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| The Mongols pushed inward and reached the city wall. Baghdad was defended by an army of ] soldiers and auxiliaries from some southern ]i tribes. There was also a Citizens' Militia. The Mongols laid siege to the city and constructed a palisade and a ditch; siege equipment was erected as well. The bombardment began on ] and by ], a breach was made. By ] the Mongols controlled a stretch of the wall. Al-Musta'sim tried to negotiate, but was refused. | The Mongols pushed inward and reached the city wall. Baghdad was defended by an army of ] soldiers and auxiliaries from some southern ]i tribes. There was also a Citizens' Militia. The Mongols laid siege to the city and constructed a palisade and a ditch; siege equipment was erected as well. The bombardment began on ] and by ], a breach was made. By ] the Mongols controlled a stretch of the wall. Al-Musta'sim tried to negotiate, but was refused. | ||
| On ] Baghdad surrendered. The Mongols swept into the city on ], which began a week of massacre, looting, and fire. The cruelty associated with the capture of the city has been chronicled many times in historical accounts of the invasion. The Grand Library of Baghdad, which contained countless precious historical documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy, was destroyed, much as the library in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople had been fifty years previously. It was reported that the waters of the Tigris ran black with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river by the Mongols. Massive loss of life resulted when citizens were killed by the Mongol army when they resisted or attempted to flee, while raping and looting destroyed order and defaced many architectural buildings within the city. | On ] Baghdad surrendered. The Mongols swept into the city on ], which began a week of massacre, looting, and fire. The cruelty associated with the capture of the city has been chronicled many times in historical accounts of the invasion. The Grand Library of Baghdad, which contained countless precious historical documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy, was destroyed, much as the library in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople had been fifty years previously. It was reported that the waters of the Tigris ran black with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river by the Mongols. Massive loss of life resulted when citizens were killed by the Mongol army when they resisted or attempted to flee, while raping and looting destroyed order and defaced many architectural buildings within the city. Hulagu's legendary cruelty was never more in evidence than in the aftermath of the sack. From William Stearns Davis, ed., ''Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources'', 2 Vols. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-13), comes a comment on the sack of Bagdad that sums up the horror of what the Mongols did to the City of Lights, "The bewildering extent of the blood-thirsty ferocity, insatiable thirst for massacre, and devastating destruction which brought unprecedented suffering for the greater portion of the civilized world, would be just impossible to believe, had the facts not been confirmed from different sources, both Eastern and Western." | ||
| David Nicole described the scene in ''The Mongol Warlords'' where Hulagu Khan confronted the Caliph Al-Musta'sim and said (as he made the Caliph watch as the treasures of six centuries of Muslim rule were piled in a heap to be portioned out by the Mongol Khan), "you would have done better to have hired soldiers than horded jewels." The Mongols own histories report he was waving a jewel under Al-Musta'sim's face at the time. He then had all but one of the Caliph's sons killed. (the sole heir to the Abbasids was sent to Mongolia, where he reportedly was married to a Mongol woman, and disappeared from history) Hulagu Khan had his army divide the population of Bagdad into 100's and kill them, forcing the Caliph to watch. Historians now believe as many as 800,000 people may have been killed. Supposedly the Mongols, who had a religious fear of directly killing royalty, finally rolled the Caliph up in a rug, and rode their horses over him. There are mongol histories which claim Hulagu Khan first made him eat some of his jewels, and this is also reported in ''The Mongol Warlords'', and ''The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia'' by René Grousset and Naomi Walford. Thus ended the Abassid dynasty. Hulagu then had to move his camp upwind, as the stench was too much for even the Mongols, who had grown used to the smell of death. | David Nicole described the scene in ''The Mongol Warlords'' where Hulagu Khan confronted the Caliph Al-Musta'sim and said (as he made the Caliph watch as the treasures of six centuries of Muslim rule were piled in a heap to be portioned out by the Mongol Khan), "you would have done better to have hired soldiers than horded jewels." The Mongols own histories report he was waving a jewel under Al-Musta'sim's face at the time. He then had all but one of the Caliph's sons killed. (the sole heir to the Abbasids was sent to Mongolia, where he reportedly was married to a Mongol woman, and disappeared from history) Hulagu Khan had his army divide the population of Bagdad into 100's and kill them, forcing the Caliph to watch. Historians now believe as many as 800,000 people may have been killed. Supposedly the Mongols, who had a religious fear of directly killing royalty, finally rolled the Caliph up in a rug, and rode their horses over him. There are mongol histories which claim Hulagu Khan first made him eat some of his jewels, and this is also reported in ''The Mongol Warlords'', and ''The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia'' by René Grousset and Naomi Walford. Thus ended the Abassid dynasty. Hulagu then had to move his camp upwind, as the stench was too much for even the Mongols, who had grown used to the smell of death. | ||
Revision as of 01:31, 2 February 2006
The Battle of Baghdad in 1258 was a victory of Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan.
