Qualla: Siege of Bamyan

Siege of Bamyan: Introduction

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit EFarid, CC BY-SA 4.0. They called it the City of Screams. For centuries after the Mongol army left, the ruins of Bamyan bore a name that needed no explanation: Shahr-e-Gholghola, the place where the cries of the dying had echoed off the Hindu Kush and never quite faded. What happened here in the spring of 1221 was not merely a siege. It was the annihilation of a city by an empire's grief, a grandfather's rage made policy, and the erasure of a population so complete that even the animals were not spared.

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Image: EFarid | CC BY-SA 4.0

Siege of Bamyan: The Arrow That Changed Everything

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit EFarid, CC BY-SA 4.0. Genghis Khan had crossed the Hindu Kush in pursuit of Jalal al-Din Mangburni, the last ruler of the Khwarazmian Empire, who had recently humiliated a Mongol force at the Battle of Parwan. The Mongol army arrived before Bamyan, a city in the valley northwest of Kabul whose Friday ...

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Image: EFarid | CC BY-SA 4.0

Siege of Bamyan: A Grandfather's Edict

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit EFarid, CC BY-SA 4.0. Genghis Khan ordered the assault accelerated. According to some accounts, a daughter of Jalal al-Din Mangburni revealed a secret entrance to the Mongols, and the city fell after roughly a month of fighting. No quarter was given. But the Khan's rage extended beyond the battlefield...

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Image: EFarid | CC BY-SA 4.0

Siege of Bamyan: The Cursed City

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit EFarid, CC BY-SA 4.0. According to the chronicler Yaqub al-Herawi, every inhabitant of Bamyan was killed. The city was left in ruins and remained that way for decades. It acquired the Persian name Mao-Kurgan, or Ma'u-Baligh -- the Cursed City. Some called it the City of Sorrows, others the City of Cri...

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Siege of Bamyan: The Conquest Rolls On

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DEMIS Mapserver, पाटलिपुत्र (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. With Bamyan destroyed, the Mongols continued their sweep through Khorasan. They plundered Tus and Mashhad. By spring, the entire region was under their control. Genghis Khan spent that summer in the foothills near Taloqan with his sons and armies, planning the next phase of his c...

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Image: DEMIS Mapserver, पाटलिपुत्र (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Siege of Bamyan: What Remains

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit EFarid, CC BY-SA 4.0. Today the site of ancient Bamyan is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized not for the siege but for the Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley. The cliffs that once framed a thriving city along the Silk Road still stand, though the colossal Buddha ...

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Image: EFarid | CC BY-SA 4.0