WaybackWire

The news as it happened.

The Mongols at BaghdadThe week to Wednesday, February 20, 1258Issue the Fifth

Caliph al-Musta’sim put to death at Waqf with his eldest son

Reconstructed from historical sources

The caliph al-Musta’sim was put to death tonight at Waqf, outside Baghdad, with his eldest son; this week the Khan feasted in his palace and took his treasure, the caliph’s mosque and the shrines burned, the killing was ordered stopped, and the vizier is back in the city under a Mongol governor.

A gold dinar of the caliph al-Musta'sim, struck at Baghdad in the year 641 by the Muslim reckoning (1243-44). A modern photograph of the coin.
A gold dinar of the caliph al-Musta’sim, struck at Baghdad in the year 641 by the Muslim reckoning (1243-44). A modern photograph of the coin.Photograph by Baghdad mint; photograph by DrFO.Jr.Tn, Jan. 1, 1244 · Public domain (released by the photographer)

WAQF, Wednesday.—Baghdad has been a week in Hülegü Khan’s hands, its palace emptied and its goods carried off. Tonight the caliph is dead.

At the end of the day today, Wednesday, the fourteenth of Safar, al-Musta’sim, Commander of the Faithful, was put to death at Waqf, a village outside Baghdad, with his eldest son and five attendants.

The Khan left Baghdad today because of the foul air in the city and pitched his camp at Waqf. There he summoned the caliph, his prisoner since he came out on the fourth of Safar, and the caliph was greatly afraid.

I don't want the companionship of five myrmidons of hellal-Musta'sim, Commander of the Faithful, refusing the company of five Mongols at the bath

He asked leave to go to the bath to renew his ablutions. He was told he might go in with five Mongols, and he refused. “I don’t want the companionship of five myrmidons of hell,” he said.

He said it as he recited two or three lines of an ode. The first of them ran: “We woke up in the morning in a palace like paradise, but we went to bed without a palace with which we could not dispense yesterday.”

Hülegü had him brought before him, judged him and condemned him to death. The caliph was put in a sack, sewn up in it and kicked to death.

No blood of his was shed. Certain Arabs in the Khan’s camp had warned him against it, and the warning frightened him: “If the blood of this man be shed on the earth, no rain will ever again fall thereon, and also coals of fire will burst forth from it.”

Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (tr. W. M. Thackston, Harvard, 1998) · Bar Hebraeus, Chronography (tr. E. A. Wallis Budge, London, 1932) · Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (tr. W. M. Thackston, Harvard, 1998).

Khan feasts in the caliph’s palace and takes his treasure

Reconstructed from historical sources

Hülegü Khan enters the caliph's palace: a Persian miniature of the 15th century, from a manuscript of the Chinggisid Shahnameh.
Hülegü Khan enters the caliph’s palace: a Persian miniature of the 15th century, from a manuscript of the Chinggisid Shahnameh.Photograph by Unknown Persian painter · Public domain

BAGHDAD, Wednesday.—Hülegü Khan has sat as a guest in the caliph’s own palace and made the caliph open his treasuries to him.

On Friday, the ninth of Safar, the Khan went into the city to see the palace. He settled in the Octagon Palace and gave a banquet there for his commanders.

He sent for the caliph and told him: “You are the host, and we are the guests. Bring whatever you have that is suitable for us.”

You are the host, and we are the guests. Bring whatever you have that is suitable for usHülegü Khan, to the caliph at the banquet in the Octagon Palace

The caliph trembled so that he could not tell the keys of the treasuries one from another, and several locks had to be broken. He brought out two thousand suits of clothing, ten thousand dinars, precious things, jewelled vessels and gems. Hülegü gave it all away to his commanders.

The Khan told him that what he owned above ground was plain to see, and asked where his buried treasure lay. The caliph owned to a pool full of gold in the middle of the palace. It was dug up and found full of gold in ingots of a hundred mithqals.

The harem was counted: seven hundred women and concubines, and a thousand servants. The caliph begged: “Let me have the women of the harem, upon whom neither the sun nor the moon has ever shone.” He was allowed to keep a hundred of his choosing.

That night the Khan went back to his camp.

Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (tr. W. M. Thackston, Harvard, 1998) · Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (tr. W. M. Thackston, Harvard, 1998).

