Baghdad · a Light

Baghdad fell in February 1258 and the books went to Maragha

Hulagu's Mongol army reached Baghdad in January 1258. The caliph al-Musta'sim surrendered on 10 February, and the city was sacked over the following week. Five centuries of libraries were destroyed, and the canal system that fed the region was damaged past easy repair. One thing was saved deliberately: the astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, who was travelling with Hulagu, secured books and instruments and persuaded him to fund an observatory. It was built at Maragha, in what is now northwest Iran, and within a few years it held a large library and a team of astronomers from as far as China. The tables they produced there corrected Ptolemy and were read for centuries.

Baghdad · 10 February 1258