The Siege of Baghdad: Hulagu's Fury and the Fall of an Empire

In 1258, the Mongol army under Hulagu Khan laid siege to Baghdad, the heart of the Abbasid Caliphate and a city of a million people. This episode unpacks the brutal campaign: the internal politics that left Baghdad isolated, the engineering of Mongol siegecraft, and the cataclysmic sack that ended the Islamic Golden Age. We explore the role of Chinese engineers, the betrayal of the vizier Ibn al-Alqami, and the fate of Caliph al-Musta'sim, who was rolled in a carpet and trampled to death by horses. Lucas and Luna discuss the destruction of the House of Wisdom, the loss of countless manuscripts, and the legacy of this turning point in world history. How did the Mongols, with just a fraction of the defenders' numbers, conquer the most fortified city of its time? And what does it tell us about their military strategy and their willingness to inflict total destruction? This is the story of a city's end and an empire's forgotten wisdom. #Baghdad1258 #HulaguKhan #AbbasidCaliphate #SiegeOfBaghdad #MongolInvasions #IslamicGoldenAge #HouseOfWisdom #CaliphAlMutasim #IbnAlAlqami #MongolSiegecraft #ChineseEngineers #TigrisRiver #TotalWar #13thCentury #History #FexingoHistory #MongolEmpire #MedievalHistory #GenghisKhan #KhubilaiKhan Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo