Was the siege of baghdad really that bad?

...It was... Catastrophic... think about that folks...

Yes.

Are there any good sieges?

>>949238
It was bad.

But it didn't "dumb down" Islam. Baghdad was largely unimportant in the 1200's by that time, it was the capital of the dying -heck, dead- Abbasid caliphate, whose rule extends only around the city of Baghdad while Turkic lords run all over the place establishing overnight dynasties.

>>949259
this, Baghdad was flooded the year earlier and was wracked with sectarian violence between the Sunnis and Shi'ites afterwards. some of the Muslim sources even claim that the Shi'ite ulema were responsible for inciting Hulegu to attack Baghdad and kill the caliph, which doesn't seem too far fetched for the context