The Mongols take Baghdad

A Mongol army led by Hulagu Khan besieged and captured Baghdad, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate. The fall of the city is often treated as a turning point in the history of the Islamic world.

Estimates of the damage and the death toll differ widely, so we give none.

Context

Hülegü was a grandson of Genghis Khan. Britannica says he overran Mesopotamia and entered Baghdad in February 1258 after laying siege to the city, then burned and plundered it and killed many of its inhabitants before invading Syria and returning to Persia.

The caliph al-Mustaʿṣim and 300 officials went out to present their surrender. About ten days later all of them were put to death. Britannica says this left Islam without a caliph for the first time in its history. A line of Abbasid caliphs was later maintained in Cairo under the Mamluks, without real power.

Hülegü also destroyed many dikes and headworks of the irrigation system. Britannica says restoring them was nearly impossible, which ended Baghdad's prospects of prosperity, and that the city did not recover until the 20th century. Baghdad became a provincial capital under the Il-Khanids (1258-1339), then the Jalayirids (1339-1410).

Britannica says the Mongols massacred hundreds of thousands of residents, but estimates of deaths and damage vary widely between sources. Because none can be firmly checked, this entry gives no figure.