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I RAQ ’ S H ISTORY TO 1990 39

By the end of the 19th century, widespread unrest had devel- oped in Mesopotamia. This occurred in part because of a land law that had been passed by the Ottoman government in 1858. Before passage of this law, the Arabs did not recognize private ownership of land. Those who used the land and could hold it occupied the land. But under the land law, the Ottoman government allowed people to register their claim to land, and the government would recognize them as the owners of the property. The land law affected the way power was distributed in the region. Traditionally, Arab sheikhs had ruled with the consent of The Mongols’ sack of Baghdad in 1258 was considerably more violent than this illustration from a Persian manuscript might indicate. The conquerors laid waste to the magnificent city and slaughtered most of its inhabitants. The Mongol leader, Hülegü Khan, even constructed a pyramid from the skulls of the dead.