Mongols · 1258

Fall of Baghdad

After a two-week siege Baghdad surrendered on 10 February 1258. Huge numbers were killed, libraries were destroyed, and the caliph was put to death. The Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad ended after 508 years.

The site of the battle on the 1260 map. Shaded: Mongol Empire, 1260, Mamluk Sultanate.

Key facts

When: 1258
Where: Baghdad, Iraq
Sides: Mongols vs Abbasid Caliphate
Commanders: Hulagu Khan vs Caliph al-Musta'sim
Result: City sacked
Type: Mongols
Chapter: 3. The Abbasids, the Crusades and the Mongols

The wider picture: The Mongol storm

Genghis Khan destroyed the Khwarazmian empire between 1219 and 1221. His grandson Hulagu took the fortress of Alamut in 1256 and Baghdad in February 1258. The last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, al-Musta'sim, was put to death on Hulagu's orders, by most accounts rolled in a carpet and trampled.

See the 1260 map Read chapter 3

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