War · 1258 CE
The Mongols sack Baghdad
Baghdad (Iraq)
In late January 1258 a Mongol army under Hulagu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, besieged Baghdad; the caliph al-Musta'sim surrendered on 10 February, the city was sacked and the caliph was put to death. Later writers claimed 800,000 or more dead, figures historians regard as inflated, though the true toll is unknown.
Why it mattered
The sack ended the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad after about 500 years and is traditionally seen as closing the Islamic Golden Age, although historians now see Baghdad's decline as more gradual and note that its libraries partly recovered within a few years.
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