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The Mongol conquest of the Abbasid Caliphate which culminated in the horrific sack of Baghdad is considered the event that effectively ended the Islamic Golden Age.
The Islamic Golden Age (from the 8th to the mid-13th century) genuinely was one of the periods of greatest flourishing of human knowledge and progress with Baghdad being the center of it. As its prestige grew, more and more scholars from all over the world were drawn there. But in January 1258, a vast Mongol army reached Baghdad. The arrival of the Mongols into the heart of Muslim empire is the single most devastating moment in the history of the Muslim Middle East.
About 3,000 of Baghdadβs notablesβincluding officials, members of the Abbasid family were put to death. Estimates of the death toll range from 90,000 at the lowest end to one million at the other depending on sources. Men, women and children were put to the sword or clubbed to death and no mercy was showed. Apart from the human casualties, there was the destruction of the 500-year old city itself. The scent of the remains due to the fires set was felt up to 45Km away. Famine and plague followed in Baghdad and all other areas.