Siege of Baghdad by Mongols

[Prince of Lasanod]

The Siege of Baghdad, which lasted from January 29 until February 10, 1258, entailed the investment, capture and sack of Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, by Ilkhanate Mongol forces and allied troops. The Mongols were under the command of Halagu Khan (or Hulegu Khan), brother of the khagan Möngke Khan, who had intended to further extend his rule into Mesopotamia but not to directly overthrow the Caliphate. Möngke, however, had instructed Hulagu to attack Baghdad if the Caliph Al-Musta'sim refused Mongol demands for his continued submission to the khagan and the payment of tribute in the form of military support for Mongol forces in Iran.

Hulagu began his campaign in Iran with several offensives against Nizari groups, including the Assassins, who lost their stronghold of Alamut. He then marched on Baghdad, demanding that Al-Musta'sim accede to the terms imposed by Möngke on the Abbasids. Although the Abbasids had failed to prepare for the invasion, the Caliph believed that Baghdad could not fall to invading forces and refused to surrender. Hulagu subsequently besieged the city, which surrendered after 12 days. During the next week, the Mongols sacked Baghdad, committing numerous atrocities and destroyed the Abbasids' vast libraries, including the House of Wisdom. The Mongols executed Al-Musta'sim and massacred many residents of the city, which was left greatly depopulated. The siege is considered to mark the end of the Islamic Golden Age, during which the caliphs had extended their rule from the Iberian Peninsula to Sindh, and which was also marked by many cultural achievements

 

[Prince of Lasanod]

Planning
In 1257, Möngke resolved to establish firm authority over Mesopotamia, Syria, and Iran. The khagan gave his brother, Hulagu, authority over a subordinate khanate and army, the Ilkhanate, and instructions to compel the submission of various Muslim states, including the caliphate. Though not seeking the overthrow of Al-Musta'sim, Möngke ordered Hulagu to destroy Baghdad if the Caliph refused his demands of personal submission to Hulagu and the payment of tribute in the form of a military detachment, which would reinforce Hulagu's army during its campaigns against Iranian Ismaili states.

In preparation for his invasion, Hulagu raised a large expeditionary force, conscripting one out of every ten military-age males in the entirety of the Mongol Empire, assembling what may have been the most numerous Mongol army to have existed and, by one estimate, 150,000 strong.[18] Generals of the army included the Oirat administrator Arghun Agha, Baiju, Buqa Temür, Guo Kan, and Kitbuqa, as well as Hulagu's brother Sunitai and various other warlords.[19] The force was also supplemented by Christian forces, including the King of Armenia and his army, a Frankish contingent from the Principality of Antioch,[20] and a Georgian force, seeking revenge on the Muslim Abbasids for the sacking of their capital, Tiflis, decades earlier by the Khwarazm-Shahs.[21] About 1,000 Chinese artillery experts accompanied the army,[22] as did Persian and Turkic auxiliaries, according to Ata-Malik Juvayni, a contemporary Persian observer.

Early campaigns
Hulagu led his army first to Iran, where he successfully campaigned against the Lurs, the Bukhara, and the remnants of the Khwarezm-Shah dynasty. After subduing them, Hulagu directed his attention toward the Ismaili Assassins and their Grand Master, Imam 'Ala al-Din Muhammad, who had attempted the murder of both Möngke and Hulagu's friend and subordinate, Kitbuqa. Though Assassins failed in both attempts, Hulagu marched his army to their stronghold of Alamut, which he captured. The Mongols later executed the Assassins' Grand Master, Imam Rukn al-Dun Khurshah, who had briefly succeeded 'Ala al-Din Muhammad from 1255-1256.

