Mongol Executions Avoided Royal Bloodshed

The Mongols believed that spilling royal blood onto the ground could bring terrible natural disasters, so they developed bloodless ways to execute rulers and other dangerous figures. During the sack of Baghdad, Mongol ruler Hulegu reportedly had Abbasid caliph Al-Musta'sim wrapped in a carpet and trampled by horses, although another historical account says men beat him to death with their fists. After accusing a woman named Fatima of bewitching regent Toregene Khatun, the Mongols sewed up her orifices, wrapped her in felt, and threw her alive into a river to contain her bodily fluids. Another story claims they killed Otrar governor Inalchuq by pouring molten silver into his eyes and ears, but historians consider that account possibly apocryphal.

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