Then, even more shockingly, Hülagü had the Abbasid caliph, al-Musta’sim, put to death. Al-Musta’sim had made the error of refusing to capitulate when the Mongols approached, so there was no helping him. The supreme spiritual leader of the Sunni Muslim world was rolled up in a carpet and trampled by horses. Thus was the light was extinguished on a dynasty whose history stretched back to the revolution against the Umayyads in a.d. 750 (see chapter 4). There was, it seemed, no limit to Mongol ruthlessness—and nothing in the world that was too sacred for them to destroy.
