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The Mongol Siege of Baghdad and The

End of the Islamic Golden Age

Musa Bin Naseer

Department of Public

Administration

School of Social Sciences and Humanities

GPS-202 Introduction to World History 

Ms. Rehma R. Hyder

October 26 , 2021
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The Mongol Siege of Baghdad and The End of the Islamic Golden Age

After the demise of Genghis Khan in 1227, his vast empire was divided into 5 parts, (1)

Mongolistan which consisted of the Mongol home turf, (2) Chagatai Khanate which consisted of

Khorasan region, (3) Ilkhanate which consisted of Persia, (4) Golden Hordes which consisted of

Russia and Kazakhstan and finally the (5) Yuan dynasty which consisted of China. The Mongols

continued their advance after the death Genghis Khan. Ogedei Khan succeeded his father and

became the next Great Khan, he sept across areas of Europe and western Asia (The Fall of

Baghdad, 2018). Ogedei died in 1241, after his death there was bit of an internal rift and power

struggle between Ogedei’s son Güyük Khan and his nephew Batu Khan, and it wasn’t until 1251

that Möngke Khan succeeded Ogedei as the Great Khan with Batu’s approval.

After assuming control as The Great Khan, Möngke resolved to establish firm control over the

regions that were under Muslim control i.e., Mesopotamia, Syria, and Persia. For this purpose, he

gave his brother Hulagu Khan, the authority over a subordinate khanate and its army i.e., Ilkhanate.

Möngke instructed Hulagu Khan to compel or force these various Muslim states and caliphates into

submission of the Mongol empire.  (The Mongol Empire | Boundless World History, n.d.). Hulagu

led his army into Persia and established himself at Isfahan. His first objective was to deal with the

resistance in Persia. At that time there was an outlaw group in Persia known as the “The Order of

Assassins”. They were notorious for assassinating enemy commanders and posed a potential threat

to the rear guard of the advancing Mongol army. Therefore, Hulagu firstly launched a campaign

against these assassins and hunted every last one of them before advancing towards Baghdad. With

the resistance crushed in Persia, Hulagu began to assemble the largest Mongol army ever

assembled to launch an attack into Baghdad, the crown jewel of the Abbasid Caliphate. Around

150,000 soldiers and cavalry were amassed for the offensive. In preparation for the attack, Hulagu
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formed a De-facto alliance with the Christian Powers i.e., Armenian kingdom of Cilicia and the

kingdom of Georgia. Both the Armenians and Georgians sent their troops and cavalry to fight

alongside the Mongol army. Another combined strategy was devised, according to which the

Armenians will attack Northern Syria, which would divert some of the Turkic forces that may be

available for the defense of Baghdad. (Siege of Baghdad (1258) | Military Wiki, n.d.).

Möngke did not seek to overthrow the Abbasid Caliph Al-Musta'sim nor to destroy the city of

Baghdad. He had instructed Hulagu to convey a message to Al-Musta'sim, that if he surrenders and

submits himself to the Mongol emperor, the city of Baghdad will be spared. At the same time

Möngke had also instructed Hulagu that if the Caliph refuses to the meet his demands, Hulagu

must raise the city of Baghdad to the ground and slaughter everyone inside it. As instructed

Hulagu sent emissaries to Al-Musta'sim, but the Caliph ill-advisedly refused and was in a state of

self-delusion. The Caliph didn’t even think of this as an invasion but rather a raiding party, many

of which he had successfully repulsed before. The Caliph failed to organize an effective defense of

the city and didn’t reinforce its existing defenses. The vast treasury of the Caliph which could have

been used to organize a proper defense and give the city a fighting chance against the invading

Mongol army, remained closed. (knowledgia, 2019)

On January 29th, 1258, Hulagu laid siege to the defenseless city of Baghdad. A defense was hastily

put together in the wake of the Mongol attack, around 50,000 soldiers including 20,000 cavalry

were called on to defend the city by the Abbasid Caliph, however they were of no match to the

150,000 strong Mongol army. The Abbasid soldiers were poorly equipped and trained, they lacked

discipline and military skill. The defending Abbasid forces were a walk over for the Mongol army,

Al-Musta'sim called for negotiations when he realized that defeat was inevitable but his request for

negotiations was not entertained by Hulagu, who was determined to make an example out of the

Caliph for his insolence. Baghdad surrendered on 10 February 1258, just 10 days after being
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attacked. The Mongols didn’t enter the city until the 13th, beginning the week of massacre and

destruction. (Mustful, 2021)

