Timur Storms Damascus

March 1401

The amir's siege engines cracked the Umayyad capital in weeks. Ibn Khaldun, trapped inside, was lowered over the wall in a basket to negotiate and left us the only eyewitness account of the conqueror's court. Timur burned the Great Mosque and carried the city's artisans east in chains. The destruction ended the city's fabled sword-making tradition, and Damascus steel production was lost to subsequent generations.