Monday, May 22, 2023

I’m writing this article in praise of a Kenyan lawyer of Somali descent–a man I’ve never met face-to-face before though we communicated electronically in the past. Never in Kenya’s history of constitutional and Islamic religious law has a man of his caliber popped up in the law society of Kenya. Though it is common for writers to associate someone with a historical personality of the past or the present, Kenya’s Grand Mullah is a unique person that I wouldn’t place in par with any currently living lawyer in Kenya. With his prolific knowledge of constitutional secular and Islamic law, it is absolutely hard to find someone who wields such broad combinations. Even though Kenya has experienced Somali magistrates and judges of secular law and kadhis whose judicial practices are restricted to Islamic law, this article is exclusively about an individual lawyer of literary repute. He is none other than Ahmednasir who has been shining in the media circles for years depending on their specific coverages that could include his past and present legal wrangles, political exposures, his material and economic might and his personality and sagacity.

You could be mistaken if your distorted mind drives you to an unknown worldly imagination by assuming that the esteemed lawyer gave the writer of this essay something equivalent to Kitu Kidogo or small tips to shower him with praises. No, that is not the case. On October 20, 2020, I wrote an article whose title was In Honor of Kenya's Living Grammarian, Literary Doyen Philip Ochieng who passed away recently. In praising Grand Mullah, I’m only communicating my ideas and concepts and it is up to the reader to reject them or grasp the contents with an open mind. Furthermore, it is better to praise the living person than applauding him or her after one departs the world. Though not a biography, the essay simply excavates a single man’s uniqueness.

Hailing from Mandera–a town that borders Somalia’s Belet Hawa town and whose name is an adulteration of the Mareer tree having two scientific species names Cordia sinensis and Cordia novellii–Ahmednasir grew up in a region blessed with a tree having many benefits. The raw and ripe fruits can be consumed for their nutritious tastes since they are edible, including the gums. The wood can be used for making furniture and charcoal while the leaves are valuable fodder for livestock and wild animals. The Cordia novellii is the Somali and Masai species. Somalis call it Mareer while for the Boran it is Mader. Somalis have Mareer Qoox while the Boran have Mader Bor. To the Gabra and Rendille it is Madeer and the Wardei know it as Marer. The naming category of this tree species is an indication of the linguistic semblance of the aforementioned Cushitic ethnic group.

Our Grand Mullah attended primary school in Mandera and thereafter moved to Nairobi for his high school education. Upon finishing high school, he enrolled for his undergraduate in law at the University of Nairobi and completed his Bachelor of Legal Letters ((LLB) in 1990. He ventured for further studies in the United States at Cornell University matriculating in 1992 and obtained a master’s degree in law (LLM). The doyen of Kenya law accumulated numerous diplomas from international educational institutions notably The Hague Academy of International Law. Between 1992 and 1997, he was a lecturer at Nairobi University School. His wide variety of legal practices automatically makes him an undoubted polymath as noted earlier. A distinguished and highly-regarded legal practitioner, he was a member of the Kenya Judicial Service Commission.

However, with the presence of a cancerous stone age philosophy or ideology that has besieged and mortified the literate and illiterate section of Somali society worldwide–a disease that has evaded treatment of all types and is popularly known as tribalism, you will easily find many arrogant, clannish-minded men and women who claim “he hates our tribe”–a preposterous saying that belongs to the dustbin. His climbing of the ladder of success is what instils jealousy in the minds of those who are hateful of his political, social, economic, religious and legal cravings. Hailing from a historical family that is known for Islamic religious propagation and great humanitarians who served the poor, needy and wayfarers since time immemorial and vigorously virtuous warriors who defended their territories without fear of any kind, his character could have been shaped by the genealogy and hereditary traits of his forefathers.

In my response to the “he hates our tribe” backbiters, what they fail to understand is that for one to be a lawyer, s/he must be compassionate, knowledgeable, and master the art of communication. Whether it was one of his parents or someone else, the person who gave him the two-name composition Ahmed+Nasir, must have been wise enough. The name Ahmed is another name for Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). In the Qur’an, Chapter 61, Verse 6, Allaah says, “And (remember) when Isa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), said: O Children of Israel! I am the Messenger of Allaah unto you, confirming the Taurat (Torah) which came] before me, and giving glad tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmed. But when he (Ahmad i.e., Muhammad (PBUH) came to them with clear proofs, they said: This is plain magic.”

