Sykes' History of Persia Vol 2 (pdf) - Heritage Institute

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EXTINCTION OF THE CALIPHATE 175
you, then, of its details ? There happened things I like
not to mention therefore ; imagine what you will, but
"
ask me not of the matter !
Equally poignant, though
more formal,
is the threnody which is quoted as a heading
to this chapter.
The sack of Baghdad was a more terrible event in history
than that of Merv or Herat, inasmuch as the city was the
centre of the Moslem world ;
and the irreparable injury
its civilization by the extinction of the Caliphate more
than six centuries after the foundation of Islam, by the
destruction of priceless literary and artistic treasures, and
by the massacre of learned men of all classes, defies
description.
Moslem civilization was at that period the
shining light in the world, and it has never recovered
from the deadly blow. The awful nature of the cataclysm
which set back the hands of the clock of progress among
Moslem states, and thereby indirectly throughout the
world, is difficult to realize and impossible to exaggerate.
The Last Tears of Hulagu Khan and his Death, A.H.
after the
663 (1265). Hulagu lived for seven years
capture of Baghdad, by which his name is chiefly remembered.
During this period he ruled as undisputed
monarch of Iran. He furthermore captured Aleppo and
carried all before him in Syria,
until in 1260, after his
departure, the Mongol army was defeated by the Mamelukes
of Egypt. As Howorth points out, this defeat
saved Egypt, the last refuge of Moslem culture.
Maragha
in the north-west corner of modern Persia
was chosen as his capital by the Mongol prince, and there,
in the interests of astrology,
in which he believed as
he built the famous ob-
foretelling the fate of princes,
servatory, the ruins of which are still visible.
During Hulagu's latter years
there was a revolt in
Fars, but the Atabeg Seljuk Shah was captured at
Kazerun, the half-way town between Bushire and Shiraz,
and his execution speedily followed. In Northern Persia
peace reigned because the land lay desolate and only a
timid remnant was left. So Hulagu died in peace and
was buried in the island of Tala, in Lake Urumia, where
he had collected the almost incredible wealth of the