When the Mongols tore through Baghdad, they did not merely sack a city for its plunder or to claim power, this time they dismantled a civilization. The once-great capital of the Islamic world, a center of power, knowledge, and commerce for half a millennium, was left a husk of its former self. Its libraries, once holding the accumulated wisdom of centuries, were reduced to ashes. Its people, once scholars, merchants, and rulers, were slaughtered or scattered. For generations, Baghdad remained little more than a ruin, a forgotten relic of an empire that had been wiped from history. It would take centuries before it would rise again, but it would never reclaim the dominance it once held.

Baghdad. January 22 - February 10, 1258.
Mongol Forces: modern historians believe up to 200,000 Mongol Warriors.
Arab Forces: unknown, but reportedly roughly 100,000 Citizen Soldiers.

Additional Reading and Episode Research:

• Legg, Stuart. The Heartland.
• Melegari, Vezio. The Great Military Sieges.
• Chambers, James. The Devil's Horsemen.

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