The name Nasir (ناصر) that is co-joined with Ahmed is an Arabic word and it means protector, helper, or one who gives victory. Undoubtedly, it is no secret that he is generous since Kenya’s media jargons have revealed it before. A Muslim’s generosity should not be restricted to members of one’s faith only and that it is encompassing and universal as defined in the Qur’an and Hadith. His benevolence is unlimited since he has been on the forefront of uplifting those who seek his help financially, educationally, and mentoring. He is neither a recluse nor one who only restricts his friendship to those of equal levels of education and professionalism. Prior to starting my higher education in a faraway land, at first, I wanted to venture into the arena of law and justice. However, only one phrase dissuaded me from pursuing the sciences of law and that is “my lord” that I found incompatible with Islamic etiquettes. But, according to Practicing Lawyer Abdirahman Abubakar who is my nephew, etymologically, even though it was borrowed from the English legal system, “my lord” has several meanings.

During the Islamic Golden Age (622 AD–1258), Muslims had numerous polymaths and philomaths, unlike in this contemporary era where graduates choose to specialize only in one subject or specialization. Apart from specializing in philosophy, Muslims set the stage in algebra, physiology and anatomy, surgery, dermatology, modern medicine, modern economics, sociology, and historiography. Some mastered clinical medicine, Muslim international law, anthropology, geodesy, trigonometry, robotics and automation and comparative religions and pediatrics. Anglicized names like Avicenna for Ibn Sina, Algebra for Al-jabr which is the “reunion of broken parts”, Averroes for Ibn Rushd, Avempace for Ibn Bajja and many others commandeered the translation of specific subjects Muslims preserved from Hellenistic Greek that was passed on to Christianity during the Medieval Age. It was the Assyrian Empire that gave refuge to the fleeing Greek immigrants and their manuscripts after their land was occupied by the Romans.

What gave Muslims of the Golden Age the privilege to tower above other civilizations was their craving for knowledge–knowledge that was attained by working with others having the same preference in certain fields, through research and constant reading and writing. Likewise, Kenya’s Ahmednasir is no recluse in anyway, but a friendly patriot and an openminded lawyer who learns from others. Through hard work and determination, the courageous Kenyan American-educated Ahmednasir, served his clients and nation to the best of his ability until he rose to the rank of the top elite contemporary lawyer in Kenya. Besides law, he spent considerable time learning Islamic law or Islamic jurisprudence. Thus, inspired by polymathy, the master of Islamic and constitutional laws, was nicknamed “Grand Mullah” by a former Kenyan Chief of Justice. Not to be confused with the Shia Grand Mullah of Iran–with Mullah being a supreme title, Kenya’s Grand Mullah is a wisdomatic individual who has mastered the Kenya legal system.

In terms of legal or judicial expertise, a lawyer may be evaluated by the client by focusing on the number of years s/he has been in the profession, the number of cases lost or won, his or her professionalism, whether s/he has the right experience handling specific cases, and if s/he is a good communicator. On his Twitter page, Ahmednasir is a “Constitutional Lawyer, Senior Counsel, Chairman of the Senior Counsel Committee, Law Society of Kenya and also Publisher of the Nairobi Law Monthly.”[1] The contents of his nairobilawmonthly.com magazine–a magazine that is available through subscription must contain things beyond the comprehension of the common man who is devoid of legal jurisprudence.

From what I have learned from friends, the warhorse of Kenya’s constitutional and Islamic jurisprudence, Ahmednasir is a friendly person, open-minded, a man of wisdom, very generous to whom he wishes to give regardless of race, religion, creed and color, national origin and political and religious affiliations and full of exuberance. Very few Kenya-Somalis or Muslim lawyers have the courage to intervene or take some of the most challenging cases in a land known for corruption. Following the Qur’anic injunction, “Do not fear men, fear Me (Allaah)”, Ahmednasir is a man guided by Allaah’s divine revelation which is the Qur’an and the Sunnah (Tradition) or Hadith of the Messenger of Allaah, Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him. In terms of wealth, prestige and dignity, our Fidus Achates has been capable of overcoming the difficulties of this world and he seems to be on the right path for the challenges of the Hereafter. As a brotherly advice, I hope he will be guided by Islamic etiquettes and likewise excoriate himself from falsified and unfounded human condemnations either by forgiving those who intend to demean him or apply the most painful retaliation.

