Conflict10 February 1258

Siege of Baghdad

Also called: Fall of Baghdad, End of the Abbasid Caliphate

Hulagu, brother of Möngke Khan, took Baghdad and executed the caliph. The Abbasid Caliphate, over five centuries old, came to an end, and Hulagu founded the Ilkhanate.

Hulagu’s siege of Baghdad — 14th-century Persian manuscript painting (Diez Albums)
unknown / (of the reproduction) Staatsbibliothek Berlin/Schacht · Public domain · Source

Sent west by Möngke Khan, Hulagu destroyed the Ismaili (Assassin) fortresses of Iran in 1256 and advanced on Baghdad. When Caliph al-Musta’sim refused to surrender, the Mongols besieged the city in January 1258 and received its surrender on 10 February, followed by more than a week of plunder and massacre. The caliph was executed, and many books of the House of Wisdom were reportedly thrown into the Tigris. The Abbasid Caliphate, in power since 750, was over, and the centre of the Islamic world shifted to Mamluk Cairo.

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States at the time: Ilkhanate · conqueror
Abbasid Caliphate · fell
Places: Baghdad

People

Hulagu Khan1217 – 1265
commander · Grandson of Genghis Khan who took Baghdad in 1258, ending the Abbasid Caliphate, and founded the Ilkhanate
al-Musta’sim1213 – 1258
monarch · Last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, executed by the Mongols after the city fell in 1258
Möngke Khan1209 – 1259
related figure · Fourth Great Khan, who sent his brothers Hulagu to West Asia and Kublai against the Song, and died campaigning in Sichuan

Before and after

Earlier: 1055 Seljuk Turks Enter Baghdad
Later: 1932 Independence of the Kingdom of Iraq

Themes that include this event

Turkic-Islamic Empires and Other Civilizations1000 – 1533
From the Ghaznavid raids on India to the Mughal Empire and Suleiman I — five centuries in which Turkic-led Islamic empires took western Asia and India, while Africa, Southeast Asia and the Americas raised civilisations of their own
The Mongol Conquests1206 – 1294
From the rise of Genghis Khan to the Yuan conquest of the Song — eighty years in which the Mongols swept Eurasia from Goryeo to Hungary