By Islam El Shazly
In 1260 CE the Mongol horde under Hulagu ravaged Syria, The Great Mosque and the Citadel of Aleppo were razed and most of the inhabitants were killed or sold into slavery.
In 1400 CE Timur, also known as Tamerlane or Timūr-e Lang, the Turco-Mongol conqueror, invaded Syria, sacked Aleppo then besieged and captured Damascus. The Umayyad Mosque was razed and most of the inhabitants were massacred, the rest were sold into slavery. The lucky ones were the artisans; they were spared and sent to Samarqand, the capital of the Timurid Empire. The unlucky ones had their heads piled up in a field outside the north-east corner of the walls, where a city square still bears the name burj al-ru’us, literally “the tower of heads”. Read more…
