It’s probably not right to refer to Genghis Khan as a motherfucker, considering many of the women he made into mothers were unwilling. It’s believed almost half a percent of all men alive today, about 16 million dudes, are descended from his rampant raping (and probably an equal number of women, but the Y chromosome is easier to trace across time). That’s some horrific legacy. Another legacy is that the empire he spawned brought the Islamic Golden Age to an abrupt end.
--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: February 10, 1258--
The Mongols were the greatest cavalrymen alive; they could control their horses with their legs to run circles around their enemy while they shot them full of arrows with their short bows. They boast the largest contiguous land empire in history, and in 1258, it was Baghdad’s turn to fall to it.
Baghdad was the center of the Abbasid Caliphate’s Golden Age, which began late in the eighth century and lasted almost half a millennium. At its peak the city’s population exceeded a million people, which was a shitload of folks for back then. It was a center of learning, with Islamic scholars from around the world visiting to share their knowledge in areas of law, education, philosophy, physics, math, astronomy, geography, biology, and a bunch of other subjects I wasn’t much good at. The list of inventions spawned is so long a sample wouldn’t do it justice. Google it.
The siege began in late January. This was more than three decades after Genghis died, and was pressed by his grandson Hulagu, brother of Kublai, who you may have heard of. The defense had been hastily organized and lacked proper equipment and training. The reigning caliph, Al-Musta’sim, had stepped on his dick by not better preparing for a MONGOL FUCKING HORDE coming his way. Like, had he not heard about what happens when a MONGOL FUCKING HORDE arrives in your neighborhood?
The siege ended after 13 days on February 10, 1258, with a Mongol victory. Duh. Halfway through the siege Al-Musta’sim had tried to negotiate but Hulagu said bite me. A few thousand nobles tried the same tack because the wealthy really don’t like having their stuff taken almost as much as they don’t like dying and Hulagu had them all killed because fuck rich people.
Anyway, the Mongols entered the defeated city and it was . . . not nice. They did the kind of things conquering Mongols were known for, and Al-Musta’sim was rolled up in a rug and trampled to death by horses. Why a rug? Because they feared spilling royal blood on the ground would be an affront. The trampling part was deemed okay though.
Oh, and if you’re pissed about the loss of the Library of Alexandria, there was another immeasurable loss in the destruction of Baghdad’s House of Wisdom library. Thus ended both the Abbasid Caliphate and the Golden Age of Islam.
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