruction of cities culminating in the annihilation of Aleppo in January 1260. Nassir, betrayed and depressed, abandoned Damas-cus, but remained in the field. This was sufficient, for behind him a resurrection was taking place, inspired by a Turkish slave regiment of the Egyptian armies, called the Mamlukes.

This regiment had picked up the Egyptian battle standard at the point of collapse and defeat against the Crusaders, reversed the western tide, re-established the confidence of Cairo, and was now ready to face, under the leadership of a great general like Baibers, towards the threat from the east. Hulagu was marching not merely through territory; he was also trampling through the shifting sands of Arab politics and faith.

Aleppo was his last victory. Most interestingly, he was interrupted by an election. He got news that Mangu, the Great Khan and overlord of the Mongols, had died. He turned towards home to establish his own claim in the Ordu, a gathering where family and chiefs elected the successor by consensus.

At Tabriz Hulagu learnt that his brother Kublai Khan had already been named the successor. He halted. But in that respite, equations had changed. The Mongol general he had left in charge, Kita Buga, had moved towards Palestine to take Jerusalem from the Muslims. But on September3, 1260, at Ain Jalut, near Nablus in Palestine, the Egyptians delivered a crushing blow on the Mongols, shattering their armies and demolishing their myth of invincibility. Damascus was retaken, and the Mongols pursued and scattered from Arab territories. But the war was not over. Hulagu would not accept defeat.

But neither, now, would the Arabs. The defence of El Biret in Syria in the winter of 1264 is part of the romance of Arab history: significantly, the women proved themselves more courageous than the men.

In another fascinating twist, Hulagu's brother, Berkai, leader of the Mongols in Russia, suddenly announced in an open letter that he and his four brothers had converted to Islam. He charged Hulagu with the destruction of Baghdad and in cooperation with Baibers, he sent an army under Nogai, through the Caucasus, which defeated Hulagu on January 13, 1263. Hulagu spent his last days in Persia until he died on February 8, 1265, at the age of 48.

History, of course does not repeat itself. There may be parallels, but nothing is ever a replica. Saddam is far less than the last of the Abbasids, and the Arabs do not seem to be in any condition to find a Baibers, let alone a Berkai. (It would need Putin to intervene decisively in the region for the parallel to start working.)

What the Mongol intervention did was throw the Arab wor