Like the fearless African lion that is known as the King of the Jungle for its ferocity, Lawyer Ahmednasir does not shy away from spilling the beans especially when it comes to corruption in law to an extent, he castigates anyone who violates the judicial system including Chief Justices. He constricts the law breaker like the African python using debilitatingly well versed legal expressions and fumigates the law courts with fierce strangulation. To Ahmednasir, the president is not responsible for fighting corruption.

Lawyer Ahmednasir drives a Bentley–a car that is considered to be one of the best make of cars that is worth between 30 to 50 million shillings. In a previous incident during a road construction, the windscreen to his favorite Bentley got smashed by a flying rock between Nairobi-Namanga Highway. In retaliation, the lawyer lodged a complaint with a court in Kajiado claiming more than 750,000 Kenya Shillings.[2] Magistrate Mulochi ordered the Kenya National Highway Authority (KENHA) to compensate the extraordinary lawyer. Those civilians who ply that highway and were interviewed by the Kenya Television Network (KTN) unanimously agreed that KENHA did not place roadworks signs as warnings.

Unlike Kenya-Somali supernumerary or ominous political speculators who squander money meant for the constituents who voted for them during their beggary campaign rallies, Ahmednasir gained his assets through the right channels without deviating from the law of the land. Unlike those redundant politicians who regurgitate lies day and night to seek Islamically unjustified misappropriations or engage in prebendalism or are deserving of aversive conditioning for squandering equitable social distributions or contributions meant for the poor, needy, and wayfarers, our esteemed lawyer applies halal systems to advance his monetary gains.

According to an authentic Hadith, out of every three judges, two will go to hell. Narrated Buraydah ibn al-Hasib; The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) said: “Judges are of three types, one of whom will go to paradise and two to hell. The one who will go to paradise is a man who knows what is right and gives judgment accordingly; but a man who knows what is right and acts tyrannically in his judgment will go to hell; and a man who gives judgment for people when he is ignorant will go to hell.”[3] Narrated Abdullah Ibn Amr Al’As: “The Apostle of Allaah (Peace Be Upon Him) cursed the one who bribes and the one who takes bribe.”[4] Whether the judges mentioned in the Hadith above apply also to the prosecutors and the defendants or plaintiffs is one reserved for Muslim religious scholars deliberations.

Professionally, a lawyer is the defendant of the accused against the complainant who also may engage a lawyer. The complainant first lodges a complaint with the police who then record it in an Occurrence Book (OB). While the motto of the Kenya Police is “Utumisho Kwa Wote” in Kiswahili which translates to ‘Justice for All’, it is the most corrupt institution in Kenya. While corruption has grown roots everywhere, bribery demands begin right at the police station. In the past, the OB recorder would demand “Toa Kitu Kidogo” or TKK, meaning ‘give a little’ which then changed to “Toa Kitu Kubwa” for ‘give something big’ and finally, corruption boomeranged to “Toa Kila Kitu” that denotes ‘surrender everything you have’.

In a nutshell, Lawyer Ahmednasir is a popular fashionista who wears the best and the most appealing suits at work and conventions. It is strange that there are people who complain and feel jealous about his suits. These are people who don’t understand the value of appearing appealing in everyday life. Furthermore, a Muslim is required to be clean, charming and above all appear visually appealing to others. While all Muslim communities have different styles of fashion such as the loose ankle-length thobe that is common in Kuwait and known as Dishdasha and Kandourah in the United Arab Emirates, other body garments include Ghutra and Egal, the Serwal and Sharwal Khameez plus the Somali Kikoi that do not belong to the courtrooms of Kenya. The lawyer appears in my recently published book: “The Northern Frontier District: the struggles of Sultan Deghow Maalim Sambul.”

Adan Makina

adan.makina@gmail.com

Mr. Makina was the former Chairman of the Editorial Board for WardheerNews–the most scholarly and journalistic Horn of Africa online magazine that is digitized and free for anyone willing to read it. Currently, he is an Editor and Head of the Interviews and Books Reviews Section. He has interviewed people from all walks of life, reviewed books in English and Somali and has written hundreds of essays on diverse issues affecting our world. He is an International Political Analyst who has been interviewed over thirty times by the Voice of America Somali Service and other local radios. As a mentor in education, he has assisted students from different parts of the globe and continues to do so without demanding anything in return. A polymath and philomath, he has several degrees and letters of appreciations and a medal of honor to his credit. In conclusion, the writer of this essay is a theologian, a hydrologist, a human rights activist and an environmentalist. He is also a researcher, historian and geographer. He is a Member of the National and International Phi Theta Kappa and Pi Alpha Alpha Honor Society. Mr. Makina is the author of “The Northern Frontier District: The Struggles of Sultan Deghow Maalim Sambul.”