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Baghdad was the capital of an Islamic state and was ruled by Al-Musta'sim, the current Abbasid Caliph. The Abbasid state had been in existence for over 500 years, since the accesssion of the first caliph in Baghdad 751 CE following the defeat of the previously ruling Umayyads. In century or so before the Mongol invasion, the state had lost much of its former strength due to the increasing political dominance of its Mamluk troops.
The Mongol army, led by Hulagu (or Hulegu) Khan set out to Baghdad in November of 1257. The Mongols set up camp near the Hulwan river, and some of them crossed the Tigris to attack Baghdad from the rear. Al-Musta'sim's army launched a counterattack, which at first drove back the Mongols that had crossed the Tigris, but the Mongols were able to lure their opponents into a marshy terrain. Al-Musta'sim's soldiers were routed, and only a few managed to escape back to Baghdad.
The Mongols pushed inward and reached the city wall. Baghdad was defended by an army of Mamluk soldiers and auxiliaries from some southern Iraqi tribes. There was also a Citizens' Militia. The Mongols laid siege to the city and constructed a palisade and a ditch; siege equipment was erected as well. The bombardment began on January 29 and by February 4, a breach was made. By February 5 the Mongols controlled a stretch of the wall. Al-Musta'sim tried to negotiate, but was refused.
On February 10 Baghdad surrendered. The Mongols swept into the city on February 13, which began a week of massacre, looting, and fire. The cruelty associated with the capture of the city has been chronicled many times in historical accounts of the invasion. The Grand Library of Baghdad, which contained countless precious historical documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy, was destroyed, much as the library in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople had been fifty years previously. It was reported that the waters of the Tigris ran black with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river by the Mongols. Massive loss of life resulted when citizens were killed by the Mongol army when they resisted or attempted to flee, while raping and looting destroyed order and defaced many architectural buildings within the city. Hulagu's legendary cruelty was never more in evidence than in the aftermath of the sack. From William Stearns Davis, ed., Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources, 2 Vols. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-13), comes a comment on the sack of Bagdad that sums up the horror of what the Mongols did to the City of Lights, "The bewildering extent of the blood-thirsty ferocity, insatiable thirst for massacre, and devastating destruction which brought unprecedented suffering for the greater portion of the civilized world, would be just impossible to believe, had the facts not been confirmed from different sources, both Eastern and Western."
David Nicole described the scene in The Mongol Warlords where Hulagu Khan confronted the Caliph Al-Musta'sim and said (as he made the Caliph watch as the treasures of six centuries of Muslim rule were piled in a heap to be portioned out by the Mongol Khan), "you would have done better to have hired soldiers than horded jewels." The Mongols own histories report he was waving a jewel under Al-Musta'sim's face at the time. He then had all but one of the Caliph's sons killed. (the sole heir to the Abbasids was sent to Mongolia, where he reportedly was married to a Mongol woman, and disappeared from history) Hulagu Khan had his army divide the population of Bagdad into 100's and kill them, forcing the Caliph to watch. Historians now believe as many as 800,000 people may have been killed. Supposedly the Mongols, who had a religious fear of directly killing royalty, finally rolled the Caliph up in a rug, and rode their horses over him. There are mongol histories which claim Hulagu Khan first made him eat some of his jewels, and this is also reported in The Mongol Warlords, and The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia by René Grousset and Naomi Walford. Thus ended the Abassid dynasty. Hulagu then had to move his camp upwind, as the stench was too much for even the Mongols, who had grown used to the smell of death.
Baghdad lost most of its population and prestige for the next three centuries, but was later rebuild by the Persian Safavid dynasty in 1526.
External link
- A long article about Hulagu's conquest of Baghdad, written by Ian Frazier, appeared in the April 25, 2005 issue of The New Yorker. It explains Osama bin Laden's reference to Hulagu.