Baghdad 23-04-2004

Text and pictures copied from: "The Mongol Warlords" by David Nicolle, see Sources.

Hulegu's most notable victories were all in siege warfare and the most dramatic of them all was the capture and devastation of Baghdad. The assault had long been planned. Mongol troops already had experience of campaigning in Iraq and had met the Abbasid Caliph's army on previous occasions, though not always successfully.
The great city of Baghdad was now but a shadow of its former glory. Yet it was still immense by medieval standards. The Round City built for the Caliph al Mansur on the westbank of the Tigris had crumbled into ruin. The once extensive commercial suburbs on this side of the river had also shrunk into a series of separate quarters divided by fields, gardens and wasteland. Some were inhabited by Shi'a Muslims who felt little love for the Caliph, while others were populated by more loyal Sunni Muslims. The newer parts of Baghdad on the east bank were, however, in better repair and had even been given a stout defensive wall with four main gates, towers and a deep ditch filled with water from the Tigris. This had been built in the time of the Caliph al Mustazhir around 1100, but had been regularly repaired since. Within this eastern half of Baghdad stood the Palace area containing royal apartments, government buildings, various large religious structures, colleges, libraries and parks, all separated from the rest of the eastern city by another defensive wall. The main Christian quarter appears to have been on the east bank, slightly to the north of the walled city and within a now ruined wall built by the Caliph al Musta 'in during the ninth century.
The city, and the small state that the Caliphs had managed to re-establish since the decline of the Saljuqs, had a small army of profes-sional, slave-recruited mamluk soldiers, plus auxiliaries from the Arab tribes of southern Iraq. To this could be added a citizen militia of dubious reliability and very little training.
Hulegu and his army left Hamadan in November 1257, sacking the city of Kermanshah on their way down to the Tigris plain. Hulegu's finest general, Kit-Buqa, had already taken the left wing down through Luristan towards Baghdad while a third army under Baiju marched south from Mosul. A council of war was next held at the so-called Zagrian Gates, where the mountains of Iran meet the vast plain of Iraq. Threats and counterthreats flowed between Hulegu and the Caliph while the Mongols drew up their final invasion plan. This done, Hulegu set up camp on the banks of the Hulwan river while Baiju led his men back across the Tigris to attack Baghdad from the rear.

On 16th January 1258 Baiju's men crossed the river and an officer named Suqunchaq was sent forward with an advance force as far as Harbiyya. When the Caliph's Chancellor, Aibeg, heard of this threat from the rear he led the Caliph's army across to the westbank of the Tigris and attacked Suqunchaq near Anbar, about fifty kilo metres north of Baghdad. The Mongols were at first driven back until rallied by Baiju himself. The Caliph's army was lured into marshy terrain where it was trapped when the Mongols opened a dyke. There the Caliph's men were cut to pieces, only their commander and a few troops escaping back to Baghdad, while other survivors fled south into the desert.
Hulegu's armies now converged upon Baghdad; Baiju seizing the western suburbs and Kit-Buqa the south-western, while Hulegu en camped before the strongly defended walls of the eastern city. As was now normal Mongol practice, a palisade and a ditch were built around the entire besieged eastern city from riverbank to riverbank. Between the palisade and the walls of Baghdad Hulegu set up his eagle standard, described by the Persian historian Wassaf as the 'bird of good fortune' from whose head 'fury and the fire of fight burst forth. ' Here his engineers also erected their stone-throwing engines and battering rams. Inside the city, streets were barricaded and the gates sealed shut while the remaining professional mamluks manned the walls, along with ordinary citizens who had been issued with whatever weapons were available.
The Mongols even used the bricks of long abandoned suburbs to build siege towers close to Baghdad's wall. From the summits of these the attackers could shoot stones, incendiary grenades and arrows right into the heart of the city. Towards the end of January the Caliph sent his wazir or Chief Minister and the Nestorian Patriarch to try and negotiate, but Hulegu refused them an audience.

On January 29th the Mongol bombardment began in earnest and by 4 February a breach had been opened in the south-eastern corner of the defences, near the Burj al ' Ajami or Persian Tower. This appears to have been a key position, perhaps an almost self-contained bastion, for its fall enabled the Mongols to spread along the walls to right and left. On the 5th the Mongols attacked again and by dawn next day they controlled a stretch of defensive wall from the Persian Tower to the neighbouring Bab al Tillism (also known as the Racecourse Gate). Baghdad lay at their mercy. The Chancellor Aibeg tried to escape down river but was captured, as was the commander-in-chief of the Caliph's army, Sulay-man-Shah. Both were almost immediately executed.
The Caliph attempted to negotiate but his wazir, who was almost certainly in treacherous correspondence with Hulegu, advised uncondi-tional surrender. On loth February the Caliph came out of the city and gave himself up. Hulegu received him with apparent kindness and asked that the army of Baghdad lay down their arms. When instructed to do so by the Caliph, they emerged fromthe city walls only to be divided into groups and butchered once they were clear of the buildings. Before they entered the city the Mongols tore down large sections of the wall and filled the moat. This done, they swept into Baghdad on 13 th February, beginning an orgy of massacre, looting, fire and rape that went on for
seven days. As the historian W assaf described it:

"They swept through the city like hungry falcons attacking a flight of doves, or like raging wolves attacking sheep, with loose reins and shameless faces, murdering and spreading fear. ...Beds and cushions made of gold and encrusted with jewels were cut to pieces with knives and torn to shreds. Those hidden behind the veils of the great harem were dragged. ..through the streets and alleys, each of them becoming a plaything in the hands of a Tatar monster."