Violence and non-violent means in the Mongol conquest of Baghdad

Michal Biran

Violence and non-violent means in the Mongol conquest of Baghdad

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

Abstract

The Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 656/1258 has often been described as a medieval holocaust, an extremely violent act, which led not only to the collapse of the ‘Abbāsid caliphate (750–1258) and the city of Baghdad, but to the decline of Islamic civilisation as a whole. Clichés such as: ‘If the Mongols had not burnt the libraries of Baghdad in the 13th century, we Arabs would have had so much science, that we would long since have invented the atomic bomb’¹ can still be heard in the Arab world. Moreover, this anachronistic view has been revived in the last

Original language	American English
Title of host publication	Violence in Islamic thought from the Mongols to European imperialism
Editors	Robert Gleave, István T. Kristó-Nagy
Place of Publication	Edinburgh
Publisher	Edinburgh University Press
Pages	15-31
Number of pages	17
ISBN (Print)	9781474413008
State	Published - 2018

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http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1tqxvdf.6

Cite this

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title = "Violence and non-violent means in the Mongol conquest of Baghdad",

abstract = "The Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 656/1258 has often been described as a medieval holocaust, an extremely violent act, which led not only to the collapse of the {\textquoteleft}Abbāsid caliphate (750–1258) and the city of Baghdad, but to the decline of Islamic civilisation as a whole. Clich{\'e}s such as: {\textquoteleft}If the Mongols had not burnt the libraries of Baghdad in the 13th century, we Arabs would have had so much science, that we would long since have invented the atomic bomb{\textquoteright}¹ can still be heard in the Arab world. Moreover, this anachronistic view has been revived in the last",

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editor = "Robert Gleave and Krist{\'o}-Nagy, {Istv{\'a}n T.}",

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AB - The Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 656/1258 has often been described as a medieval holocaust, an extremely violent act, which led not only to the collapse of the ‘Abbāsid caliphate (750–1258) and the city of Baghdad, but to the decline of Islamic civilisation as a whole. Clichés such as: ‘If the Mongols had not burnt the libraries of Baghdad in the 13th century, we Arabs would have had so much science, that we would long since have invented the atomic bomb’¹ can still be heard in the Arab world. Moreover, this anachronistic view has been revived in the last

M3 - Chapter

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EP - 31

BT - Violence in Islamic thought from the Mongols to European imperialism

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A2 - Kristó-Nagy, István T.

PB - Edinburgh University Press

CY - Edinburgh

ER -

Violence and non-violent means in the Mongol conquest of Baghdad

Abstract

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