The Mongol Destruction of Baghdad

This video is brought to you by CuriosityStream. They have a fantastic YouTube channel, so stick around to the end and I'll tell you which video of theirs you should watch first. Passing under the shade of lustrous archways, envoys reach the court of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustasim, the exalted spiritual head of all the millions of Sunni Muslims in the world. The travelers come before him with a message from the world conqueror Hulagu Khan. Talk of what the Mongol army has done to the world and those in it from the time of Genghis Khan until today may have reached your hearing. Do not try to accomplish the impossible. Destroy your ramparts, fill in your moats, and come to us. If you do not heed our advice, I shall not leave one person alive in your realm. Hulagu and a Mongol army of untold size ride west to subjugate the world on the orders of the great Khan Manka. The Caliph, having previously failed to demonstrate submission to the Khan during the Mongol war against the order of assassins, now dares to insult Hulagu. Young man, you have just come of age and have expectations of living forever. You think your command is absolute. For half a millennia, the house of Abbas, uncle to the Prophet Muhammad, has ruled over Baghdad. The walls are high and strong, the skyline made splendid by mosques and minarets from which the faithful are called to praise Allah. Streets weave among sweet gardens, and in colleges and libraries learned men chart the heavens and speak freely of mathematics, metaphysics, and the ancient wisdom of Plato and Aristotle, preserved here in Arabic. Under the patronage of the Abbasids, the Islamic world has realized great advancements in science and medicine, builds automata machines and clocks that run on water. Women in this caliphate are restricted from nearly all public and economic activities. In addition to Sunni, there are religious minorities, Shia Muslims, Christians, and Jews. The fate of all rests in the hands of a man deemed weak, a caliph more disposed to carnal indulgence in treasure counting than to governance or battle. He revels in the deeds of his forebears, and he tells Hulagu Khan, every monarch who has attacked the Abbasid dynasty in Baghdad has met a sad doom. The foundation of this palace is extremely strong and will last until doomsday. Hulagu replies, I shall bring you down miserably into the jaws of a lion. Tens of thousands of Mongol marauders ride to take the eastern mountains and the adjacent lands. The Christian Mongol general Kitbuka sees to it that the towns and people who waver in their surrender are reduced to smoke and ash. As they press onward, Hulagu receives an offer from the caliph, a considerable payment if the Mongols will turn back. Hulagu remarks, since we have come all this way, how can we turn back without having seen the caliph? Al-Mustasim is easily swayed by the words of his divided court, and the caliph's men resort now to threats, declaring that if Hulagu turns back immediately, the caliph may yet decide to spare the Mongols. Hulagu laughs, what do I have to worry from the caliph and his troops? And so marshaled behind their general, the Dewadar, the brave men of Baghdad ride to war. The soldiers of the caliph will not permit the Mongols to reach the walls of their city. They find a Mongol division some miles away. The Mongols flee and the Abbasid soldiers roar in triumph as they pick off a few of the invaders and collect their heads. But the retreat is only a bluff to draw the Abbasid troops out. The Mongols rupture dikes and flood the plain behind their pursuers. Then the fabled horse archers of the Khan ride after the Abbasid soldiers, cutting them down with arrows and driving the others into the water to drown. The Mongols pick over the battlefield, collecting gifts to send to Hulagu, 12,000 Abbasid ears. The Dewadar rides back to Baghdad in haste. The caliphs of old would have spirited up all the distant armies of Sunni Islam to the aid of the city, but the throne no longer possesses such command. Defenses are ill-prepared. Allies have not come. Over a hundred thousand Mongols now approach the city from every side. The din of their march and their horrible shouts builds like a rising tide before the great house of Abbas. The paths out are blocked. Hulagu Khan means to spare none, and the lonely walls of Baghdad must now bear his fury. The Mongols entrap the city with their own walls and a ditch, and on January 29th of the year 1258, the storm begins. Great stones pound the walls and streets. Day and night the Mongols charge against the gates. People wail and stagger about to the sound of their wretched fate. The frantic caliph attempts belated negotiations. Hulagu rejects them. Catapults bring down a strong tower on the eastern side, and the