1258
Mongols take Baghdad
For 500 years Baghdad had served as the capital of the Abbasid caliphate and the centre of Islamic culture. Though in the 13th century the city and empire were in decline, Baghdad was still rich and populous with a million inhabitants, the site of many architectural marvels and impressive libraries.
The eruption of massive Mongol armies early in the 1200s completely change the geopolitical arrangements in Asia. The mighty Chinese empire fell and the borders of the caliphate crumbled as old Islamic conquests now were in Mongol hands. In the 1230s raids came closer and closer to Baghdad and it was clear that paying tribute to the hordes was a shrewd policy. The coming to power of a new more aggressive set of Mongol warlords altered the equation: they demanded that the Abbasid caliphate now pledge allegiance to the khans and that the Caliph himself come in person to their capital in Karakoram in Mongolia to submit. This was refused and Baghdad’s days were numbered.
In January 1258 the city was besieged by 150,000 Mongols under Hulagu, aided by Chinese artillery, disgruntled Shiites, and detachments from various Christian kingdoms who had long fought against the Caliphs: crusader knights from Palestine and troops from Georgia and Armenia. The walls were soon breached and on February 10 the city surrendered, leading to an epic sack and orgy of killing and destruction. The Caliph was wrapped in a carpet, beaten with clubs and trampled to death by Mongol horses. Casualties were in the hundreds of thousands; priceless palaces, mosques and libraries were burnt; and vast amounts of treasure were taken away. The dams on the Tigris and the Euphrates that the Abbasids had built up over a period of five centuries were demolished. The destruction of dams throughout Central Asia depressed agriculture and slowed population and economic recovery for many centuries. Baghdad, which was once the premier city of the world, became a ghost town.
For many historians this sack marked the end of the Islamic Golden Age. The caliphate ceased to matter for centuries and Muslim learning and science suffered a great setback.