 

[Prince of Lasanod]

Capture of Baghdad

Hulagu's march to Baghdad
After defeating the Assassins, Hulagu sent word to Al-Musta'sim, demanding his acquiescence to the terms imposed by Möngke. Al-Musta'sim refused, in large part due to the influence of his advisor and grand vizier, Ibn al-Alkami. Historians have ascribed various motives to al-Alkami's opposition to submission, including treachery and incompetence, and it appears that he lied to the Caliph about the severity of the invasion, assuring Al-Musta'sim that, if the capital of the caliphate was endangered by a Mongol army, the Islamic world would rush to its aid.

Although he replied to Hulagu's demands in a manner that the Mongol commander found menacing and offensive enough to break off further negotiation, Al-Musta'sim neglected to summon armies to reinforce the troops at his disposal in Baghdad. Nor did he strengthen the city's walls. By January 11 the Mongols were close to the city, establishing themselves on both banks of the Tigris River so as to form a pincer around the city. Al-Musta'sim finally decided to do battle with them and sent out a force of 20,000 cavalry to attack the Mongols. The cavalry were decisively defeated by the Mongols, whose sappers breached dikes along the Tigris River and flooded the ground behind the Abbasid forces, trapping them.

Siege of the city
On January 29, the Mongol army began its siege of Baghdad, constructing a palisade and a ditch around the city. Employing siege engines and catapults, the Mongols attempted to breach the city's walls, and, by February 5, had seized a significant portion of the defenses. Realizing that his forces had little chance of retaking the walls, Al-Musta'sim attempted to open negotiations with Hulagu, who rebuffed the Caliph. Around 3,000 of Baghdad's notables also tried to negotiate with Hulagu but were murdered. Five days later, on February 10, the city surrendered, but the Mongols did not enter the city until the 13th, beginning a week of massacre and destruction.

 

[Prince of Lasanod]

Destruction

Many historical accounts detailed the cruelties of the Mongol conquerors.

• The Grand Library of Baghdad, containing countless precious historical documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy, was destroyed. Survivors said that the waters of the Tigris ran black with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river and red from the blood of the scientists and philosophers killed.
• Citizens attempted to flee, but were intercepted by Mongol soldiers who killed in abundance, sparing neither women nor children. Martin Sicker writes that close to 90,000 people may have died. Other estimates go much higher. Wassaf claims the loss of life was several hundred thousand. Ian Frazier of The New Yorker says estimates of the death toll have ranged from 200,000 to a million.
• The Mongols looted and then destroyed mosques, palaces, libraries, and hospitals. Grand buildings that had been the work of generations were burned to the ground.
• The caliph Al-Musta'sim was captured and forced to watch as his citizens were murdered and his treasury plundered. According to most accounts, the caliph was killed by trampling. The Mongols rolled the caliph up in a rug, and rode their horses over him, as they believed that the earth would be offended if it were touched by royal blood. But the Venetian traveller Marco Polo claimed that Al-Musta'sim was locked in a tower with nothing to eat but gold and “died like a dog”.
• All but one of Al-Musta'sim's sons were killed, and the sole surviving son was sent to Mongolia, where Mongolian historians report he married and fathered children, but played no role in Islam thereafter (see The end of the Abbasid dynasty).
• Hulagu had to move his camp upwind of the city, due to the stench of decay from the ruined city.

Baghdad was a depopulated, ruined city for several centuries and only gradually recovered some of its former glory.

Comments on the destruction

"Iraq in 1258 was very different from present day Iraq. Its agriculture was supported by canal networks thousands of years old. Baghdad was one of the most brilliant intellectual centers in the world. The Mongol destruction of Baghdad was a psychological blow from which Islam never recovered. With the sack of Baghdad, the intellectual flowering of Islam was snuffed out. Imagining the Athens of Pericles and Aristotle obliterated by a nuclear weapon begins to suggest the enormity of the blow. The Mongols filled in the irrigation canals and left Iraq too depopulated to restore them."

