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After his death, his grandson, Houlagou Khan, continued the plundering and advanced all the way to Mesopotamia, destroying Baghdad completely, plundering the entire region and murdering 1,600,000 people. Then he took the sultanates of Aleppo and Damascus and it was only the Egyptian Mameluke sultans, the successors of Saladin, who could defeat him in the decisive battle at Ain Jaluit, in Palestine (1260), thus halting his advance. Thereafter the empire of Genghis Khan was dissolved and the Mongol armies turned towards Asia Minor and particularly the Far East, but Armenia remained, until the 14th century, under Turanian rule, alternating between Seljuk Turks and Mongols. At the beginning of the 15th century the Mongols reappeared with new power, under the leadership of Timur Lenk. By this time the Mongols no longer worshiped their old gods, as they had during the time of Genghis Khan, but had converted to Islam.

Timur was an adventurer who conquered Turkistan and northern Persia and proclaimed the city of Samarqand as his capital. When he had well established his position, he conquered the rest of Persia and a part of Russia and Siberia. Wherever he went he brought massacre and destruction with him. In the city of Isfahan (Persia) he ordered the building of a pyramid of 70,000 human skulls that his army had beheaded.

In 1400 he came to Armenia and Asia Minor and killed everything and everyone in his path, plundering at will. After conquering Sivas he murdered every defender in the city, regardless of whether they were Turks or Armenians, and buried the soldiers of the garrison alive. He had all the small children gathered together and trampled them with horses. In Van, Timur forced the soldiers of the garrison to jump off the walls and towers. Then the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid hurried to face him. The battle took place in 1402 at Angora and ended with the defeat of the Ottoman Turks. Bayazid, who had been captured, was by order of Timur put in a metal cage and drawn after his army, soon Bayazid, to avoid the humiliation, committed suicide



Timur and his Mongol riders conquered Izmir, Brousse and Nicèe but did not manage to cross the Dardanelles in order to attack Byzantine. Timur conquered Central Asia, but died from an illness in 1405 and was never able to realize his plans for bloodbaths in China and the Near East.

Armenia was exposed to these ebbs and flows of Turanian invasions and from the 12th century to the 14th century the country was at the mercy of the Turanians, whether it be Seljuk or Mongol. During the 12th century the country was in the hands of the Turanians who ruled over Armenia, northern Mesopotamia and north-western Persia. The Seljuk Turks had appointed a Kurdish Emir, cousin to Sultan Saladin, with the title Shah-i-Armen (king of Armenia), to rule of Armenia. From 1240 onwards, Armenia was in the Mongols, but new Turanian tribes who moved towards West Asia passed constantly through the country.

Finally, during the 14th century, after the death of Timur, Armenia fell into Turkmen hands. These were another Turanian people and came from Central Asia and settled down in Armenia, Persia and northern Mesopotamia. Their two important tribes were called Gharaghoyounlou and Agrighoyounlou and their centre of power was in Diyarbakir.

These continuous invasions, plundering and shifting of power amongst the Turanians caused extensive damage to Armenia, and frayed the thread of Armenian destiny. All the progress made during the Bagratouni dynasty was undone through the massacring of its population and the plundering of its riches, and left Armenia in a state of paralysis for several centuries.