He then returned to Baghdad, accompanied by Khwaja Naṣir al-Din al-Ṭūsī (1), the vizier Ibn al-ʿAlqamī, and others, while the caliph was held under close guard and constraint. From the Caliphal Residence they brought out vast quantities of gold, jewelry, worked ornaments, precious stones, and other valuables. Those Rāfiḍī notables—and other hypocrites besides—had already advised Hūlāgū to refuse any reconciliation. The vizier declared, “Should peace be struck on an equal division, it will endure no more than a year or two before matters revert to what they were.” They therefore made the killing of the caliph seem appealing to him. When the caliph returned to Sultan Hūlāgū (2), Hūlāgū ordered his execution. It is said that the ones who urged this were the vizier Ibn al-ʿAlqamī and Mawlā Naṣir al-Din al-Ṭūsī. Naṣir had been in Hūlāgū’s company ever since the latter seized the forts of Alamut and wrested them from the Ismāʿīlīs. He had served as vizier to Shams al-Shumūs and, before him, to his father ʿAlāʾ al-Din ibn Jalāl al-Din, both of whom claimed descent from Nizār ibn al-Mustanṣir the ʿUbaydī. Hūlāgū chose Naṣir to act for him as a counsellor-vizier. When Hūlāgū arrived and hesitated to slay the caliph, the vizier made the deed seem easy, and they killed him by kicking, while he was shut inside a jūwalaq (large sack) so that not a drop of his blood would touch the ground—they feared, so they were told, that vengeance would be taken if his blood were spilled. Others say he was strangled; still others say he was drowned. Allah knows best. Thus they incurred the sin of his murder and the sin of those who died with him—eminent scholars, judges, grandees, dignitaries, amirs, and the men of authority in his realm (3). (The caliph’s obituary will appear in the deaths section.)

They then fell upon the city, killing everyone they could reach—men and women, children, shaykhs, elders, and youths. Many people hid in wells, in latrines, and in refuse pits, remaining thus for days without daring to appear. Groups (4) of people would gather in (5) caravanserais and bolt the doors, but the Tatars forced them open (6)—either by smashing them or (7) by fire. They would burst in, the people would flee up to the highest places, and the Tatars would slaughter them on the rooftops (8) until the gutters ran with blood throughout the alleyways. Truly we belong to Allah, and to Him we return. The same carnage befell the mosques, the congregational masjids, and the ribāṭs. None were spared except those under the covenant—the Jews and Christians—and whoever sought refuge with them or in the house of the Rāfiḍī vizier Ibn al-ʿAlqamī, together with a number of merchants who obtained guarantees of safety by paying immense sums; thus they and their wealth survived. And Baghdad