"They swept through the city like hungry falcons attacking a flight of doves, or like raging wolves attacking sheep, with loose reins and shameless faces, murdering and spreading terror...beds and cushions made of gold and encrusted with jewels were cut to pieces with knives and torn to shreds. Those hiding behind the veils of the great Harem were dragged...through the streets and alleys, each of them becoming a plaything...as the population died at the hands of the invaders." (Abdullah Wassaf as cited by David Morgan)

Causes for agricultural decline
Some historians believe that the Mongol invasion destroyed much of the irrigation infrastructure that had sustained Mesopotamia for many millennia. Canals were cut as a military tactic and never repaired. So many people died or fled that neither the labor nor the organization were sufficient to maintain the canal system. It broke down or silted up. This theory was advanced by historian Svatopluk Souček in his 2000 book, A History of Inner Asia.

Other historians point to soil salination as the culprit in the decline in agriculture.

 

[Prince of Lasanod]

Imagine Baghdad, the largest city in the 13th century with a population of 1 million, was completely cleansed and depopulated by these nomadic savages.

 

[Apollo]

The Mongols totally fucked up the trajectory of Russia and Arab world. If it weren't for them Russia could have been culturally a lot more like Europe and the Middle East wouldn't have been as backwards.

 

[Prince Abubu]

The Mongol invasions helped European civilisation immensely. Before their onslaught and destruction, China and the Middle-east were well on the way to industrialization. Everyday, westerners must thank the Mongols and sacrifice at an altar dedicated to the Khans.

 

[Dino]

The mongols truly wiped out centuries of arab and muslim civilisations, advances in science and progress. Literally hundreds of thousands of books on science and medicine were thrown into the euphrates.

It's also partly the muslims fault. They became too comfortable and forgot to guard their borders.

 

[Arma]

And the irony of ironies: the Mongols later became Muslims and founded great Islamic Sultanates and Caliphates such as, the Ottomans and Mughals that shot up the prestige and power of Muslims, until their decline in the 19th Century.

 

[Prince of Lasanod]

And the irony of ironies: the Mongols later became Muslims and founded great Islamic Sultanates and Caliphates such as, the Ottomans and Mughals that shot up the prestige and power of Muslims, until their decline in the 19th Century.

The Mongol invasions helped European civilisation immensely. Before their onslaught and destruction, China and the Middle-east were well on the way to industrialization. Everyday, westerners must thank the Mongols and sacrifice at an altar dedicated to the Khans.

Ghazan was one of a long line of Mongol leaders who engaged in diplomatic communications with the Europeans and Crusaders in attempts to form a Franco-Mongol alliance against their common enemy, primarily the Egyptian Mamluks. He already had the use of forces from Christian vassal countries such as The plan was to coordinate actions between Ghazan's forces, the Christian military orders, and the aristocracy of Cyprus to defeat the Egyptians, after which Jerusalem would be returned to the Europeans. Many Europeans are known to have worked for Ghazan, such as Isol the Pisan or Buscarello de Ghizolfi, often in high positions. Hundreds such Western adventurers entered into the service of Mongol rulers. According to historian Peter Jackson, the 14th century saw such a vogue of Mongol things in the West that many new-born children in Italy were named after Mongol rulers, including Ghazan: names such as Can Grande ("Great Khan"), Alaone (Hulagu, Ghazan's great-grandfather), Argone (Arghun, Ghazan's father) or Cassano (Ghazan) were recorded with a high frequency.

In October 1299, Ghazan marched with his forces towards Syria and invited the Christians to join him. His army took the city of Aleppo, and was there joined by his vassal King Hethum II of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, whose forces included some Templars and Hospitallers, and who participated in the rest of the offensive. The Mongols and their allies defeated the Mamluks in the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar, on December 23 or 24, 1299.One group of Mongols then split off from Ghazan's army and pursued the retreating Mamluk troops as far as Gaza, pushing them back to Egypt. The bulk of Ghazan's forces proceeded to Damascus, which surrendered somewhere between December 30, 1299, and January 6, 1300, though its Citadel resisted. Most of Ghazan's forces then retreated in February, probably because their horses needed fodder. He promised to return in the winter of 1300–1301 to attack Egypt. About 10,000 horsemen under the Mongol general Mulay were left to briefly rule Syria, before they too retreated.

