Hulegu Khan

But at the same time, just after the Mongol invasions, when some of those Mongol leaders had become Muslims, some of those Mongol Muslim empires themselves were flourishing in terms of intellectual activity and arts and culture, like in Timurid Central Asia, for example, or later the Ottoman Empire or Mughal India, for instance.

Even just So the Mongols invaded Baghdad in 1258, and one of the greatest philosophers and scientists in Islamic history, Nasiruddin al-Tusi, he became close with Hulagu, the Mongol khan, leader, and literally one year after the invasion and destruction of Baghdad in 1259, he established Nasiruddin al-Tusi's observatory in Maragha, where some incredibly important discoveries in terms of astronomy were made.

And this is by the same Mongols that also supposedly destroyed this intellectual heritage.

So as you see, the situation is a lot more complicated.

As Arnold Wilson tartly remarked, "The document bears in every line the marks of Sykes' ebullient Orientalism." The proclamation opened in high rhetorical style, reassuring the people of Baghdad, "Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.

Since the days of Hulagu," the 13th century Mongol conqueror, "your city and your lands have been the subject of the tyranny of strangers.

Your palaces fallen to ruins.

Your gardens have sunk into desolation.

Welcome to HistoryPod.

Mongol forces under Hulegu, grandson of Genghis Khan, had captured Baghdad in 1258, bringing an end to the Abbasid Caliphate there.

By 1260, they had continued westwards, capturing Aleppo and Damascus before advancing through Syria and Palestine.

Egypt, ruled by the Mamluks, was the next major power standing in their path.

Hulegu sent messengers to Cairo demanding the submission of Sultan Qutuz.

Qutuz rejected the demand and had the messengers executed.

The situation then changed when Hulegu withdrew much of his army from Syria following the death of the Mongol Great Khan Monk.

He left a smaller force in the region under Kitbuka Noyan.

For generations, knowledge has felt like a shield, culture felt like a fortress.

But now, as word spreads that Hulagu Khan's forces are breaching the outer defenses, you realize something chilling.

Books can't stop arrows.

Geometry can't halt catapults.

The caliph, al-Mustasim, held immense symbolic prestige, but not much practical authority.

Baghdad looked powerful, but its foundations were hollow, and the Mongols could smell weakness like wolves scenting blood.

Enter Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis.

Ruthless, methodical, patient.

The Mongolian hordes under Genghis Khan poured out, like long-pent waters over all the countries of the East.

The Caliphate of Baghdad fell forever before the furious onslaught of Hulagu Khan.

The Seljuk Empire soon advanced its Moslem rule into the mountain ranges of Anatolia, and Turks were disputing with Mongols the sovereignty of the roof of the world.

The beneficial effects of the Crusades were already being felt in the breaking up of these two colossal fabrics of the Middle Ages, the Church and the Empire, which ruled both as ideas and as realities.