[1] https://twitter.com/ahmednasirlaw

watch?v=3O_JHUNBBWg

[3] Sunan Abu Dawud. Hadith 3566. Retrieved from www.searchtruth.com

[4] Ibid, Hadith 3573.

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

AFRICANS AND THEIR PURSUIT OF EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES

By: Adan Makina

Friday, April 07, 2006

For many Africans who come to The United States, education is an important factor in determining their future, while for others; it is nothing but amusement and play. The number of African students in colleges and universities is great though the number who have chosen to drop out or never attempted to set foot a campus outnumber those already in campus. Education in the United States where the focus of this paper is a tremendous undertaking for the African student which demands greater attention and better coordination among family members if class concentration, better grades and stable living conditions are to be achieved. For many, failing to do the right thing at the right time due to outside influence, pressure from families in need of financial resources, being tied to bogus friends and acquaintances, failing to abide by the rules of the institutions like plagiarism, theft, soliciting, drug abuse, procrastination, making sexual advances and other criminal activities within or outside of the institutions create obstacles for the potential student.

The United States is guided by a strong constitution that guarantees equal treatment for all regardless of age, race, gender, national origin and religion. It is a constitution designed by learned men with keen foresight and clear vision and it is also one presently in the hands of men and women who hope to create better judicial amendments for posterity. For example, Title IX states: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. America has the best system of government, outstanding and indomitable secular education and prides to parade the best teachers in the world.

Being a professor or lecturer in an institution of higher learning takes many years before one can be conferred on with the required degrees and academic credentials to qualify to teach students yearning to become leaders and professionals in all fields pertaining to diverse educational foundations. A great number of these professors and lecturers are Africans of dissimilar origin, culture and religion who have traveled far and wide in search of dignity and with intent to disseminate knowledge in an environment where educational expertise, academic integrity and high degree of confidentially are the norm. They have brought with them humility, integrity, justice and brand new supplemental knowledge profitable to the amalgamation of students from distinct backgrounds. These breed of luminaries from mother Africa, had been, prior to leaving Africa, besieged and mortified and had their rights compacted by their respective governments just because they advocated views and ideas that opposed the jungle law of the land–a law that subjugates even the basic rights of humankind.

Statistically, there are approximately 500,000 Africans in the United States mostly students pursuing degrees in colleges and universities of advanced learning. Freedom of speech and the right to assembly has seen many persecuted and even executed as was the demise of human activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa who was a keen advocate of the minority in Nigeria. African students in the America have portrayed great sense of responsibility in their pursuit of education despite the difficult living conditions and biting weather. For them it is a race against time thus the many restrictions placed on them by the institutions and the immigration need not be overlooked or else the consequences could lead to legal action including deportation to country of origin. Besides, the overwhelming burden of paying monthly bills including utilities, rent, and car insurance and frequent remittance to families back home further complicates their stay.

Regardless of how agonizing life may seem, the dark-skinned men and women from Africa live in harmony with other races, eat and drink, party and drive and observe the rules of the road. The African culture, the main artery that binds these students, has found a new place that invites every race out of curiosity, demand for labor and the need to have a heterogeneous society. The display of African curios and other African artifacts in American homes and open-air markets is testament to the uniqueness of the African culture traversing boundaries for many centuries. The number of dedicated African professionals holding high offices in America must be enormous if only we had the right data, statistics and applied economics. In addition, Africans are known for multi-lingualism; attained through colonial infestation or by way of schooling. Many who skipped meals or walked bare foot to school crossing boundaries legally or illegally; are today holders of multiple degrees enjoying positions of prestige and honor in corporate America.

The youth who escaped the jaws of crocodiles while swimming in the meandering rivers of Africa, those who escaped rampaging elephants that devastated their yearly harvests, and those who fell accidentally into wild-traps laid by poachers are healing old wounds with educational medications.

