The Greatest Conquerors from the Ancient World

Our world history has been written with blood that a civilization conquered others. Human mankind has always tried hard to expand their authority for religion, economy, politics, even honor. Most of the conquests were done regionally. However, some of them happened wider. Although the conquests were done locally, they influenced globally and even changed the world history. Some of the influences even remain until now.

After the imperialism when the western countries colonized the world, most of us have believed that western world is the super power and they had done more in the history than other civilizations did. We have heard about the great conquerors from the western such as Hitler, Napoleon, and Hernando Cortez. If we try to look back to the era before the colonialism or even before the renaissance, we will see how the world history was also played by the eastern civilizations. To prove it we’re going to see the top five of the greatest conquerors from the ancient time.

What we see as China today was actually several small states before they were united by Qin. He conquered the Zhou territory and the rest of China. Qin Shihuangdi was a powerful emperor whose empire was never wiped out and lasted for 2000 years. He centralized the control of China and standardized law, economy, and writing system. He even imposed censorship to the opposition ideas. In order to defend his empire from the north nomads, Qin also ordered the big project of the Great Wall of China. It still stands today as a monument to Qin’s ambition and to peasants who carried out their emperor’s will (M. Farah & A. Karls, 1999). China is a big united country and has been holding the important roles in the world history. The united China was a great work of Qin Shihuangdi by 221 B.C. rewarding Qin the fifth of the greatest conquerors.

United China’s flourishing civilization was a great part of the world history. However, the conquest Qin did didn’t influence global change of the world directly. The fourth of the greatest conquerors comes to a Turkey sultan, Mehmed II, the conquest of whom immediately influenced the movement of the world history. This young sultan conquered the superpower civilization at that time, the Byzantine Empire. The people of the Constantinople were to watch from Hagia Sophia the troops of the Ottoman dragging warships on wheeled platform up and over the hills of Pera and down into the Golden Horn to bypass the huge iron chain barred in the mouth of Golden Horn. The huge cannons attack eventually led Constantinople to the fall (Hagia Sophia, 1989). The fall of this important city on May 29, 1453, closed the way to Asia for the western. It forced Europeans to find other routes through water to get to Asia just like what were done by Vasco da Gamma and Columbus who then found the new land of America. This finally led to the colonization by the western over the world.

What was done by Sultan Mehmed II really influenced the change of the world history. However, the area the sultan conquered will look very small compared to what was done by a Mongol king, Genghis Khan, our third conqueror in this list. Having united scattered clans of Mongol under one government, a Mongol leader, Temujin, was rewarded a new name of Genghis Khan or ‘Universal Ruler’. He then set out to create a large empire with military campaigns over the world. Followed by the most skilled fighting force in the world at the time (Farah & Karls, 1999), the khan conquered Turks and China by A.D 1211. After his death, his successors continued the conquest to Middle East and Europe. The Conquest to Middle East and the destruction of Baghdad represented a major set back to Islamic civilization.

Maybe Genghis Khan and his Mongol successors had conquered the largest area of the earth. His name was so famous today but there was a name of a conqueror which had inspired the world since the ancient time. He was Alexander the Great. He succeeded his murdered father when he was only 20. He was highly respected by his soldiers for his courage and military skill and extremely well educated, for his father had him tutored by Aristotle (Farah & Karls, 1999). He set out to challenge the Persian control over the Ionian cities and ended up with an empire that for the first time linked western and central Asia (G. Leick, 1999). Next, he captured Egypt where he founded port of Alexandria in the Nile delta by 332 B.C. Before his death Alexander had controlled over Greek, Asia Minor, Egypt, Palestine, Persia, and India. This achievement belongs to legend as much as to history (C. Brinton, 1984). Alexander the Great, the emperor of Macedonia, deserves of the second place in this list.

Finally we come to the greatest conqueror ever in the world civilization history, the Prophet Muhammad SAW. He was born in Mecca around A.D 570. During his teens, Muhammad SAW worked as an honest caravan leader on a trade route in Arabian Peninsula. In A.D 610, he experienced a revelation calling him to be an apostle of God and then he began to preach in Mecca. The opposition to Islam forced him to depart to Yathrib where he then got more followers. Yathrib accepted him as a God’s prophet and their ruler. He was skilled political as well as religious leader (Farah & Karls, 1999). He was successful in both (Michael Hart, 1978). In Yathrib (Madinah), Muhammad laid the foundation of an Islamic State. After several wars between Mecca and Yathrib, eventually the Mecca invaded the Prophet city. Muslim won the battle and in A.D 630, Muhammad SAW entered Mecca as a conqueror. The Mecca citizens then accepted Islam. Two years later in A.D 632 when Muhammad SAW died, most of Arabians had become Muslims.

