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Hulagu Khan
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source- This article is about the founder of the Ilkhanate. For the head of the Chagatai khanate, please see Qara Hülëgü
Background
In 1255, Hulagu, the child of Tolui and Sorghaghtani Beki, was sent by his brother Mongke (who was Great Khan from 1251-1258) to conquer or destroy the remaining Muslim states in southwestern Asia.Hulagu's campaign sought the subjugation of the Lurs, a people of southern Iran; the destruction of the Hashshashin sect; the submission or destruction of the Abbasid caliphate; the submission or destruction of the Ayyubid states in Syria; and finally, the submission or destruction of the Bahri Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. Mongke Khan ordered Hulagu to treat kindly those who submitted, and utterly destroy those who did not. Hulagu vigorously carried out the latter part of these instructions.
Christian leanings
Hulagu told the Dominican missionary at his court David of Ashby that he had strong sympathies towards Christianity. Hulagu's mother was a Nestorian Christian, as was his wife, Dokuz Khatun, and his closest friend and general, Kitbuqa. He also told the Armenian historian Vartan Arewelc'i in 1264 that he had been a Christian since birth. It is recorded however that he resorted to Buddhism as he neared his death, against the will of his Christian wife Dokuz Khatun.Children
Hulagu had at least three children: Abaqa, Ilkhan of Persia from 1265-1282, Taraqai, whose son Baydu became Ilkhan in 1295, and Teguder Ahmad, Ilkhan from 1282-1284.The Assassins and marching on Baghdad
Hulagu marched out with perhaps the largest Mongol army ever assembled – by order of Mongke Khan, one in ten fighting men in the entire empire were gathered for Hulagu's army. He easily destroyed the Lurs, and his reputation so frightened the Assassins (also known as the Hashshashin) that they surrendered their impregnable fortress of Alamut to him without a fight.
Battle of Baghdad (1258)
Hulagu probably always intended to take Baghdad, which the Mongols had been meaning to attack for over ten years (see Eljigidei), but he used the caliph's refusal to send troops to him as a pretext for conquest, since his brother the Great Khan had ordered him to be merciful to those who submitted.
The Mongol army, led by Hulagu Khan and his top general Guo Kan, set out for Baghdad in November of 1257. Hulagu demanded surrender; the caliph refused, warning the Mongols that they faced the wrath of God if they attacked the caliph. Hulagu's forces besieged the city, which then surrendered on February 10, leading to a week-long massacre by the Mongols, regarded as one of the most devastating events in the history of Islam.
Conquest of Syria (1260)
After Baghdad, in 1260, Mongol forces combined with those of their Christian vassals in the region, such as the army of Cilician Armenia under Hetoum I, and the Franks of Bohemond VI. This force then conquered Muslim Syria, domain of the Ayyubid dynasty. They took together the city of Aleppo, and on March 1, 1260, the Mongols with the Armenians and the Franks of Antioch took Damascus, under the Christian Mongol general Kitbuqa. Many historical accounts describe the story that at the capture of Damascus, the three Christian rulers (Hetoum, Bohemond, and Kitbuqa) entered the city of Damascus together in triumph, and great Christian celebrations were made. However, some modern historians have questioned this story as apocryphal. Mass was celebrated in the Grand Mosque of the Umayyads (the former cathedral of Saint John the Baptist),, and numerous mosques were profaned.
This invasion effectively destroyed the Ayyubid Dynasty, theretofore powerful ruler of large parts of the Levant, Egypt and Arabia. The last Ayyubid king An-Nasir Yusuf was killed by Hulagu in 1260. With the Islamic power centers of Baghdad and Damascus gone, the center of Islamic power transferred to the Egyptian Mamluks in Cairo.
After the victory, Hulagu gave numerous gifts to Bohemond VI, including some of the conquered cities, including Lattakieh. But then because of a new internal conflict in Turkestan, Hulagu had to stop the Mongol invasion before it reached Egypt, and departed with the bulk of his forces, leaving only about 10,000 Mongol horsemen in Syria under Kitbuqa to occupy the conquered territory, including Nablus and Gaza in the south, as well as the fortress of Ajlun, east of River Jordan. The Mongols engaged in raids southward towards Egypt, reaching as far as Ascalon and Jerusalem, and a Mongol garrison of about 1,000 was placed in Gaza, with another garrison located in Naplouse.