The Mongols raised the entire city to the ground, not a single building was left standing nor were

the inhabitants of the city shown mercy. Libraries, houses, palaces all were set ablaze. The grand

library of Baghdad known as the Darol-Hikmat or “The House of Wisdom,” containing countless

precious historical documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy, was

destroyed. Those books which did not burn, were thrown onto the river Tigris. Scientists,

philosophers, aristocrats, generals nearly everyone was slaughtered. The fleeing civilians were

captured and slaughtered as well. (Goodwin, J. (2003). The death toll was in the hundreds of

thousands, with some historians suggesting that it ranged from 200,000 to 1 million. As per the

accounts of the survivors, the color of the river Tigris ran black from the ink of the books thrown in

the river and red from the blood of the city’s inhabitants. The caliph was forced to watch his people

die after being captured. The Mongols feared spilling the blood of the royal, so they rolled Al-

Musta'sim in a rug which belonged to his own royal palace, he was trampled upon by horses until

the rug was soaked in blood. The remaining members of the royal family were also murdered. The

stench of decay from the dead bodies was so bad that Hulagu couldn’t bear it and didn’t stay in the

city for long. The Mongol invasion also caused an agricultural crisis in Mesopotamia, as they

destroyed many of the dams and canal infrastructure that was built by the Abbasids to sustain

Mesopotamia. The canals were destroyed as military tactic but were never repaired. This caused

food shortages and increased reliance on imported food products. Baghdad was a depopulated,

ruined city for several centuries and only gradually recovered some of its former glory. ( Amitai-

Preiss, R. 1996)

The fall of Baghdad marked the end of the Islamic Golden age and an end to the Abbasid

Caliphate. The destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols was a major blow to the Islamic world and

political Islam never really recovered from it. With the sack of Baghdad, the intellectual flowering
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of Islam was snuffed out. After the fall of Baghdad there was no “Islamic Empire,” nor had there

been anything worthy of that name for some time. This single event changed the entire of course of

history as far as political Islam is concerned, it created a power vacuum in the region which would

be filled intermittently by different power factions in the future i.e Timur, the Persians and the

ottomans. The burning of libraries and in particular, the great library of Baghdad in particular was

perhaps one of the biggest setbacks to not only the Muslims but the entire world. The world will

never know the extent of knowledge lost forever when those books were thrown into the river and

burned. The House of Wisdom included a scientific, academic, translation society, largest book

depository, and home to all knowledge accumulated during Abbasid empire, something which the

Abbasids had built from the 8th-13th century, was all lost forever with the fall of Baghdad. The city

of Baghdad once again became an economic center where international trading hub under Mongol

rule, the minting of coins and religious affairs flourished under the Ilkhans, and we would witness

that the capture Baghdad also led to decline of the Mongol empire. Berke khan, the cousin of

Hulagu khan who was also a devout Muslim, was very angered with Hulagu over the destruction of

Baghdad and murder if the Caliph. This rift eventually resulted in a war between Hulagu and

Berke, marking the start of the decline of the Mongol empire.

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References

1. The Fall of Baghdad. (2018, January 8). History of Islam.

https://historyofislam.com/contents/the-post-mongol-period/the-fall-of-baghdad/

2. The Mongol Empire | Boundless World History. (n.d.). Courses.Lumenlearning.Com.

Retrieved October 26, 2021.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-mongol-empire/

3. Siege of Baghdad (1258) | Military Wiki | Fandom. (n.d.). Military Wiki.

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_(1258)#Capture_of_Baghdad

4. K. (2019, March 19). Why did the Abbasid Caliphate Collapse? YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9hFgkeirE&feature=youtu.be

5. Mustful, C. (2021, February 10). The Siege of Baghdad. History Through Fiction.
https://www.historythroughfiction.com/blog/the-siege-of-baghdad

6. Goodwin, J. (2003). The Glory That Was Baghdad. The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), 27(2),
24–28.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40261181

7. Amitai-Preiss, R. (1996). The Fall and Rise of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate [Review of Das
Aleppiner Kalifat (A. D. 1261): Vom Ende des Kalifates in Baghdad über Aleppo zu den
Restaurationen in Kairo, by S. Heidemann]. Journal of the American Oriental
Society, 116(3), 487–494.
https://doi.org/10.2307/605150