Political Crossfire Forums

[Robin Hood]

Bobicito wrote: Quote: I think that Genghis Khan was the greatest conqueror Mounted mongol archers were the greatest force on any battlefield until the 18th. I would also put the greatest Muslim conqueror as Sultan Mehmed II the man who took Constantinople and the Turks in general as the greatest Muslim conquerors.

I don't know if I agree or not. Yes Mongol horrse archers were deadly but everything has a weakness. If the Mongols faced an army that could counter them or use a weapon against them with a deadly effect then the Mongols were dead. I don't really know waht could conquer them in the first place.

They kept being beaten by the Vietnamese.

[Bobicito]

Well if you think about it, the soft soil and jungle like areas are not the best places to have calvary. Especially horse archers becausse there accuracy will go down the s**t hole. The conditions and the battlefields are what would have determend there effect.

[Lee_p413]

I guess I would've said Napoleon except for his royal blunder into Russia. Seriously. March on in, deeper, deeper, capturing empty and burned cities. Whoop-de-doo.

The same strategy used in Napoleonic Wars was used in WW2.

In fact, we theorize that the reason the Iraqi government under Saddam collapsed so quickly. He was using this old three- step Soviet defense strategy.

1. Engage the enemy.
2. Draw them deep within your borders.
3. Wait for winter to set in.

[Bobicito]

Quote: 1. Engage the enemy.
2. Draw them deep within your borders.
3. Wait for winter to set in.

Yep because the deserts get such nasty winters am I right? Sadam was screwed right from the git-go, he screwed with America-biggest mistake, he massacred his own people, and he was an ****. That just about covers it.

[Robin Hood]

Quote: In fact, we theorize that the reason the Iraqi government under Saddam collapsed so quickly. He was using this old three- step Soviet defense strategy.

1. Engage the enemy.
2. Draw them deep within your borders.
3. Wait for winter to set in.

He must be laughing in his prison cell

[Bull]

Ghengis Kahn was baaad...but in the end, his army was stretched too thin and he was easily picked off.

But I do agree with Saracen in that the Islamic armies need to be given more props by Historians today. The Muslim Empire at its height reached all the way to the West African coast...when Mansa Musa (the ruler of Ancient Ghana) set out on a pilgramage to Mecca. The Moors were also an Islamic Empire, but they were never really conquerers except for when they invaded the Iberian Peninsula...plus they were very tolerant of other religions and were never really persucting anyone.

[Robin Hood]

That really depends on the time period.

Rise and Fall of Tolerance
Image of a Jewish cantor reading the Passover story in al-Āndalus, from a 14th century Spanish Haggadah.
Enlarge
Image of a Jewish cantor reading the Passover story in al-Āndalus, from a 14th century Spanish Haggadah.

The Caliphate treated non-Muslims differently at different times. The longest period of tolerance began after 912, with the reign of Abd-ar-Rahman III and his son, Al-Hakam II where the Jews of Al-Andalus prospered, devoting themselves to the service of the Caliphate of Cordoba, to the study of the sciences, and to commerce and industry, especially to trading in silk and slaves, in this way promoting the prosperity of the country. Southern Spain became an asylum for the oppressed Jews of other countries.

Christians, braced by the example of their co-religionists across the borders of al-Āndalus, sometimes asserted the claims of Christianity and knowingly courted martyrdom, even during these tolerant periods. For example, forty-eight Christians of Córdoba were decapitated for religious offences against Islam. They became known as the Martyrs of Córdoba. Many of the Christians executed deliberately courted martyrdom by publicly declaiming against Islam inside mosques, insulting Muhammad and making declarations of Christian religious beliefs considered blasphemous in Islam. These deaths played out, not in a single spasm of religious unrest, but over an extended period of time; dissenters who were fully aware of the fates of their predecessors chose what amounted to suicide as a form of protest against the Islamic state[2].

With the death of al-Hakam III in 976, however, the situation worsened for non-Muslims in general. The first major persecution occurred on December 30, 1066 when the Jews were expelled from Granada and fifteen hundred families were killed when they did not leave. Starting in 1090 with the invasion of the Almoravides, the situation worsened further. Even under the Almoravides, however some Jews prospered (although far more so under Ali III, than under his father Yusuf ibn Tashfin). With the defeat of the Almoravides in 1148 by the puritanical Almohades, the Jews were forced to accept the Islamic faith; the conquerors confiscated their property and sold many captives into slavery. The most famous Jewish educational institutions were closed, and synagogues everywhere destroyed.

During these successive waves of violence against non-Muslims, many Jewish and even Muslim scholars left the Muslim-controlled portion of Spain for the then-still relatively tolerant city of Toledo, which had been reconquered in 1085 by Christian forces. Jews joined the armies of Alfonso VI of Castile and as many as 40,000 joined in the fight against the Almoravides, who also had large numbers of Jewish troops in their armies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus#Rise_and_Fall_of_Tolerance

[Bobicito]

Quote: But I do agree with Saracen in that the Islamic armies need to be given more props by Historians today. The Muslim Empire at its height reached all the way to the West African coast...when Mansa Musa (the ruler of Ancient Ghana) set out on a pilgramage to Mecca. The Moors were also an Islamic Empire, but they were never really conquerers except for when they invaded the Iberian Peninsula...plus they were very tolerant of other religions and were never really persucting anyone.

If you want Africa you can have it, all it is is desert and is basically the biggest useless peace of earth on the entire earth.

[Bull]

Bobicito wrote: Quote: But I do agree with Saracen in that the Islamic armies need to be given more props by Historians today. The Muslim Empire at its height reached all the way to the West African coast...when Mansa Musa (the ruler of Ancient Ghana) set out on a pilgramage to Mecca. The Moors were also an Islamic Empire, but they were never really conquerers except for when they invaded the Iberian Peninsula...plus they were very tolerant of other religions and were never really persucting anyone.

If you want Africa you can have it, all it is is desert and is basically the biggest useless peace of earth on the entire earth.

Firstly, you used the wrong peace....it's "biggest useless PIECE of Earth..." And Africa is not mostly desert....the Sahara is mostly around Northern Africa. Know what the hell you're talking about (and how to spell) before you're taken seriously.

[Bobicito]

My spell check would not have caught that but you know what I meant. And for a fact Africa is 1/3 covered by desert. You don't have to take me seriously but don't critize me for missing one letter.... I!