Event
Event
The Siege of Baghdad, also known as the Sack of Baghdad, took place in early 1258. A large army commanded by Hulegu, a prince of the Mongol Empire, attacked the historic capital of the Abbasid Caliphate after a series of provocations from its ruler, caliph al-Musta'sim. Within a few weeks, Baghdad fell and was sacked by the Mongol army—al-Musta'sim was killed alongside hundreds of thousands of his subjects. The city's fall has traditionally been seen as marking the end of the Islamic Golden Age; in reality, its ramifications are uncertain.
After the accession of his brother Möngke Khan to the Mongol throne in 1251, Hulegu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, was dispatched westwards to Persia to secure the region. His massive army of over 138,000 men took years to reach the region but then quickly attacked and overpowered the Nizari Ismaili Assassins in 1256. The Mongols had expected al-Musta'sim to provide reinforcements for their army—the Caliph's failure to do so, combined with his arrogance in negotiations, convinced Hulegu to overthrow him in late 1257. Invading Mesopotamia from all sides, the Mongol army soon approached Baghdad, routing a sortie on 17 January 1258 by flooding their opponents' camp. They then invested Baghdad, which was left with around 30,000 troops.
The assault began at the end of January. Mongol siege engines breached Baghdad's fortifications within a couple of days, and Hulegu's highly-trained troops controlled the eastern wall by 4 February. The increasingly desperate al-Musta'sim frantically tried to negotiate, but Hulegu was intent on total victory, even killing soldiers who attempted to surrender. The Caliph eventually surrendered the city on 10 February, and the Mongols began looting three days later. The total number of people who died is unknown, as it was likely increased by subsequent epidemics; Hulegu later estimated the total at around 200,000. After calling an amnesty for the pillaging on 20 February, Hulegu executed the caliph. In contrast to the exaggerations of later Muslim historians, Baghdad prospered under Hulegu's Ilkhanate, although it did decline in comparison to the new capital, Tabriz.
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Background The Talisman Gate , built in 1220–1221 by al-Nasir , protected the eastern walls of Baghdad at the time of the siege. Baghdad was founded in 762 by al-Mansur , the second caliph of the Abbasid dynasty , which had recently overthrown the empire of the Umayyads . Al-Mansur believed that the new Abbasid Caliphate needed a new capital city , located away from potential threats and near the dynasty's power base in Persia . Incredibly wealthy due to the trade routes and taxes it controlled, Baghdad quickly became a world city and the epicentre of the Islamic Golden Age : poets, writers, scientists, philosophers, musicians, and scholars of every type thrived in the city. Containing centres of learning like the House of Wisdom and astronomical observatories , which used the newly-arrived technology of paper and the gathering of the teachings of antiquity from all Eurasia, Baghdad was "the intellectual capital of the planet", in the words of the historian Justin Marozzi . [ 1 ] During the tenth century, the Abbasids gradually decreased in power. This culminated in Baghdad being occupied, first by the Buyids in 945 and then the Seljuks in 1055, by which time the caliphs had only local authority. They focused their attentions on Baghdad itself, which retained its position as one of the preeminent cities of the world—it was joined only by Kaifeng and Hangzhou in having over a million inhabitants between 1000 and 1200 . [ 2 ] The caliphate reemerged as a significant power under al-Nasir ( r.  1180–1225 ), who saw off threats from the last Seljuk rulers and their successors, the Khwarazmians . Muhammad II of Khwarazm 's 1217 invasion of the Abbasids failed, and his realm was soon invaded by the armies of Genghis Khan , first ruler of the Mongol Empire . [ 3 ] After the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire ended in late 1221, they did not return to the region until 1230. In that year, Chormaqan , a leading general under Genghis' successor Ögedei Khan , arrived in Azerbaijan to eliminate the Khwarazmian prince Jalal al-Din , who was killed the following year. [ 4 ] Thereafter, Chormaqan began to establish Mongol hegemony in northwestern Iran and the Transcaucasus . After they captured Isfahan in 1236, the Mongols began to test caliphal authority in Mesopotamia , besieging Irbil in 1237 and raiding up to the walls of Baghdad itself the following year. [ 5 ] Chormaqan and his 1241 replacement Baiju thereafter raided the region nearly every year. Although Mongol rule was secured elsewhere in the Near East —their victory at the 1243 Battle of Köse Dağ reduced the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum to a client state —Baghdad remained unconquered, and even defeated a Mongol force in 1245. [ 6 ] Another problem was the secretive Nizari Ismaili state , also known as the Order of Assassins , in the Elburz Mountains . They had killed Mongol commanders during the 1240s, and had allegedly dispatched 400 Assassins to the Mongol capital Karakorum to kill the khan