Hulagu Khan
Ilkhan of Persia
"I have come to destroy the strongholds of the wicked."
Biography
Hulagu Khan, another grandson of Genghis and brother of Kublai, led the great Mongol drive into the Islamic Middle East. In 1256 he destroyed the feared Order of the Assassins, storming their mountain fortress of Alamut. Two years later he marched on Baghdad, the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate and the intellectual capital of Islam. The fall and sack of Baghdad in 1258 was one of the most catastrophic events in Islamic history: the city was pillaged and burned, hundreds of thousands killed, the great libraries destroyed, and the last Caliph executed. Hulagu pressed on to take Aleppo and Damascus, but his advance was halted when the death of the Great Khan drew him east and his remaining army was destroyed by the Mamluks at Ain Jalut in 1260. Hulagu settled in Persia and founded the Ilkhanate, one of the four great divisions of the Mongol Empire, whose rulers would eventually convert to Islam.
Did you know?
He founded the Ilkhanate dynasty in Persia, whose later rulers adopted Islam — the faith their founder had so devastated.
Key Battles
The Siege of Baghdad
Mongol Empire victoryFebruary 1258 · 200,000 total casualties
The sack of Baghdad is often taken as the end of the Islamic Golden Age. The destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate, the slaughter of much of the city's population, and the ruin of its irrigation and learning dealt the medieval Islamic world a blow from which it never fully recovered, and it remains one of history's most infamous urban catastrophes.
Life Journey
Timeline
c. 1218
🌅 Birth
Born a grandson of Genghis Khan
1256
⚔️ Battle
Destroys the Assassins' fortress of Alamut
February 1258
⚔️ Battle
Sacks Baghdad; ends the Abbasid Caliphate
1265
✝️ Death
Dies in Persia, founder of the Ilkhanate