February 1258 · Mesopotamia Theater
February 1258
Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis, marched on Baghdad, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate and the cultural heart of the Islamic world. After a short siege the city fell, and the Mongols sacked it for days in an orgy of destruction. The libraries and 'House of Wisdom' were destroyed, later tradition said the Tigris ran black with ink and red with blood. Accounts of the last Abbasid caliph's execution contradict one another.
Commanders