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The Mongols and after: the fall of Baghdad, Ayn Jalut and Timur

Grade 11 · World History to the End of the Fifteenth Century, Grade 11, University/College Preparation · 75 min · deep

Mapped by the museum, not endorsed by the Ministry.

A CHW3M pathway on the century that changed the Muslim world: the Mongol invasions, the fall of Baghdad in 1258, the Mamluk stand at Ayn Jalut, the Ilkhans' conversion, Ibn Khaldun reading the collapse of states, and Timur's Samarqand.

Curriculum mapping

Ontario, Canada
World History to the End of the Fifteenth Century, Grade 11, University/College Preparation CHW3M
Grade
11
Strand
D · Civilizations in Decline
Overall expectations
D1, D2
What the lesson does, in the museum's words
The lesson presents the Abbasid caliphate in the thirteenth century as one of the declining civilisations the strand requires: the internal social and political factors, the effect of relations with an outside society (the Mongols) on the decline, what happened to the people of Baghdad, then how other societies responded (the Mamluks, the Ilkhans after their conversion) and how Ibn Khaldun read the phenomenon.
Curriculum document consulted
The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: Canadian and World Studies, 2015
Codes checked on
23 October 2026 CE · 12 Jumada I 1448 AH†

Mapped by the museum, not endorsed by the Ministry.

Lesson goal

Students explain the part of internal and external factors in the decline of one state (the Abbasid caliphate) and in the rise of others out of the same shock (the Mamluks, the Timurids).

Seventy-five minutes for advanced classes; level 'deep'. The focus is evidence: conflicting numbers, sources in more than one language, and what a historian does with them.

Print the pack: teacher page, worksheet and answer key Classroom quiz Walk this pathway

Lesson steps

Walk this pathway

8steps · 75min · teacher · student · deep

  1. The Mongol empire

    From the steppe to the largest contiguous land empire: who the Mongols were and how they fought.

    Mongol empire

  2. The invasions

    Khwarazm and Khurasan first: what the Arabic and Persian sources describe.

    Mongol invasions and conquests

  3. The fall of Baghdad, 1258

    Hulagu before the city and the end of the caliphate there: the event and its conflicting numbers.

    The Tatar sack of Baghdad and the killing of al-Musta'sim

  4. Ayn Jalut, 1260

    The Mamluks halt the Mongol advance in Palestine: why they succeeded.

    The battle of Ayn Jalut and the defeat of the Tatars

  5. The Ilkhanate

    A Mongol state in Iran and Iraq that embraces Islam within two generations.

    Ilkhanate

  6. The Mamluk state

    Cairo as the capital of the Muslim world after Baghdad: soldiers, learning and architecture.

    Mamluk Sultanate

  7. Ibn Khaldun and the Muqaddima

    A fourteenth-century historian asks why states rise and fall.

    Ibn Khaldun · The Muqaddima

  8. Timur and Samarqand

    A new conqueror from Central Asia, and a capital built with architects brought from afar.

    Timurid Empire · Samarqand

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What you now know

  • I can name internal and external factors in the decline of the Abbasid caliphate. — 2, 3
  • I can explain how at least two societies came out of the Mongol shock in different ways. — 4, 5, 6, 8
  • I can use one concept from Ibn Khaldun to read a historical event. — 7

Mastery check

Five questions on what you walked through. Marked on your device; nothing is kept but the stamp in your passport when you pass.

Marking needs JavaScript; the questions and their key read and print without it.

Question 1 of 5
In which year did Baghdad fall to Hulagu?

Question 2 of 5
What happened at Ayn Jalut in 1260?

Question 3 of 5
What did the Ilkhans do after two generations ruling Iran and Iraq?

Question 4 of 5
What question does Ibn Khaldun ask in the Muqaddima?

Question 5 of 5
Which city did Timur make his capital?

Answer key (for the teacher)
  1. In which year did Baghdad fall to Hulagu? — 1258(Learn it at step 3: The fall of Baghdad, 1258)
  2. What happened at Ayn Jalut in 1260? — The Mamluks halted the Mongol advance(Learn it at step 4: Ayn Jalut, 1260)
  3. What did the Ilkhans do after two generations ruling Iran and Iraq? — Embraced Islam(Learn it at step 5: The Ilkhanate)
  4. What question does Ibn Khaldun ask in the Muqaddima? — Why states rise and fall(Learn it at step 7: Ibn Khaldun and the Muqaddima)
  5. Which city did Timur make his capital? — Samarqand(Learn it at step 8: Timur and Samarqand)

Tell it back

Tell what you learned in your own words. What you write stays on this device only, and no one else reads it.

  1. I can name internal and external factors in the decline of the Abbasid caliphate.
  2. I can explain how at least two societies came out of the Mongol shock in different ways.
  3. I can use one concept from Ibn Khaldun to read a historical event.

Writing here needs JavaScript; the prompts read and print without it.

Write at least two sentences, or tick that you told it, to earn the stamp in your passport.

Worksheet

Answer in your own words after each step; every question points back to a museum page.

  1. What factors had weakened the Abbasid caliphate before the Mongols arrived?

  2. Why do the sources' death tolls for the fall of Baghdad conflict? What do we do with conflicting numbers?

  3. Why could the Mamluks do at Ayn Jalut what others could not?

  4. What does it mean that the conqueror (the Ilkhans) took the religion of the conquered?

  5. Explain Ibn Khaldun's idea of 'asabiyya in your own words and apply it to one state in the pathway.

Free and open: print, quote and adapt, with no account and no student data.

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