There is no city in the world equal to Baghdad in the abundance of its riches, the importance of its business, the number of its scholars and important people, the distinctin of its leaders and its common people, the extent of its districts, the width of its boundaries, the great number of its palaces, inhabitants, streets, avenues, alleys, mosques, baths, docks and caravansaries, the purity of its air, the sweetness of its water, the freshness of its dew and its shade, the temperateness of its summer and winter, the healthfulness of its spring and fall, and its great swarming crowds.  – Khatib Baghdadi (d. 1071)

In the year 1256, Mongols under the leadership of Hulagu Khan marched towards Alamut, the fortress, high in the mountains of Kuhistan, of the Isma’ili Shi’ite sect, also known as the Assassins.  After defeating Sheikh al-Jabal, the Old Man of the Mountains, and the mighty Assassins (Fedayeen), and capturing their fortress, the Mongols marched on to the Glorious Capital of the Abbasid Caliphate in the west, Baghdad.

During the Mongol onslaught on Alamut, a family escaped the chaos and destruction and made their way towards the protected City of Peace, Baghdad.  A small boy, still in his adolescence, along with both his parents, escaped the Alamut massacre and made their way amidst the destruction, towards Baghdad.

The following is a first hand account of the boy, Bassam Shihab al-Din, who recorded his family’s strife in a bound journal that serves to this day as a reminder of the plight of the people of Alamut.  The entries that are included are those relevant to the city of Baghdad, those that depict the city in its full glory from a first hand perspective.  As the Mongols approached the city in 1258, the boy recorded the sentiments flying the night the Mongols invaded Baghdad amongst the inhabitants, and how they prepared for the attack.

A few letters of Bassam’s father, Nasir Shihab al-Din, have also survived to this day, along with only one of Bassam’s mother, Rawiya Abdullah.

Bassam gives a full description of the city’s layout, the inhabitants, and the Mongols whom his family encountered and witnessed on their way to Baghdad.

His family’s testimony stands as a reminder for all those interested in the history of the world, and those who wish to experience the brutality that the City of Peace witnessed to better understand the demise of the Abbasid Caliphate.  Though an average, mere boy in his teens, Bassam Shihab al-Din’s legacy lives on as generation to generation reads his account of the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258.