Immigrants from beleaguered, impoverished, and war-ravaged Somalia who have been the latest arrivals in the last decade after the overthrow of Major General Mohamed Siyad Barre’s junta have a lot to be desired. Majority of Somalis, who are concentrated in the cities of San Diego (CA), Minneapolis-St. Paul (MN), Atlanta (GA), and Columbus (OH), have a large number of students in high school, colleges, and universities that are hard to ignore. The number of female students in the Somali communities is skyrocketing and is expected to outnumber the number of males.

Furthermore, free government financial assistance is never available without strings attached and that is why even the elderly and single-parents have to enlist in English as Second Language (ESL) classes or else all benefits will be withdrawn. Many who oppose the use of educational loans because of interest charges have no option but to seek other means to attaining educational enrichment.

Among Somalis, the saying goes this way: either make money or get honest education. Returning home with a large family without money and education is deplorable to the relative in Hargeisa, Mogadishu, and Eastleigh. That is why many are either holding two jobs or studying hard for degrees. Somalis are more multilingual than any other nation in Africa today. Speckled all over the world, the return of a million Somalis speaking Queen’s English, American English, Ebonics, Pidgin, Creole, Dutch, Swedish, French, Arabic, Swahili, Mandarin, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Hindi, Gujarati, Hausa, Finnish, Danish, Russian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish, Kikuyu, Kinya-rwanda, and few other languages must be a blessing for the dozens of foreign embassies and international aid agencies when peace is finally restored to the fullest. The many Immigrants from Africa who cross difficult terrains heading towards the west have a lot to give mother Africa in the future.

Those who failed to overcome the trials and tribulations even after having perspired enough hope and resilience is their tool to achieving the best life in the near future.

Adan Makina
E-Mail:adan.makina@gmail.com

We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com. So please email your article today Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of WardheerNews

Maqaalkani wuxuu ka turjumayaa aragtida Qoraaga loomana fasiran karo tan WardheerNews

Monday, October 24, 2022

Global North and Global South

In modern International Relations, the terms Global North and Global South have become common defining features such that the Global North inflicted insurmountable Gordian knots in global political interdependence. The major problems of the Global South evolved 350 years ago as a result of subjugation by the rise of powerful European powers who were driven by the urge to colonize indigenous communities that were scattered all over the world.

Despite decolonization getting-off the ground after WWII, a web of new nations emerged even though the legacy of colonialism continued to ravage the struggling, rising up nations in the Global South especially those within the African continent and some parts of Asia. With the escalation of the Cold War, the terminology Third World became the common name for those nations that regained independence while First World nations was in reference to North America, Europe, and Japan who were more technologically and industrially advanced than the Soviet Union and its satellite states who were designated Second World powers. I’ve used the terminology ‘regained independence’ for those colonized nations because they have been independent long before the first surge of European powers like Portugal, Holland, Spain, Britain, and France started their expansionist melodramatic aims

To add insult to injury, those Global South nations suffered further demotion by being degraded to the category of the less-developed of the least-developed countries. However, modern scholars prefer the use of Global North and Global South instead of the former degrading epithets. The estimated population of the Global South is 85% with a staggering 20% global income generation. Surprisingly, the humiliating income disparity is related to the negative impact of neocolonialism that is a hoodoo to nation’s having the will to prosper. It was during the early fifteenth century when the first wave of European migrants started seafaring in search of new raw materials from new territories that they renamed colonies. The surge in ocean mercantilism continued until its demise in the eighteenth century when former colonies proclaimed independence and the global economic theories known as laissez-faire and liberal economics starting flourishing on a grand scale.

The second wave of European global movement plying world oceans continued until the 1870s, however, it was after the end of WWI when Europe and the United States and Japan commenced new territorial claims, to an extent that even former independent states and China became fragmented.

Saturday, October 22, 2022

The Khanates

With the history of the Mongols or Tatars lopsided, twisted and written according to every historian’s whim, one could see a lot of misconceptions and deficiencies in the era incidents happened and the periods the khanates carried out specific military actions or their time of rule. History is replete with erroneous calculations and time constraints. Even the names of the spelling names khanates cause alarms because of the linguistic differences and misspellings. Below is the succession of the most famous khans whose historical remains are still available for further elucidation by the modern researcher having the will to continue expounding regardless of the trivialities and malevolence of their global encounters or the adoration and high circumventions of their encounters with societies, communities or nations on a global scale. Reading through several research books and papers loaded with literary criticisms, the author of this book feels not all historians have the same opinions.

