Mongols capture Bukhara

1219

The jewel of Transoxiana surrendered to Genghis Khan, who rode into the great Friday mosque and declared himself the scourge of God. Its books were fed to horses; its scholars dispersed; its craftsmen deported. Bukhara's golden age was over. The city that had produced Avicenna and al-Bukhari was reduced to a garrison town, its libraries' ashes blowing across the Silk Road for months.