Under his successors, like Umar ibn Khattab, Syria, Palestine, Persia, and Egypt were conquered almost simultaneously in the further years. In A.D 698 the Muslims took over North Africa after attacking Italy and conquered the native barber tribes in the Central Africa who had resisted Romans so far. In 711, under the command of Tariq, they invaded Spain across the straits of Gibraltar, ‘The Rock of Tariq’. By 725, Muslims expansion was stopped by France in Tours, meanwhile Islam had been spreading from Spain, North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Persia, to the Indus River and the west frontiers of China. These conquests on the first century of Islam were virtually final. Only the Mediterranean Islands and Spain were re-conquered by Christians (C. Brighton). The Islam it self then was spreading even to the south East Asia.

Arabian united by the Prophet is not as large as China united by Qin. The Prophet didn’t conquer the land as wide as what Genghis Khan did. His name as a conqueror might not be as legendary as Alexander the Great. However, there’s no doubt that Muhammad SAW had influenced the most to the world civilization history. What had been conquered by Alexander and Genghis Khan didn’t last forever as the area of Greek and Mongol is not wider than that before they were born. Most of what Muhammad SAW and his successors conquered still survives till now and maybe the more important left, Muhammad’s teaching of Islam, will last forever. The Prophet Muhammad SAW had changed the world civilization history and influenced the life of his followers.

We have seen the top five of the greatest conquerors in the history of the ancient world. Four of them come from the eastern and in the top rank seats an Arabian which at the time was considered as the uncivilized compared to the neighbors such as Byzantine Roman and Persian. It shows us that the eastern which is reputed as the third world by the western had ever played the important role in the world civilization history. Every civilization, not only Europeans, is able to change the world. In this modern era, we may resist physics conquest to other countries; however, we still can conquer the world in economy, politics, culture, and science.

Brighton. C, (1984), The History of Civilization, New Jersey: Pretice Hall

Farah. M, Karls. A, (1999), World History: The Human Experiences, New York: Glencoe Hagia Sophia (1989) Istanbul: Turizm Yayinlari

Leick, G, (1999) Who’s Who in the Ancient Near East, London: Routledge

Mc Graw Hills

Jangan Main Tulis Saja

Salah seorang kawan menyarankan bahwa dalam sebuah blog itu harus ada perkenalannya dulu, jangan main tulis saja seperti yang sudah ku lakukan. Baiklah, kita mulai dari perkenalan diri saya.

Nama saya…ehm, nanti juga kalian tahu.

Tempat tanggal lahir,…sudah lupa.

Umur,…ah tak penting lah.

Alamat,…ada lah pokoknya.

Status,…itu bukan urusan kalian !!

Berat dan tinggi,…kurang ajar betul ! Itu privasi saya, ada urusan apa tanya-tanya??

Oke, perkenalan diri selesai. Eh, tunggu ! Pekerjaan ! Hehe..iya aku hampir lupa. Aku saat ini masih berpangkat mahasiswa di sebuah Universitas Negeri di Jakarta.

Terus apa lagi? Oya, kesukaan !! Warna kesukaan, apa saja ! Karena aku ini berkulit putih langsat jadi cocok saja dengan warna apa pun juga. Hahaha…

Makanan kesukaan…meminjam istilah Trinity, bagi saya hanya ada dua jenis makanan: makanan enak, dan makanan enak sekali !! Tapi saya sangat doyan soto betawi terutama Soto Jakarta yang di Rawamangun itu lho. Boleh kalau pada mau traktir.

Hal yang paling disukai, ehm…mungkin dari hal yang paling dibenci dulu kali yah. Aku paling benci sama anak yang durhaka sama orang tua. Sering ngebantah atau bahkan membentak orangtuanya sendiri. Kerjaannya marah-marah terus seakan-akan apa yang telah dilakukan orangtua padanya tak pernah cukup. Seakan-akan dia sudah bisa membalas jasa mereka. Seakan-akan dia telah menumpuk emas setinggi gunung untuk ayahnya dan telah menggendong ibunya, jalan kaki sampai Mekah agar si ibu bisa naik haji. Seakan-akan ayah dan ibunya mengganggu saja kerjanya.

Walau aku dulu bandel sama orangtua, tapi seiring tumbuh dewasa aku makin jarang minta ini itu. Tak pernah intonasi suara lebih tinggi bila berhadapan dengan mereka. Tak pernah menggunakan kata ganti ‘aku, ‘saya’, atau malah ‘gue’ sama orang tua. Selalu patuh dan tak pernah membantah petuah dan perintah mereka. Selalu bersikap sesuai tuntunan agama, pancasila, dan dasasila pramuka. Tapi saat Mama telah tiada dan Papa pindah ke pulau seberang, aku selalu menyesali kurangnya baktiku pada mereka. Selalu merindukan saat-saat bersama mereka. Jadi kawan, aku harap jangan kalian sia-siakan orangtua mu dan saat-saat indah bersama mereka. Karena orang-orang yang kita cintai baru akan terasa sangat berarti saat mereka telah pergi. Jangan sampai kalian baru menyesal saat mereka tiada, atau malah kalian duluan yang tiada. Karena setiap kebersamaan akan selalu diakhiri dengan perpisahan.

