Siege of Baghdad (1401) 1401
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1401 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Medieval (500–1499) | derived from year |
| Location | Iraq | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Seven Years' Campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Jalayirid Sultanate, Timurid Empire | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 33.3475, 44.3350 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
In 1401, Timur, the ruler of the Timurid Empire, besieged the Jalayirid Sultanate capital of Baghdad for forty days and then massacred its inhabitants for resisting. The Turco-Mongol army looted the treasury and razed much of the city, except for mosques and madrasas. Contemporaries reported that each Mongol soldier was ordered to bring at least one severed head of an inhabitant. Only one out of a hundred of the city's inhabitants reportedly survived the massacre to be sold into slavery.
Dust Muhammad reports that following the siege Timur captured the Jalayirid miniature artist Khwaja Abdul-Hayy to bring him back to the Timurid court in Samarkand, where his style was then followed by local court artists:
When the realm-conquering banners of Timur Kiiragan cast the ray of the caliphate in subjugating the realm of Baghdad, and he made that Abode of Peace the residence of the caliphal throne for a few days, Khwaja Abdul-Hayy was taken along with the celestial army to the Abode of the Sultanate Samarqand, where he died. After the Khwaja's death all masters imitated his works.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Baghdad (1401) (revision 1370739167), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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