The Buildings of Medieval Baghdad and the Impact of the Mongol Conquest in 1258

While the historical accounts of the immediate aftermath of the sacking of Baghdad in 1258 CE indicate that some buildings survived or were restored, the overwhelming impression is of a city in ruins. Recently, however, the cataclysmic interpretation of the Mongol conquest has been questioned both in terms of the physical destruction and its effects on cultural life. This prompts questions of how the urban infrastructure was restored and to what extent the city was remodelled to reflect the new political and religious reality. Although the exact extent of the destruction is not clear, modern authors agree that the sacking of Baghdad reduced its status from that of a metropolitan capital to a provincial city. There is, however, some evidence that the city continued to be of considerable cultural importance; for example, many of the library collections survived the conquest. However, within the new political structure, the city was separated from its Arabic cultural network and instead incorporated within a predominantly Persian environment. This paper will assess if and how this transition is reflected in the built environment. In the absence of direct archaeological evidence, this paper uses alternative sources such as historical records and surviving medieval buildings to reconstruct evidence for the destruction but also the preservation of architectural structures, such as the caliph’s palace.