Hal yang paling aku sukai…yah kehidupan ini dengan segala dinamika dan warna-warninya. Menurut ku, dunia yang fana ini lebih menarik dari pada surga, mau tahu kenapa? Karena di dunia ini kita merasakan bahagia dan sedih, manis dan pahit, tenang dan takut. Di dunia ini lah kita mencintai dan dicintai dengan tulus. Dan bagian yang paling menarik dari kehidupan adalah perjuangan. Aku kurang tertarik dengan kehidupan yang tahu-tahu bahagia dan mapan di awal. Ujug-ujug kaya tanpa perjuangan. Aku bersyukur merasakan pedihnya dihina karena tak berpunya, wan prestasi, dan tak rupawan. Mengalami jatuh bangun, berkali-kali salah dan gagal. Menjadi pecundang diantara gerombolan pecundang tidaklah menarik. Tapi menjadi si miskin diantara mereka yang menengah ke atas, itu baru menantang. Dipandang sebelah mata membuat aku penasaran ingin berhasil. Dan andaikan nanti semua impian terwujud, saat bahkan kedua mata mereka tak cukup untuk takjub padaku, aku akan dengan senang hati mengecap manisnya kemenangan. Ini bukan dendam, tapi pembuktian. Karena itulah esensi dari hidup, yakni perjuangan.

Pada hakikatnya hidup setiap manusia itu sangatlah menarik dan layak dituangkan dalam novel-novel atau filem seperti tetralogi Laskar Pelangi. . Di zaman internet seperti sekarang, orang-orang bahkan dengan mudah menceritakan pengalaman kesehariannya di blog seperti yang dilakukan Raditya Dika dan Trinity. Dasar latah, aku jadi ikut-ikutan membual dalam diary elektronik semacam ini. Beberapa teman sudah membaca-baca blog ku. Ada yang bilang konsep dari blog ini adalah ide bagus. Ada yang memuji gaya penulisan ku yang baku namun mengalir dengan indahnya. Dia bahkan bilang kalau aku ini berbakat jadi penulis lho. Hehe… Ada juga yang mengkritik bahwa tulisannya kebanyakan, jadi males bacanya. Ada yang mengkritisi kata ganti ‘aku’ yang digunakan. Ehm…menurutku itu yang paling pas. Kalau ‘saya’, terlalu formal. Kalau ‘gue’, terlalu informal. Kalau ‘Eke’ nanti disangaka transgender. ‘Aku’ lebih terdengar akrab dan sangat sastra. Dan kenapa bahasa yang ku pakai terkesan baku, yah karena aku ingin menyelamatkan penggunaan bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar.

Pada akhirnya aku ucapkan banyak terima kasih sudah rela membaca blog ku yang masih sedikit ini. Semoga anda-anda tidak bosan untuk terus membacanya, dan tidak menyesal telah membuang-buang waktunya menyimak bualan-bualan dari Sang Pembual.

Terinspirasi 'nguping jakarta'

Aku sudah meng-email ketiga dialog ini ke blog nguping jakarta yang kocak itu tapi belum juga ditampilkan. Berhubung sudah kebelet ingin menampilkan dialog-dialog yang absurd ini, ya jadinya aku tampilkan disini saja lah..

Apa pun yang terjadi yang penting jualan

Seorang tukang roti baru saja menjadi korban tabrak lari. Beliau baik-baik saja tapi roti-roti dari gerobaknya berhamburan di jalan. Tak lama berselang seorang polisi datang ke TKP.

Polisi: "Ada apa nih pak ??"
Tukang Roti: "Ini lho pak, ada roti keju, roti coklat, kelapa, dan kombinasi..."

Didengar oleh saksi mata yang merasa menyesal menolong si tukang roti ngediriin gerobaknya yang terguling... (thanks to Bayu for the joke)


Oh..gue kira gak dijual

Beberapa karyawan sedang makan siang di sebuah rumah makan.

Karyawan #1: "Jus jeruk ama es jeruk..apa bedanya yah??"
Karyawan #2: "yah..paling beda seribu.."

Didengar oleh manajemen rumah makan yang merasa orang ini layak untuk meneruskan usahanya..
(thanks to Bayu for the joke)


Pergaulan bebas masa kini memang sudah keterlaluan

Seorang cewek ABG sedang menunggu temannya sampai kering di Mall. Lalu ia menelepon temannya itu.

Cewek #1: "Eh Lo dah dimana seh lama banget??"
Cewek #2: "Sory..nih gue lagi nunggingin cowok gue...eh, nungguin !!"

Didenger si cewek #1 yang merasa yang keceplosan itulah yang justru menceritakan keadaan sebenarnya...