1. Genghis Khan: Under Genghis Khan, the Mongols conquered the largest land empire, notably from Eastern and Western Asia. From Korea to Hungary, Genghis Khan displayed the most strategic military operations never seen before in modern human history. Tough and resilient in their attempts to invade new lands, the Mongols fought with vigilance and valor. The Mongols not only restricted their incursions into other lands primarily to suppress their new subjects but instead benefited from commerce especially fabrics made from gold and silk.[i] Apart from being a barbaric, merciless killer and plunderer, Genghis Khan was, as “…one biographer put it, his was “a persistent cycle of pragmatic learning, experimental adaptation, and constant revision driven by his uniquely disciplined and focused will.” He was the greatest conqueror the world ever knew because he was more open to learning than any other conqueror has ever been…”[ii] Born in 1162 or 1167 along the Onon or Herlen rivers, his father was Yesukhei while his mother was called Hoelun.[iii] After massively capturing his enemies and causing much destruction to his new enemies, Genghis Khan later created harmonious relationships with his new subjects. There are written records that state that he had a clot of blood on his right hand when he was conceived by his mother Hoelun–a sign that created much consternation among his people. Undoubtedly, he was perceived to become a great leader after growing up to adulthood–a sign that materialized in the end. “Genghis Khan by the help and leading of Mongol people captured the northwest of China in 1205 and Kin Empire in 1211, he later reached the coast of the yellow river and captured Beijing in 1215. Finally, he came through west in 1219 with a population of 700,000 people.” [iv]

2. Chagatai Khan: After the death of Genghis Khan, his sons inherited different lands and amalgamation of communities. For Chagatai Khan, he extended his dominion to as far as eastern and western Turkistan. Chagatai Khan who was an inspiring leader did not harm the communities he captured nor did he interfere with their religious beliefs. Transoxiana was mainly inhabited by Muslims while local nomadic communities in Mongolia continued with their practices of Shamanism.[v] It was in 1326 when Tarmashirin took over the leadership of the Chagatai Khanate, thus bringing a lot of changes to the areas that were under his control. Chagatai and Ogedei were brothers.

3. Ogedei Khan: The son of Genghis Khan, Ogedei had two sons whose names were Cityük and Godan. The elder brother Cityük was born the year of the Cow and at the age of 28 took over the khanate throne, even though, six months later, in the year of the Kui-Serpent, he died. His younger brother Godan ascended the throne in the year of the Ke-Horse even though he died of leprosy in the year of the Ji-Sheep.[vi] In 1231, Ogedei ordered his commander Chormaghan Korchi to invade Iran, Azerbaijan, Anatolia and Georgia.[vii] With 30-40 thousand well-armed troops, the defeat of Jamaluddin’s forces ended systematically. Batu became the successor of Ogedei Khan. It was during Ogedei’s rule when religious freedom was accepted with Daoism and Buddhism and Islam and Christianity given credence even though the Mongols opposed Halaal slaughter of livestock.

4. Mongke Khan: Mongke took the mantle of leadership after the death of his cousin Guyuk in 1248.[viii] Despite Batu being exempted from the succession of the Khanate, he was not in good terms with Guyuk, however, he had the chance to work with Mongke as his viceroy of the West while Mongke concentrated on the East.[ix] By 1242 the Kingdom of Hungary was in total wreckage and had to be abandoned by Batu, but despite encamping at the Steppes of the Volga, Batu’s focus was on the lower Volga Steppe where he built a capital he named Sarai. Batu was born to a concubine and that is why he was excluded by his father Jochai or Jochi who died early 1227 from the succession. The Mongols sent three envoys to Die Viet which is the current day Vietnam. By 1258, the Mongols defeated the Vietnamese.

5. Hulagu Khan: Whether Hulagu or Hulegu, he rose to prominence during Caliph Mansur’s reign. Hulagu was more inclined to Islam than Machiavellianism.[x]