The death of Mongke forced Hulagu and most of his army to withdraw. The succession crisis that followed was the most ruinous to date. Indeed, although the succession was finally settled by imprisonment of one of his brothers, and another elevated to Great Khan, (Kublai Khan), the truth is that after 1258 there was no unified Mongol Empire, but four separate kingdoms, including the Il-Khanate of Persia established by Hulagu.
Battle of Ayn Jalut (1260)
In the meantime, the Mongols led by Kitbuqa had fallen out with the crusaders holding the coast of Palestine, and the Mamluks were able to make a passive alliance with them, pass through their territory, and destroy the remnants of the Mongol army at Battle of Ayn Jalut. Palestine and Syria were permanently lost, the border remaining the Tigris for the duration of Hulagu's dynasty.Later campaigns
Hulagu returned to his lands by 1262, after the succession was finally settled with Kublai as the last Great Khan, but instead of being able to avenge his defeats, was drawn into civil war with Batu Khan's brother Berke. Berke Khan, a Muslim convert, had promised retribution in his rage after Hulagu's sack of Baghdad, and allied himself with the Mamluks.1262 embassy and letter to Louis IX
On April 10, 1262, Hulagu sent through John the Hungarian a new letter to the French king Louis IX, offering again an alliance. The letter explained that two years before, in 1260, Hulagu had to withdraw the bulk of his army from Syria due to the hot weather and the lack of provisions and grass for the horses. The letter mentioned Hulagu's intention to capture Jerusalem for the benefit of the Pope, and asked for Louis to send a fleet against Egypt:It is unclear whether the letter ever reached Louis IX in Paris, as the only known manuscript survived in Vienna, Austria.
Hulagu apparently sent an embassy to "all kings and princes overseas" in 1262 as well. The secretary Rychaldus accompanied the embassy, and made a report about it during the Second Council of Lyon in 1274. However the embassy was apparently intercepted in Sicily by King Manfred, who was allied with the Mamluks and in conflict with Pope Urban IV, and was returned by ship.
When Hulagu massed his armies to attack the Mamluks and avenge Ain Jalut, Berke Khan initiated a series of raids in force led by Nogai Khan which drew Hulagu north to meet him. Hulagu Khan suffered a severe defeat in an attempted invasion north of the Caucasus in 1263. This was the first open war between Mongols, and signaled the end of the unified empire.
The Polos
Niccolò and Maffeo Polo travelled to the realm of Hulagu and stayed in the city of Bukhara, in modern day Uzbekistan, where the family lived and traded for three years from 1261 to 1264.In 1264, Nicolò and Maffio joined up with an embassy sent by the Ilkhan Hulagu to his brother, the Grand Khan Kubilai. In 1266, they reached the seat of the Grand Khan in the Mongol capital Khanbaliq, present day Beijing, China.
Death of Hulagu Khan
Hulagu Khan died in 1265 and was buried in the Kaboudi Island in Lake Urmia. His funeral was the only Ilkhanid funeral to feature human sacrifice. He was succeeded by his son Abaqa, thus establishing his line.The 13th century saw such a vogue of Mongol things in the West that many new-born children in Italy were named after Mongol rulers, including Hulagu: names such as Can Grande ("Great Khan"), Alaone (Hulagu), Argone (Arghun) or Cassano (Ghazan) are recorded.
See also
Notes
References
- Boyle, J.A., (Editor). The Cambridge History of Iran: Volume 5, The Saljuq and Mongol Periods . Cambridge University Press; Reissue edition (January 1, 1968). ISBN 0-521-06936-X. Perhaps the best overview of the history of the il-khanate. Covers politics, economics, religion, culture and the arts and sciences. Also has a section on the Isma'ilis, Hulagu's nemesis.
- Encyclopedia Iranica has scholar-reviewed articles on a wide range of Persian subjects, including Hulagu.
- Morgan, David. The Mongols. Blackwell Publishers; Reprint edition, April 1990. ISBN 0-631-17563-6. Best for an overview of the wider context of medieval Mongol history and culture.
- Atwood, Christopher P. (2004). The Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire. Facts on File, Inc. ISBN 0-8160-4671-9.
External links
- A long article about Hulagu's conquest of Baghdad, written by Ian Frazier, appeared in the April 25, 2005 issue of The New Yorker.
- An Osama bin Laden tape in which Osama bin Laden compares Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell to Hulagu and his attack on Baghdad. Dated November 12, 2002.
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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 10:02:41 PDT (GMT -0700)
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