The Tatars take Aleppo, 658

In Muharram 658 AH Hulagu crossed the Euphrates and raided the districts of Aleppo. He demanded that its governor, Buran Shah ibn al-Sultan Salah al-Din, allow the Tatars a garrison in the citadel and a garrison in the city, and he refused. The Tatars camped before Aleppo on the second of Safar. They dug a trench one man's height deep and four cubits wide, built a wall five cubits high, set up twenty catapults, kept up the bombardment, and began to tunnel under the wall. On the ninth of Safar they mounted the walls and put the city to the sword on that day and the next. About fifty thousand people had sought refuge in Aleppo, and countless numbers were killed. Killing and plunder went on for five days, and then the order was given to lift the sword. The call to prayer was given on that Friday at the mosque, and the Friday prayer was held with a congregation. They then surrounded the citadel, which al-Muʿazzam Turanshah, the head of the Ayyubid house, surrendered on terms when he could no longer hold it. He died soon afterwards ².