6. Berke Khan: It is common for historians to narrate the congenial defining relationships between leaders and how they at times become avowed enemies due to differences of thoughts and ideas. Berke Khan was a formidable leader during the reign of the Muslim leader Mamluk Sultan Al-Zahir Baibars (ruled between 658 AH/ 1260 CE and 676 AH/ 1277 CE).[xi] Friendship between Al-Zahir Baibar and the Mongol Berke Khan flourished to the extent Berke reverted to Islam while Al-Zahir named his eldest son after Berke. With the Mamluks dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria from 1250 until 1517 when the Ottoman occupation rose to prominence (1517-1798), did the Mamluks vanish from the scene. The term Mamluk was an amalgamation of slaves drawn from Turkmen, Arabs, Turkish and others from various regions. The two leaders enjoyed cordial relations with Berke hosting guests and clerics from Al-Zahir’s domain especially from Hijaz. He has been noted to have built mosques after reverting to Islam and abandoning his shamanistic beliefs. It was Hulagu Khan’s conquering of Baghdad in 656 AH (1258 CE) and his deliberate killing of Caliph Al Musta’sim that caused outcries in the Muslim world. Hulagu and Berke were cousins with Berke being the son of Chinggis Khan.[xii] After the death of Berke Khan in 676 AH (1266 CE), his son Abgha Khan succeeded him.

7. Kublai Khan: There were Christian monks of the Nestorian Church who paid a visit to Kublai Khan during his rein in Persia. Previously a large population of the followers of Nestorius who died July 28, 450, founder of Nestorianism, existed in the end of the fifth century up to the thirteenth century of the Christian Era (CE) especially in Asia. Quite different in religious tenets from the larger Catholicism and Protestantism, Nestorius’ Nestorianism was mainly immersed in the long-standing divinity of Jesus and that was whether he had two divine characteristics and how the two co-existed.[xiii] On the other hand, there was the monophyte belief that the nature of Jesus was partly divine, and partly subordinately human. The discovery of a stone tablet in 1623 (or 1625) in Xian in China broke barriers that the Nestorian tablet was a factual testament that the Assyrian Church foundations had reached China by the seventh century. It is amazing that monotheistic Christology that had its roots in Assyria, Byzantium, Persia and Egypt, finally fragmented in to different sections and with the arrival of Islam and later the Mongol invasion, Islam became the major religious force. Genghis Khan’s division of his empire was known as “Ulus.” His eldest son Jochi died six months before his father though he was to have dominated between the Irtysh and Ural rivers to as West as the Pontic-Caspian Steppe and to the Aral Sea and Amu Darya River in northern Khorezm.[xiv]

8. Ariq Borke: He was the grandson of Chinggis Khan of the Golden Horde.[xv] A Khwarezmian refugee who wrote a book called Ṭabaḳāt-i-Nāṣirï

9. Temür Khan: Also known as Öljeytü Khan, he was the son of Crown Prince Zhenjin and the grandson of Kublai Khan. Considered the sixth great khan of the Mongol Empire, he was succeeded by Külüg Khan. His reign was mainly in China and was known as Emperor Chengzong of Yuan. He ruled from May 10, 1294 to February 10, 1307.

10. Mahmud Ghazan Khan: His reversion to Islam in A.H. 694/A.D. 1295 was an era of delight and great achievement for his kingdom and as well for his Muslim subjects. Even though Ghazan’s conversion to Islam was real, there was another objective: to win the hearts and minds of Mongols who had reverted earlier and to dedicate his strength and strategies to defeating Baiku, a man who was his rival. It was his viceroy or Na’ib Nawruz who was behind his reversion. His father, Arghun died a pagan. Though he left several wives behind, Ghazan got attracted to Bulughan Khatun who was a widow of his father. Even though it is forbidden for a male Muslim to marry a father’s widowed wife, in Mongol Yasa, it was permissible. “However, one of the 'ulama' offered a legal opinion which provided a solution to this impasse: since Arghun had been a pagan, his marriage to Bulughan Khatun was not legal, and therefore Ghazan could now wed her with impunity. The Khan was happy with this suggestion, married Bulughan Khatun (in a Muslim manner), and 'he adhered to Islam. Without this [solution], he would have apostatized.”[xvi]

11. Tamer lane: The name Tamer Lane that has been westernized is a Turkic version, but to Persians, his real name is Timur-i-lang, meaning Timur the lame.[xvii] Some researchers refer to him as the most strategic fighter who moved with speed like a whirlwind to capture new lands and free Muslims and others who were subjugated by more powerful forces.

