Mongol Empire · 1253-1261

1258: the fall of Abbasid Baghdad

In 1258 a Mongol army took Baghdad and ended five centuries of Abbasid rule there. Students explore what was lost, what survived, and how historians remember a disaster whose death toll is still uncertain.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1279 to AD 1258
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In 1258 a Mongol army took Baghdad and ended five centuries of Abbasid rule there. Students explore what was lost, what survived, and how historians remember a disaster whose death toll is still uncertain.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe the campaign of Hulagu and the fall of Baghdad in 1258.
  • Explain why the numbers in old sources about 1258 are uncertain.
  • Describe what came after: the Ilkhanate, the Maragheh observatory and the caliphs in Cairo.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1279

A new khanate

Open the map in 1279. Find the Ilkhanate, the Mongol state founded by Hulagu, and the Mamluk Sultanate to its west. Where does the border between them run?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1258

Baghdad, 1258

Move to 1258, turn on Historical Events and find the Mongol Siege of Baghdad. Its libraries had grown for five hundred years. What can be lost when a city of learning falls?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1258

A strange sky

Turn on Weather of History in 1258 and find the eruption of Samalas, one of the largest in 10,000 years. How might a cold, hungry year affect armies and cities?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The Abbasid caliphs had ruled from Baghdad for five hundred years. Why was its fall such a shock across the Islamic world?
  2. Old sources give very different death tolls for Baghdad. Why is it so hard to count the victims of a disaster like this?
  3. Hulagu took the scholar al-Tusi with him and built him an observatory. How can the same conqueror destroy and also support learning?
  4. Christians in Baghdad were spared, partly because Hulagu's chief wife was a Christian. What does this tell us about Mongol politics?
  5. Some people call 1258 the end of a golden age. Is that a fair way to describe it? Why?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Genghis Khan, Hulagu's grandfather. Discuss: the Mongols spared cities that surrendered and destroyed those that resisted. What did this policy cost the people of Baghdad, and what did it cost the Mongols themselves?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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