Mongols destroy Merv and Nishapur

1221

The oasis cities of Khorasan were systematically exterminated. At Nishapur, avenging a Mongol prince killed at its walls, the victors reportedly stacked severed heads in separate pyramids for men, women, and children. Persian civilization's heartland would not recover for generations. The irony was bitter: Nishapur had been the hometown of Omar Khayyam, whose quatrains on life's brevity now read as prophecy.