Summary

Even though each khan displayed different characteristics in terms of waging wars and dealing with subjects in captured lands, they had opposing indistinguishable objectives in their pursuit of territorial expansions. Some fought with valor and vigor by rending the world asunder while others were more reconciliatory and humanistic in approach. To the Muslim theologian or religious scholar, the most wretched of all was the one who died outside Islamic domain, because, dying out of the pale of Islam, is the gateway to hell on the Day of Judgment, though, the impending punishment is preceded by intolerable punishment in the grave–a punishment whose duration and nature of pain and desolation in terrible darkness is only known to Allaah Almighty. The Qur’an clearly states regarding the punishment for the disbelievers in the grave and the Hereafter:

وَأَمَّآ إِن كَانَ مِنَ الْمُكَذِّبِينَ الضَّآلِّينَ * فَنُزُلٌ مِّنْ حَمِيمٍ

And if he is one of the rejecters, the erring ones. He shall have an entertainment of boiling water… (56:92-93)

That is, in the grave he would be greeted by boiling water,

وَتَصْلِيَةُ جَحِيمٍ

And burning in hell. (56:94)

That is, in the hereafter, he would be consigned to Hell.”

Regarding the doom in the grave, Allaah expounds repeatedly in the Qur’an: While a dreadful doom encompassed Pharaoh’s folk.‏ The Fire; they are exposed to it morning and evening; and on the day when the Hour upriseth (it is said): Cause Pharaoh’s folk to enter the most awful doom (Ghafir 40:45-46). For every dead human being, after the Angel of Death takes away the soul, inside the grave, two angels whose names are Munkar and Nakir, are responsible for questioning. For the disbeliever, despite his or her requests rejected by the angels, will suffer tremendously unbearable squeezing that will last until the Day of Judgment.

For the Angel of Death whose name Malakul Mawt, his work of retrieving the souls of the believers and disbelievers is a daily, hourly occurrence and the speed he travels, is beyond human comprehension even though some commentators assume it to be the speed of light. “Thou could see, when the wrong doers reach the pangs of death and the angels stretch their hands out, saying: Deliver up your souls. This day ye are awarded doom of degradation for that ye spoke concerning Allah other than the truth, and scorned, His portents (Al-An`am 6:93).”

“And verily, for those who do wrong, there is a punishment beyond that. But most of them know not (At-Tur 51:47).”

[i] Komaroff, L. (Ed.). (2012). Beyond the legacy of Genghis Khan (Vol. 64). Brill.

[ii] Holiday, R. (2019). Ego is the Enemy. Elex media komputindo.

[iii] Khan, G. (1971). Genghis Khan. Birth, 100, 1162.

[iv] SOLTANI, G., & REZAEI, D. (2019). THE EFFECTS OF INTERACTIONS WITHIN COMMUNAL CONDITIONS IN IRAN AND ANATOLIA WITH IL KH NIDS OVER 13TH AND 14TH CENTURIES. Turkish Online Journal of Design Art and Communication, 9(2), 159-177.

[v] Dr. Yunus Emre TANSÜ & Baran GÜVENÇ (2019). “A Brief Overview of The Era of The Chagatai Khan Tarmashirin.” International Social Sciences Journal.

[vi] Tsendina, A. (1999). Godan Khan in Mongolian and Tibetan historical works. Studia Orientalia Electronica, 85, 245-248.

[vii] Nasirov, N. P. Scientific Bulletin, № 1, 2021, pages 79-90.

[viii] May, T. (2018), The Mongol Empire, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University press: 135.

[ix] Dawson, C. THE REIGN OF NOGAI KHAN. Academia.edu. Retrieved August 13, 2022.

[x] Siddiq, S. A. (2016). Caliph Al-Mansur and Hulagu Khan and analysis of their political strategies in the light of Machiavellianism (Master's thesis, Gombak, Selangor: International Islamic University Malaysia, 2016).

[xi] Al Asfour, S. (2019). THE NATURE OF THE RELATION BETWEEN SULTAN AL-ZAHIR BAIBARS AND BERKE KHAN. Journal of Al-Tamaddun, 14(1), 117-128.

[xii] Wilson, J. The Conversion of Berke Khan.

[xiii] Adams, R. M. (2021). Nestorius and Nestorianism. The Monist, 104(3), 366-375.

[xiv] Schütz, E. (1991). THE DECISIVE MOTIVES OF TATAR FAILURE IN THE ILKHANID—MAMLUK FIGHTS IN THE HOLY LAND. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 45(1), 3-22.

[xv] Wilson, J. The Conversion of Berke Khan.

[xvi] Amitai-Preiss, R. (1996). Ghazan, Islam and Mongol tradition: a view from the Mamlūk sultanate1. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 59(1), 1-10.

[xvii] Manz, B. F. (1999). The rise and rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge University Press.

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