Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Siege of Baghdad

Starting point is 00:00:00 In the year 1258, two of the greatest empires in world history collided. For one, it was yet another in an incredible string of conquests. For the other, it resulted in its downfall and the destruction of one of the greatest centers of knowledge and learning. And for the people who suffered through it, it was one of the worst days in world history. Learn more about the Mongol siege of Baghdad on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? throughline is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the Thuruline podcast from NPR.

Starting point is 00:01:02 The Mongol Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate would both be put on the list of the greatest empires in history. While the heart of each empire, the Arabian Peninsula and the steps of Mongolia were far apart, part, the expansion of both empires eventually brought them into deadly conflict. The Mongols sprung on to the world stage in dramatic fashion in the early 13th century. The founder of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan, achieved the difficult feat of conquering and unifying the Mongol tribes. And having achieved that, he then led the Mongols to a string of incredible conquests running as far as China, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Persia. When Genghis Khan died in 1227, unlike Alexander the Great, the empire didn't die with

Starting point is 00:01:43 him, different bands of Mongols continued to expand and conquer. In particular, for the purpose of this episode, in Persia, the Middle East, and Eastern Turkey, the Mongols were known as the Ilkanate. In 1252, the leader of the Mongols in the southwestern part of the empire became Hulagu Khan. He was the brother of the great Khan, Mongke Khan, Khan, and the Mongol ruler of China, Kubla Khan. The Ilkanate found themselves in conflict with the major power of the region for the last several centuries, the Abbasid Caliphate. The Abbasid Caliphate became the dominant force in the Islamic world after the Abbasid Revolution in the year 750 with the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate. The Abbasid Caliphate

Starting point is 00:02:24 was widely considered to be the Golden Age of Islam. If you think back to the Islamic world as the center of knowledge when Europe began to regress in the centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, this mostly occurred during the Abisad Caliphate. In particular, the center of the Abisid Caliphate, was its capital, the city of Baghdad. Unlike many cities in the Fertile Crescent, which had ancient origins, Baghdad was founded as an Islamic city. The exact date of the founding of Baghdad was July 30, 762, when the Caliph al-Mansur ordered the construction of a city

Starting point is 00:02:58 on the banks of the Tigris River, which he had selected. He so loved the location that he was reported to have said, quote, this indeed is the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward. end quote. The city quickly grew to become the most important city in the Islamic world, and indeed the entire world. If you remember back to my episode on the largest cities in world history, for about a 300-year period between the years 900 to 1200, Baghdad was the largest city in the world. At its peak, it had a population of about 1.2 million people, probably

Starting point is 00:03:34 becoming the first city to reach the million mark since ancient Rome. The success of Baghdad wasn't just a function of the number of people. It was also the quality of the city and what it represented. Soon after its founding, Baghdad became a major center of learning. It was probably the world's center for science, philosophy, mathematics, and medicine. It was also home to the Abbasid Translation Movement, which collected as many Greek texts as possible and translated them into Arabic. The center of the translation movement was known as the House of Wisdom. It was the greatest library in the world at that time and the world's greatest center of learning. The famed mathematician Al-Qorizmi, who I've mentioned many times in previous episodes, studied

Starting point is 00:04:17 at the House of Wisdom. However, after five centuries, as with most empires, the Abbasid Caliphate began to go into decline. The Seljuk Turks conquered much of modern-day Turkey, the Chorizmian Empire controlled Iran, and the Ayubid dynasty controlled most of Egypt. By the year 1200, the Abbasid Empire had been reduced to the Aeuroids'er. around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern-day Iraq. So this was the state of the Abbasid Empire when the Mongols began to move south out of Central Asia.

Starting point is 00:04:47 The initial reason for the Mongol move into this region had to do with what happened to a Mongol trade delegation sent to the Khorismian Empire, which controlled most of Persia and Afghanistan at the time. At this point, the Khorismian Empire was larger and much more powerful than the Abbasids were. Initially, Genghis Khan had no intention of invading the Kourismian. However, the Khorismian Sultan, having heard stories of the Mongols, executed the trade delegation which he sent. Genghis Khan wasn't going to let this stand, so he moved into modern-day Iran and Central Asia. The Mongols systematically destroyed many of the cities they encountered, putting all of the inhabitants to the sword. Genghis Khan died in 1227, but the Mongols kept conquering and expanding.