Ghazan was indeed feared and despised by the Mamluks, who sent a delegation of leading scholars and imams including Ibn Taymiyya, north from Damascus to Al-Nabk, where Ghazan was encamped, in January, 1300, in order to persuade Ghazan to stop his attack on Damascus. Ibn Taymiyya also may have met Ghazan in Damascus in August 1301. On one of these occasions, it is reported that not one of the scholars dared to say anything to Ghazan except Ibn Taymiyya who said:

"You claim that you are Muslim and you have with you Mu'adhdhins, Muftis, Imams and Shaykhs but you invaded us and reached our country for what? Although your father and your grandfather, Hulagu were non-believers, they did not attack us and they kept their promise. But you promised and broke your promise."

In July 1300, the Crusaders formed a small fleet of sixteen galleys with some smaller vessels to raid the coast, and Ghazan's ambassador traveled with them. The Crusader forces also attempted to establish a base at the small island of Ruad, from which raids were launched on Tartus while awaiting Ghazan's forces. However, the Mongol army was delayed, and the Crusader forces retreated to Cyprus, leaving a garrison on Ruad which was besieged and captured by Mamluks by 1303.

In February 1301, the Mongols advanced again with a force of 60,000, but could do little else than engage in some raids around Syria. Ghazan's general Kutlushah stationed 20,000 horsemen in the Jordan Valley to protect Damascus, where a Mongol governor was stationed. But again, they were soon forced to withdraw.

Plans for combined operations with the Crusaders were again made for the following winter offensive, and in late 1301, Ghazan asked Pope Boniface VIII to send troops, priests, and peasants, in order to make the Holy Land a Frank state again. But again, Ghazan did not appear with his own troops. He wrote again to the Pope in 1302, and his ambassadors also visited the court of Charles II of Anjou, who on April 27, 1303 sent Gualterius de Lavendel as his own ambassador back to Ghazan's court.

In 1303, Ghazan sent another letter to Edward I via Buscarello de Ghizolfi , reiterating his great-grandfather Hulagu Khan's promise that the Mongols would give Jerusalem to the Franks in exchange for help against the Mamluks. The Mongols, along with their Armenian vassals, had mustered a force of about 80,000 to repel the raiders of the Chagatia Khanate, which was under the leadership of Qutlugh Khwaja. After their success there, they advanced again towards Syria. However, Ghazan's forces were utterly defeated by the Mamluks just south of Damascus at the decisive Battle of Marj al-Saffar in April 1303. It was to be the last major Mongol invasion of Syria.

The year 1303 saw the third Mongol invasion of Syria by Ghazan Khan. What has been called Ibn Taymiyyah's "most famous fatwa" was issued against the Mongols in the Mamluk's war.. Ibn Taymiyyah declared that jihad against the Mongol attack on the Malmuk sultanate was not only permissible, but obligatory. The reason being that the Mongols could not, in his opinion, be true Muslims despite the fact that they had converted to Sunni Islam because they ruled using what he considered 'man-made laws' (their traditional Yassa code) rather than Islamic law or Sharia, whilst believing that the Yassa code was better than the Sharia law. Because of this, he reasoned they were living in a state of jahiliyyah, or pre-Islamic pagan ignorance.

Ibn Taymiyyah called on the Muslims to Jihad once again and he also personally joined the eventual battle of Marj al-Saffar against the Mongol army. The battle began on 20 April of that year. On the same day, Ibn Taymiyyah declared a fatwa which exempted Mamluk soldiers from the fast during the month of Ramadan so that they could maintain their strength. Within two days the Mongols were severely defeated and the battle was won.