stirring sea of Mongols flows over the walls. In the thousands they sweep over the ramparts, killing all the garrison they find. Joining them are some thousands of their subject Christian troops from Armenia and Georgia, eager to join the cause against their Islamic foes. As Mongols pace along the city walls, throngs of refugees pack onto boats, and the Duatar joins their escape, only to look out and see the Mongols have built bridges over the river. They launch stones and incendiary projectiles at boats attempting to leave. They capture three vessels and kill everyone aboard. The Duatar turns back to the city, and the caliph sends him to personally submit to Hulagu. The weary, abbasid soldiers follow. Thousands of warriors cast down their weapons, joined by hopeful civilians in peaceful submission. The Mongols divide them up, lead them from the city, and kill all of them. The heads of the Duatar and two other officials are sent to their friend, the governor of Mosul, a reminder to those who have not yet submitted. The king without an army, al-Mustasim, finally emerges to surrender, and Hulagu did not exhibit any anger, but asked after his health kindly and pleasantly. After that he said to the caliph, tell the people of the city to throw down their weapons and come out so that we may make a count. The caliph complies. He is taken prisoner, and the Mongols receive the people of Baghdad in the tens of thousands, and they pluck apart shaking families, mothers and infants, old and young. A few they spare as slaves and craftsmen. They kill the rest, seeping hills of heads and bodies stretched like a sallow sheet over the whole plain. Then begins the long pillage and massacre of the city. To undermine civilian resistance, Hulagu had promised to spare some segments of the population, including the minority Christian and Shia Muslim communities. He holds true to this word, and he sends the Mongols house to house, street to street, to slaughter everyone else. Hulagu and his retinue go to the royal palace, and he commands the caliph to serve him a feast. Hulagu says, you are the host and we are the guests. Bring whatever you have that is suitable for us. The caliph trembles in fear as he opens his treasuries, hordes of fine clothes, gold and gems amassed over five centuries. The Mongols take all of it. Not even the dead escape their wrath. Mongols tear open the royal tombs, drag out the hallowed bones of old caliphs and set them ablaze. A witness scratches words on a nearby wall. The women were dishonored as their living were killed and their dead were burnt. Once great mosques and palaces are devoured by flames. Houses of wisdom lie in charred ruin, and riven corpses glut the waterways. The putrid air carries flies and pestilence. One chronicle records, the dead lay as mounds in the streets in the markets. Rain fell on them. Their faces were disfigured. They became an example to anyone who saw them. The dead are said by some to number as high as 800,000 to two million. One of the greatest atrocities in history. The stench and bloat of this foul scene offend even Hulagu, who moves his camp out of the city. On February 20th, he summons the caliph and his followers. The Mongols believe that heaven will curse any who spill noble blood upon the earth. And so, it is likely, they rolled the caliph of Baghdad into a carpet and trampled him to death. The Mongols kill nearly all his family and his followers. In the eyes of many, the line of succession from the prophet Muhammad has been cut. This is a wound the Islamic world shall never forget. A golden age laid to waste by the house of Genghis Khan. Over the next two years, the Mongols continue their conquests into Syria. But in Egypt, there stands a great Islamic power. Hulagu Khan sends messengers to demand the surrender of these so-called Mamluks. The Mongol envoys never return. After a big helping of Mongol destruction, sometimes you just need to cleanse the palate. And that's why I'm happy to send you over to the CuriosityStream YouTube channel. They launched a series called Past, Present, Future, and if you like the sort of digestible, historical, educational videos that my brother Joe and I make, this is right up your alley. This one on surgery has just mind-blowing facts about what intestinal surgery looked like almost 2,000 years ago. The series covers history, then dives into the present and possible future of each topic. We get to see how nanobots might fight off cancer in people. And the channel has other great content. The Science of Sound series features music experts and neuroscientists tackling questions like why songs get stuck in your head. So click the link in the description to check out the surgery episode of Past, Present, Future on the CuriosityStream YouTube channel. 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