Tamerlane vs Baghdad: The Destruction of a Caliphate

Tamerlane: The Conqueror Who Tried to Rebuild the Mongol Legacy — Fexingo History · May 8, 2026 · 7m · transcript

Sultan Ahmad Jalayir, the Jalayirid ruler of Baghdad, repeatedly provoked Tamerlane by offering sanctuary to his enemies. In 1401, after years of patience, Timur marched on the city. The siege was brutal—towers, mines, and a wall of corpses—and the aftermath was even worse. This episode dives into the fall of Baghdad under the soles of Timur's horsemen, the strategic use of terror, and the ambiguous figure of Sultan Ahmad, who fled to the Mamluks and later to the Ottomans, stoking tensions that led to the Battle of Ankara. We also explore the fate of the Abbasid shadow caliph, the role…