At dawn 2nd of Safar 758H/1260, the Tatar armies under the leadership of Hulagu Khān were crossing the Euphrates via a bridge they had made. That is two years after they had flushed the Muslims in Baghdad and killed en-masse.
Their destination was Aleppo at a time where the Muslims had no Khalīfah. They were torn between kings that would neither unite themselves nor would assist one another to ward of the enemy invasion. How did it come to this?
When the forces of Hulagu got to the gates of Aleppo, they laid siege on the city for seven days and history tells us that the Commander of the Muslim Forces in Aleppo, Tawran Shah, was offered a safe passage and safety to the women, weak and children if the city surrendered to the Hordes of Hulagu.
Tawran looked back at who the Tatars were and mentioned to his people that the Tatars were not and never can be a people that will fulfil their pledges and agreements even if they made one.
The people of the city, under the pressure of the siege and seeing their people lose thier comforts, decided against the position of their Commander and opened the gates of the city to the invading hordes surrendering to his authority.
Tawran, and a few Mujāhid band with him held their stances and positioned themselves in the City’s castle displaying a brave resistance.
Just as Tawran had predicted, Hulagu ordered the mass killing of all the People in the city who had surrendered men, women, children and the old. They raped women and took some as slaves.
Hulagu proceeded to burn down the city walls and rip apart the buildings that the city may never again stand a resistance against Tatar power.
Then followed his siege upon the castle in which Tawran and the small band with him had taken refuge. Hulagu ensured that the castle was bombarded from all angles day and night. *For four weeks*, the siege continued until the castle walls failed. Tawran was taken captive and all of his small band of Mujahidin were slaughtered mercilessly.
History repeats itself today in Aleppo where the population, under immense Airpower pressure and the bombardments of bombs gave in to the United Nation’s call for a Safety Corridor for civilian passage out of the City only to be bombed by the Russian-Safawi-Nusayri Alliance…
History tells us that whenever Muslims abandon one another to the enemy’s discretion, they are killed one after another…
But whether the aftermath of the Fall of Aleppo today will lead to the unity in the ranks of Muslims as was the case in 1260AD is what we are yet to see.
When will we start learning from our history?
