Abbasid Demographics before the Mongols

Does anyone know what the population of Baghdad, and Lower Mesopotamia as a whole were before the Hulagu and his band of merry men killed everyone?
 
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No problem. If I find out anything more useful I'll pass it on.

Baghdad's losses specifically are harder to find, but it was subject to truly colossal damage, so it may be a good part of that.

The source say 1.50 million before the conquest, But I've got some sources that say Baghdad itself had 1.2-2 million people. What gives?
 
The source say 1.50 million before the conquest, But I've got some sources that say Baghdad itself had 1.2-2 million people. What gives?

Beats me. Hulegu (who has absolutely no reason to play down the numbers - the whole point is "I killed many, many people. Fear me, bitch.") apparently reported only 200,000 deaths - and its pretty clear he destroyed Baghdad for all intents and purposes based on all sources.

So I think the 1.2 million + is too high. But I'm not 100% sure of that.
 
Beats me. Hulegu (who has absolutely no reason to play down the numbers - the whole point is "I killed many, many people. Fear me, bitch.") apparently reported only 200,000 deaths - and its pretty clear he destroyed Baghdad for all intents and purposes based on all sources.

So I think the 1.2 million + is too high. But I'm not 100% sure of that.

Very strange. If the province of Diyala described by that source is near the same size as the current Diyala, it has a huge population. That's strange when considering that Iraq would only have a population 1.5 million.
 
The source say 1.50 million before the conquest, But I've got some sources that say Baghdad itself had 1.2-2 million people. What gives?

I'm pretty sure those are exaggerated. Baghdad at its peak may have had over a million, but that was back when it ruled the Islamic world: by 1200 it was ruling just Iraq and probably had no more than a third of its peak population.

Bruce
 
Very strange. If the province of Diyala described by that source is near the same size as the current Diyala, it has a huge population. That's strange when considering that Iraq would only have a population 1.5 million.

1.2 million in 800 AD, not the 1250s.
 
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