1258


Year 1258 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.

Events


By place

Mongol Empire

  • February 10 - Siege of [Baghdad (1258)|Siege of Baghdad]: Mongol forces, led by Hulagu Khan, besiege and conquer Baghdad after a siege of 13 days. During the first week of February, the eastern walls begin to collapse, and the Mongols swarm into the city, on February 10. Caliph Al-Musta'sim surrenders himself to Hulagu – together with all the Abbasid chief officers and officials. They are ordered to lay down their arms, and are massacred. Hulagu imprisons Al-Musta'sim among his treasures, to starve him to death. Meanwhile, massacres continue throughout the whole city; in 40 days about 80,000 citizens are murdered. The only survivors are the ones who are hiding in cellars which are not discovered, and a number of attractive girls and boys who are kept to be slaves, and the Christian community, who take refuge in the churches which are left undisturbed, by the special orders of Hulagu's wife, Doquz Khatun.
  • February 15 - Hulagu Khan enters Baghdad, where many quarters of the city are ruined by fire. The House of Wisdom is destroyed, numerous precious book collections are thrown into the Tigris River. Before the siege, about 400,000 manuscripts are rescued by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian polymath and theologian, who takes them to Maragheh observatory. The sack of Baghdad brings an end to the Abbasid Caliphate and the Islamic Golden Age. Many professors, physicians, scientists, clerics, artists and lecturers are also massacred.

Europe

British Isles

Levant

  • June 25 - Acre (1258)|Battle of Acre]: The Genoese send an armada to relieve the blockade at Acre and ask for the assistance of Philip of Montfort, lord of Tyre, and the Knights Hospitaller for a combined attack from the land side. The Genoese fleet's arrival takes the Venetians by surprise but the superior experience and seamanship result in a crushing Venetian victory, with half the Genoese ships lost. Later, the Genoese garrison is forced to abandon Acre.

Asia

By topic

Global

Markets

  • The Republic of Genoa starts imposing forced loans, known as luoghi, onto its taxpayers; they are a common resource of medieval public finance.

Religion

Births

Deaths