Starting point is 00:05:31 Hulagu Khan took control of the Mongols in the region and kept moving towards the Abbasids in Baghdad. The goal wasn't just to take Baghdad, but also eventually Syria and Egypt. It was in January of 1258 that the Mongols finally arrived at the gates of Baghdad. The Mongols, despite being horsemen from the Asian steppes, had quickly become adept at siege warfare. They had been able to take walled cities wherever they went. Baghdad would be the largest city that the Mongols had ever attempted to take, and thus would be their largest siege. In preparation, they raised a huge army of 100,000 to war. 150,000 men, the largest Mongol army in history. In addition to the Mongols, they had also

Starting point is 00:06:12 recruited a force of 10,000 Christian mercenaries from Armenia, 1,000 siege engineers from China, and additional units of Persians and Turks. When the Mongols arrived at the gates of Baghdad, they offered the Caliph the opportunity to surrender the city without bloodshed. This is what the Mongols always did, because they, pragmatically, would rather not spend the time and effort fighting if at all possible. If a city refused to surrender, then the Mongol showed them absolutely no mercy. The Abbasid Caliph, al-Mustasim, did not believe that Baghdad could possibly fall, so he refused the Mongol offer. He assumed that the entire Muslim world would rise up to defend the city. Before the widespread use of gunpowder and cannons, laying siege to a walled city was a very

Starting point is 00:06:56 difficult thing. Some sieges could take years, depending on how well defended and supplied the city under siege was. The Abbasids managed to assemble a defensive force of 50,000 men, including 20,000 cavalry. However, they weren't very well equipped and had very little discipline. Furthermore, the city of Baghdad's defenses were also not well prepared, and the city walls hadn't been properly repaired in years. Baghdad was simply too large of a city to have adequate supplies. Imagine if a city like New York was shut off from the rest of the world and nothing could come in or out. How long would the food currently in the city last. On July 29th, the Mongols began their siege. They constructed a wooden wall around the city and also dug a ditch so that no one could escape and no forces could come out to attack.

Starting point is 00:07:43 Siege engines began attacking the walls of the city and by February 5th they had already taken or destroyed a large part of the city's defenses. At this point, the Caliph knew that the city would be taken, so he tried to reopen negotiations, but Hulagu Khan would have none of it. That wasn't how the Mongols worked. An estimated 3,000 leading citizens of the city attempted to negotiate separately, and all of them were killed. On February 10th, the city formally surrendered, but the Mongols didn't do anything. They waited for three days until February 13th to enter the city. February 13th, 1258, was probably the bloodiest day in human history up until that point. When the Mongols entered the city, they spared almost no one. The only people they saw,

Starting point is 00:08:29 spared were Nestorian Christians, and that was only because Hulagu's mother was a Nistorian. Estimates on the number of people who died ranged from 200,000, up to 1 million. Men and women, young and old, children and adults were all killed. Anyone who tried to flee was intercepted and killed on the spot. It was said the Tigris River ran red with blood. Hulagu later had to move his camp upwind from the city due to the stench coming out of it. The Caliph, Al-Mustasim, was captured and forced to watch his city be systematically destroyed. The royal palace built of exotic wood was burned to the ground.

Starting point is 00:09:07 The great books found in the library of the House of Wisdom were burn or torn apart. The leather covers of the books were used as sandals by the Mongol warriors. 36 separate libraries in the city were all destroyed. It was the greatest destruction of knowledge since the fire at the Library of Alexandria. Eventually, Al-Mustasim himself was executed. The Mongols, however, believed it was unlucky to spill royal blood, so they rolled him in a carpet and then repeatedly ran over the rolled carpet with horses. The fall of Baghdad marked the end of the Golden Age of Islam.

Starting point is 00:09:42 The 500-year reign of the Abbasid Caliphate was over. And the fall of Baghdad marked a turning point in world history in many ways. The Islamic world was never as unified as it would be before the Mongol invasion, infighting and factionalism divided the formerly united caliphate into numerous sultanates, caliphates, and kingdoms. The fall of Baghdad was also the high point for the Ilkanet Mongols as well. They too began to fall apart due to infighting and factionalism. They made an attempt at trying to conquer Egypt, but it wasn't successful, and they never went much further than Baghdad in the Middle East. Much of the massive army which was assembled ended up being sent to China to assist in the

Starting point is 00:10:20 conquest of the Song Dynasty. Burkha Khan, the grandson of Gingas, Khan who led the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe and Russia, had converted to Islam and was outraged at what his cousin Hulagu had done. He eventually had the Golden Horde declare war on the Ilkanate. The Mongols also managed to destroy the irrigation system in Mesopotamia, which had sustained agriculture in the region for thousands of years. After the Mongols destroyed it, it was never rebuilt, and many of the irrigation channels silted up, and as a result, agriculture in the region was depressed for centuries. As for Baghdad, the Mongols did attempt to reconstruct the city and used it as their capital, but it was never quite the same. The city of Baghdad didn't return to its

Starting point is 00:11:02 previous population until the 20th century, and it never again was as important as a center of learning. The fall of Baghdad was one of the most significant events in world history, in that it completely altered the path of two major civilizations. Even after all of the horrors of industrial and mechanized warfare of the 20th century, February 13th, 1258, still remains one of the bloodiest and violent days in all of human history. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener A Awesome Dunce over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, Amazing. I love this podcast, and I'm working on the Completionist Club. And if this gets read on the podcast, I will be super

Starting point is 00:11:52 happy. Thanks, awesome dunce. First of all, if you're close to being a member of the Completionist Club, then you cannot possibly be a dunce. Also, I hope you're feeling pretty happy now because your review made it on the podcast. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostogram, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Siege of Baghdad

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