Geography Link - the Tigris River
End of an era
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Baghdad was overtaken by Cordoba as the world’s largest city in around ad 930, and the influence of the Abbasid Caliphate started to recede. Then, in 1258, the invading Mongols attacked the city. They spent a week utterly destroying Baghdad, where it was said the Tigris ran black with all the ink from the books thrown in, and red from the blood of the scientists and philosophers killed. What had once been a hub of learning, philosophy, science, mathematics and great minds was now totally ruined, with perhaps up to a million inhabitants slaughtered, officially marking the end of the Golden Age of Islam.
​The army of Mongols conducting a siege on Baghdad walls. Tapestry circa 1430.
Activity - The End of an Era
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The aim of this activity is to know that the Mongol attack on Baghdad destroyed the city. The children will be shown a picture of the tapestry and will be asked what they think it is about. Within the tapestry the Mongols attacked Baghdad in 1258 and destroyed the city and killed its inhabitants, while throwing thousands of books into the Tigris and lost forever. More information can be accessed on the website on the page ‘The end of an Era’.
Resources:
· The end of an Era page on website
· Image of the Tapestry, which can be found on the website page ‘the end of an Era’.