The Mongols’ Baghdad: Knowledge Transmission through Manuscript Cultures before and after the Conquest – Introduction

This short essay serves as an introduction to a collection of studies for Medieval Worlds 22, entitled The Mongols’ Baghdad: Knowledge Transmission through Manuscript Cultures before and after the Conquest. The contributions to this volume challenge the long-standing narrative of Baghdad’s cultural and intellectual decline following the Mongol conquest of 1258. In this introduction, we provide a brief contextual overview of Baghdad prior to the Mongol arrival, emphasizing its prominent role as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate and as a major centre of political authority, intellectual activity, and commercial exchange, despite its significant political decline by the 13th century. Although Hülegü’s conquest of the city in 1258 was remembered in Arabic historiography as a profound civilizational rupture, this introduction argues that Baghdad, under Ilkhanid rule (1258-1335), underwent a gradual reconfiguration and remarkable recovery of its political, intellectual, and institutional life. We examine some of the documented efforts to reconstruct the city during the Mongol period, the intellectual climate fostered by the Mongols’ multi-religious and pluralistic outlook, and how this environment shifted following the conversion to Islam of Ghāzān in 1295. Ultimately, this essay seeks to present the various perspectives offered by our contributors and to establish the historical context that shaped the political, intellectual, and cultural milieu of Baghdad under Mongol rule.