Massacre of Hamadan
مجزرة همذان
319 AH
After his nephew's defeat Mardawij sacked Hamadan — the talismanic stone lion already broken — forty thousand slain and the lured elders butchered at the musalla 1.
At a glance
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Overview
Al-Mas'udi relates that Mardawij ibn Ziyar marched from al-Rayy to Hamadhan after the people of the city had killed his nephew, the commander of his army. 1
Events
He camped at the Lion Gate. The people of Hamadhan had inherited the belief that Alexander built the city and that the stone lion was its talisman; it had been broken before the battle. About forty thousand were killed on the first day, according to the lower estimate, and he kept the sword going for three days. 1
Then he called for the sword to be lifted and granted safety to the elders and the respectable people. When they went out to the place of prayer, he ordered the Daylam to go round them with their lances, and they killed them. 1
The year in the data is 319 AH.
Sources
- Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi, p. 724-726
- Al-Mas'udi, Muruj al-dhahab wa-ma'adin al-jawhar, ed. Kamal Hasan Mar'i (al-Maktaba al-'Asriyya, 2005)
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Massacre of Hamadan”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/massacre-of-hamadan/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-18.