himself. [ 7 ] Campaign against the Assassins Main article: Mongol campaign against the Nizaris Möngke Khan was proclaimed khan in 1251 as part of the Toluid Revolution , which established the family of Genghis' youngest son Tolui as the most powerful figures in the Mongol Empire. [ 8 ] Möngke resolved to send his younger brothers Kublai and Hulegu on massive military expeditions to subdue rebellious vassals and problematic enemies. While Kublai was sent to vassalize the Dali Kingdom and resume the war against the Southern Song , Hulegu was dispatched westwards to destroy the Ismaili Assassins and to ensure the submission of the Abbasid caliphs. [ 9 ] For this task, he was assigned one fifth of the empire's manpower, a figure which has been variously calculated by modern scholars as between 138,000, nearly 200,000, or 300,000 men. [ a ] The force contained troops from vassalized Armenia , including its king Hetoum I , a thousand-strong corps of military engineers led by Guo Kan , auxiliaries from all over the empire, and generals from all the branches of the Mongol imperial family, including three princes from the Golden Horde , the Chagatayid prince Teguder , and possibly one of Genghis Khan's grandsons through his daughter Checheikhen . [ 13 ] Because of the size of his force, Hulegu's progress from Karakorum was extremely leisurely by Mongol standards. Setting out in October 1253, he spent the next years passing through Transoxiana and received homage from local rulers, including Arghun Aqa at Kish in November 1255; early the following year, he entered the Assassins' heartland of Kohistan . [ 14 ] An advanced vanguard under the general Kitbuqa had taken numerous Ismaili fortresses, unsuccessfully besieged the stronghold at Gerdkuh , and sacked the city of Tun between 1253 and 1256. [ 15 ] The Grand Master of the Assassins, Ala ad-Din Muhammad , had died in December 1255, and Hulegu sent ambassadors to his young successor, Rukn al-Din Khurshah . The new Grand Master attempted to stall for time, but his fortresses steadily fell to the Mongols and he surrendered from Maymun-Diz on 19 November 1256. [ 16 ] Rukn al-Din persuaded the stronghold of Alamut to surrender on 15 December. [ 17 ] [ b ] ^ Marozzi 2014 , chapters 1, 3. ^ Marozzi 2014 , chapter 4; Modelski 2007 . ^ Boyle 1968 , pp. 200–202; Atwood 2004 , p. 1. ^ Jackson 2017 , pp. 81–82; Atwood 2004 , p. 2; Boyle 1968 , pp. 334–335. ^ Jackson 2017 , pp. 82–83; Atwood 2004 , p. 2. ^ Jackson 2017 , pp. 83–85; Atwood 2004 , p. 2. ^ Jackson 2017 , p. 125; Atwood 2004 , p. 255; Morgan 1986 , p. 130; Biran 2012 , pp. 78–79. ^ May 2018 , pp. 144–145; Atwood 2004 , p. 363. ^ May 2018 , p. 159; Jackson 2017 , p. 125; Boyle 1968 , p. 340; Lane 2003 , p. 23. ^ Smith 1975 , pp. 277–278. ^ Chambers 1979 , pp. 142–143. ^ May 2007 , p. 27. ^ Lane 2003 , pp. 18–19; Hodous 2020 , p. 30; Atwood 2004 , p. 255; Jackson 2017 , pp. 126–127. ^ Boyle 1968 , p. 341; Jackson 2017 , pp. 126–127. ^ Boyle 1968 , p. 342; May 2018 , p. 163; Atwood 2004 , p. 255. ^ Atwood 2004 , p. 255; Lane 2003 , pp. 24–25; Jackson 2017 , p. 127; Boyle 1968 , pp. 342–344. ^ Boyle 1968 , pp. 344–345; Jackson 2017 , p. 127. ^ Lane 2003 , pp. 25–26; Atwood 2004 , pp. 255–256. 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Legacy The fall of Baghdad marked the end of the 500-year-old Abbasid Caliphate—although a member of the dynasty eventually made it to Cairo , where the Mamluks installed him as Al-Mustansir II , he and his descendants were puppets of the Mamluk state and never gained much recognition in the wider Muslim world; they would later be usurped by the Ottomans , who maintained the title of caliph up to the 20th century. [ 1 ] It also marked a shift of power away from Baghdad and towards cities like Tabriz , the capital of the Ilkhanate , the khanate founded by Hulegu in the aftermath of the siege. [ 2 ] Baghdad's fall was not as era-defining as has been suggested, although the end of the caliphate marked a momentous occasion for the Islamic world. [ 3 ] Muslim writers have traditionally ascribed the decline of the Islamic Golden Age , and consequently the subsequent rise of the Western world , to this one event; however, such an argument has been criticized by modern historians as simplistic and lazy. [ 4 ] Whereas an oft-quoted description from a 16th-century historian details that so many books from Baghdad's libraries were thrown into the Tigris that "the colour of the river changed into black from their multitude," the historian Michal Biran has shown that large libraries reopened for learning and teaching within two years of the siege. [ 5 ] Hulegu and his successors as rulers of the Ilkhanate actively patronized and encouraged musical and literary traditions; according to Biran it was subsequent sieges like those conducted by Timur in 1393 and 1401 and by the Ottomans in 1534 that ensured the city's long-term marginalization. [ 6 ] ^ Morgan 1986 , pp. 133–134; Jackson 2017 , p. 129. ^ Biran 2012 , p. 99; Atwood 2004 , p. 2; Lane 2022 , p. 283. ^ Jackson 2017 , p. 129. ^ Biran 2019 , p. 465; Al-Khalili 2012 , chapter 12: Decline and Renaissance. ^ Biran 2019 , pp. 470–472. ^ Biran 2016 , p. 150; Biran 2019 , pp. 494–495.
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