Caliph’s mosque and shrines burned; his goods carried off

Reconstructed from historical sources

BAGHDAD, Wednesday.—Most of the holy places of Baghdad have been burned this week, among them the caliph’s mosque, the Musa-Jawad shrine and the tombs in Rusafa.

On Saturday, the tenth of Safar, the morning after the banquet in the palace, Hülegü sent Su’unchaq into the city to confiscate the caliph’s possessions and send them out.

The goods the caliphs had gathered have left Baghdad. They were stacked in mountainous piles round the tents of the Mongol camp.

Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (tr. W. M. Thackston, Harvard, 1998).

Khan orders the killing in Baghdad to stop

Reconstructed from historical sources

BAGHDAD, Wednesday.—Hülegü Khan has ordered his army to end the killing and plunder in Baghdad.

The people of the city sent three of their notables, Sharaf al-Din Maragha’i, Shihab al-Din Zanjani and Malik Dilrast, to the Khan to ask for amnesty. The order went out after the caliph’s goods had been carried from the city, and before the Khan left it today.

“Henceforth the killing and pillaging will cease, for the kingdom of Baghdad is ours,” the Khan told his army. “Let them dwell as they were, and let everyone get on with his business. Sheathe your swords, for they are granted quarter.”

Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (tr. W. M. Thackston, Harvard, 1998).

Vizier back in Baghdad under a Mongol governor

Reconstructed from historical sources

BAGHDAD, Wednesday.—Baghdad has new masters. Today, the day the caliph was put to death, Hülegü sent Mu’ayyad al-Din Ibn al-Alqami, who carried the caliph’s messages to the camp during the siege, back into the city as vizier.

Fakhr al-Din Damghani goes with him as chief of administration. The Khan’s own man in the city is Ali Bahadur, made shahna, or governor, and head of the merchants and artisans. A governor of East Baghdad and a chief cadi have also been named.

Elgai Noyan and Qara Buqa have gone into Baghdad with three thousand Mongol horse to begin rebuilding the city.

Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (tr. W. M. Thackston, Harvard, 1998) · Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (tr. W. M. Thackston, Harvard, 1998).

Who governs Baghdad

  • Mu’ayyad al-Din Ibn al-AlqamiVizier
  • Fakhr al-Din DamghaniChief of administration
  • Ali BahadurShahna, the Khan’s governorAlso head of the merchants and artisans.
  • Najm al-Din Abu Ja’far Ahmad ImranGovernor of East BaghdadThe Khurasan Road, Khalis and Bandinjin.
  • Nizam al-Din Abdul-Mu’min BandinjinChief cadi

Posts as given on Wednesday, the fourteenth of Safar.

Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (tr. W. M. Thackston, Harvard, 1998).

In Brief

Hilla submits; Buqa Temür marches on Wasit

HILLA.—Hilla has submitted without a fight. Its people came out to greet the Khan’s army, built bridges over the Euphrates and rejoiced at its coming. On Saturday, the tenth of Safar, Buqa Temür set out from Hilla for Wasit. The Khan has also sent Amir Abdul-Rahman, one of his commanders, to conquer Khuzistan.

Rashid al-Din, Jami' al-tawarikh (tr. W. M. Thackston, Harvard, 1998).

Treasure houses sealed with the Khan’s ring

BAGHDAD.—More treasure lies in Baghdad than the Khan’s men can carry away. Houses full of treasure have been sealed with Hülegü’s ring and put under guard.

Kirakos Gandzakets'i, History of the Armenians (tr. Robert Bedrosian, New York, 1986).

Prince of Mosul tells the Khan the caliph must not live

BEFORE BAGHDAD.—Badr al-Din Lu’lu’, prince of Mosul, has warned Hülegü that the caliph must not be left alive. “If the Khalifah continues alive, the whole of the Musalmans which are among the troops, and other [Musalman] peoples who are in other countries, will rise,” he told the Khan.

Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani, Tabakat-i-Nasiri (tr. H. G. Raverty, vol. 2, London, 1881).

Elsewhere Today

Start The Mongols at Baghdad from issue one tomorrow

Wayback Wire · No. 5 · The week to Wednesday, February 20, 1258