While Kublai Khan was setting up his empire in China, Mongol armies under the leadership of his cousin Hulagu Khan were pushing west and south into Islamic lands. At first, the Mongols simply forced local rulers to accept Mongolian rule and pay a tribute, a sum of money or goods to back up their claims of loyalty. When the Islamic states in present-day Iran and Iraq refused to submit to the Mongols' demands, Hulagu Khan led an army to Baghdad--the great center of Islamic learning and culture.

On January 29, 1258, the Mongols laid siege to the city. The caliph in Baghdad had not considered it possible that a small group of Mongols could take the city. He decided not to reinforce the city walls or request assistance from other Muslim cities before the Mongols arrived. As a result, the siege of Baghdad lasted only a couple of weeks. Its inhabitants surrendered on February 10, and the Mongols stormed into the city, executing government officials and looting cultural centers.

The damage caused by the Siege of Baghdad was crushing and long-lasting. Hundreds of thousands of precious books on subjects from medicine to astronomy were thrown into the Tigris River. Estimates of the number of people slaughtered range from 200,000 to 1 million. The Mongol army in one blow devastated the center of Islamic culture. Learn more by studying and then clicking on each image below.

The caliph of Baghdad had been paying tribute to the Mongols to keep them from invading. When the caliph refused to do so anymore, the Mongols, led by Hulagu Khan, attacked. The Mongols were not impressed by the wealth and power of Baghdad: they destroyed the city and killed so many of its people that they were unable to rebuild it later to recapture its glory. By Sayf al-vâhidî et al. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons This image shows Mongols destroying a canal. One of the ways in which the Mongol conquest changed Baghdad, and Iraq, forever was this destruction of irrigation canals that had been used to support agriculture for thousands of years. So few Iraqis were left alive that the canals could not be rebuilt, and the area reverted to the desert it is to this day. By unknown / (of the reproduction) Staatsbibliothek Berlin/Schacht [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons These coins were minted under the Mongol ruler Ghazan, who ruled modern-day Iran from 1295-1304. Ghazan became a Muslim, and his coins are decorated with the Muslim declaration of faith, written in Arabic. Slowly, the Mongols began to adopt what remained of the local culture after their sack of Baghdad. By PHGCOM (self-made, photographed own coin.) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons