- The Fourth Caliphate had hardly been formed when the news came from the far east that a horde of eastern marauders had been sighted in the deserts of Khwarezm.
- The worst fears of all were confirmed when the invaders
attacked and massacred the Seljuk city of Samarqand, beginning a war with the nations of the Fourth Caliphate and the Indian Rajput Princes.
- The initial wave of Mongol Invaders pushed into Ghazni lands,
meeting little resistance as they conquered first the plains, and then the mountains of Afghanistan. The Shah was
slain at Firuzkh and his capital, the fortress of Ghazni itself fell to the invaders provoking much sorrow in the lands of the faithful.
- So successful and swift was the Mongol advance that the Rajput Princes sued for peace with the invader,
becoming their vassal and an
enemy of the nations of the Fourth Caliphate.
- Then began the second stage of the conflict, where the Mongols divided their forces into two arms. One arm was sent around the Caspian Sea to strike at Seljuk-held Georgia and Azerbaijan, while the other assaulted the Seljuk front door at Merv.
- Meanwhile the nations of the Fourth Caliphate began an extensive recruitment and fortification drive, securing their lands against attack.
- The Rajput princes invaded Ghazni from the east, pushing as far as Zanji and Saravan but leaving the capital Gwadar in the hands of the Ghaznavids.
- The Seljuks
heroically held out against the Mongol advance in Georgia, finally defeating the invading force after many battles and the loss of thousands of lives.
- The Mongols were more successful in their frontal push, taking Merv and advancing as far as Nishapur.
- The city of Birjand, strategically placed between the Seljuk and Caliphate lands to the west, the Mongol-held north and the Rajput-held former Ghazni lands, became the focal point for a fierce
series of
confrontations between the invaders and the Fourth Caliphate forces.
- With
Birjand re-taken and the Northern passage secure, the Caliph’s armies began a counter-offensive in Rajput-held Ghazni, retaking Zanji and
Saravan and winning success after success as they pushed the front back past Turbat to the mountains of the Hindu Kush west of the city of Quetta.
- With the Mongols having received reinforcements from the east and their troops massing at Nishapur, the Seljuks make a fateful decision which
leads to the
Battle of Atrak River and the
now-legendary death of the Six Atabegs, who take their place in the annals of Islamic history as heroes and martyrs to the ummah.
- This reversal, albeit minor for the Mongols, provokes a change of strategy and the invading hordes pause in their advance while they wait for a further wave of reinforcements.
- The peace does not last long and soon the Mongols have advanced again, this time in concert with the Rajputs who
reinvade the lands of Ghazni.
- Soon all that had been gained by the Caliphate counter-offensive has been
lost once more, with Zanji and Saravan, Turbat, Bam, Birjand, Kerman and Yazd, Hormuz and Chabahar falling to the invaders who have now pushed all the way to the Persian Gulf.
- A period of stalemate follows, with the opposing forces manouevring and each trying to find an advantageous point at which to attack, feint and counter-feint across a vast fortified front which stretches from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, protecting the Caliphate heartlands of Rayy and Baghdad from the invader.
- Finally, the Mongols and their Rajput vassals are able to break through and in a
series of battles the Caliphate forces are catastrophically defeated, leaving the path open for the invader to strike the final blow.
- Caliph Suleyman
dies of old age and his uncle Al-Qahir, acting as regent for the under-age new Caliph,
surrenders to the Mongols, ending the war and with it the Fourth Caliphate of Islam.
Broken Crescent Hotseat - Wrath of the Khan
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Originally Posted by Quirl al-Mustafa Mubarak
) I don't have to take that Oasis, Lemon. I just wanted to control all of Africa is all. 
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