**Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, led an army of perhaps 150,000 men to Baghdad, the capital of the mighty Abbasid Empire, in modern-day Iraq. The Mongol forces, which included Chinese siege engineers, captured the city on 10th February 1258. The victors poured into the city and began a week of carnage, inflicting on the residents a campaign of pillaging, raping, torture, and murder. One contemporary account reported that 800,000 were killed during the siege of Baghdad and its aftermath. However, this source also says that this number does not include those who drowned, ‘children thrown in the mud’, or those dying from disease, hunger, and ‘fear’. Some sources even go as high as two million for the total number of dead, though the true figure is not known. The Baghdad destroyed in 1258 was the city of the Islamic Golden Age, resplendent with grand libraries, palaces, and mosques, a centre of learning for centuries. One chronicle says that the Tigris river ran black with the ink from the books of the destroyed House of Wisdom, and red with the blood of murdered philosophers and scientists.** - Image #4 <@1015341571341811742>
Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, led an army of perhaps 150,000 men to Baghdad, the capital of the mighty Abbasid Empire, in modernday Iraq. The Mongol forces, which included Chinese siege engineers, captured the city on 10th February 1258. The victors poured into the city and began a week of carnage, inflicting on the residents a campaign of pillaging, raping, torture, and murder. One contemporary account reported that 800,000 were killed during the siege of Baghdad and its aftermath. However, this source also says that this number does not include those who drowned, children thrown in the mud, or those dying from disease, hunger, and fear. Some sources even go as high as two million for the total number of dead, though the true figure is not known. The Baghdad destroyed in 1258 was the city of the Islamic Golden Age, resplendent with grand libraries, palaces, and mosques, a centre of learning for centuries. One chronicle says that the Tigris river ran black with the ink from the books of the destroyed House of Wisdom, and red with the blood of murdered philosophers and scientists.