This article is about the founder of the Ilkhanate. For the Chagatai khan, see Qara Hülegü. For the Xiongnu chanyu, see Hulugu. For other uses, see Halaku (disambiguation).
Hulegu was born to Tolui, one of Genghis Khan's sons, and Sorghaghtani Beki, an influential Keraite princess and a niece of Toghrul in 1217.[3] Not much is known of Hulegu's childhood except of an anecdote given in Jami' al-Tawarikh and he once met his grandfather Genghis Khan with Kublai in 1224.
Hulegu's brother Möngke Khan had been installed as Great Khan in 1251. Möngke charged Hulegu with leading a massive Mongol army to conquer or destroy the remaining Muslim states in southwestern Asia. Hulegu's campaign sought the subjugation of the Lurs of southern Iran,[3] the destruction of the Nizari Ismaili state (the Assassins), the submission or destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad, the submission or destruction of the Ayyubid states in Syria based in Damascus, and finally, the submission or destruction of the BahriMamluke Sultanate of Egypt.[4] Möngke ordered Hulegu to treat kindly those who submitted and utterly destroy those who did not. Hulegu vigorously carried out the latter part of these instructions.
Hulegu marched out with perhaps the largest Mongol army ever assembled – by order of Möngke, two-tenths of the empire's fighting men were gathered for Hulegu's army[5] in 1253. He arrived at Transoxiana in 1255. He easily destroyed the Lurs, and the Assassins surrendered their impregnable fortress of Alamut without a fight, accepting a deal that spared the lives of their people in early 1256. He chose Azerbaijan as his power base, while ordering Baiju to retreat to Anatolia. From at least 1257 onwards, Muslims and Christians of every major religious variety in Europe, the Middle East, and mainlandAsia were a part of Hulegu's army.[6]
Hulegu's Mongol army set out for Baghdad in November 1257. Once near the city he divided his forces to threaten the city on both the east and west banks of the Tigris. Hulegu demanded surrender, but the caliph, Al-Musta'sim, refused. Due to the treason of Abu Alquma, an advisor to Al-Muta'sim, an uprising in the Baghdad army took place and Siege of Baghdad began. The attacking Mongols broke dikes and flooded the ground behind the caliph's army, trapping them. Much of the army was slaughtered or drowned.
The Mongols under Chinese general Guo Kan laid siege to the city on 29 January 1258,[7] constructing a palisade and a ditch and wheeling up siege engines and catapults. The battle was short by siege standards. By 5 February the Mongols controlled a stretch of the wall. The caliph tried to negotiate but was refused. On 10 February Baghdad surrendered. The Mongols swept into the city on 13 February and began a week of destruction. The Grand Library of Baghdad, containing countless precious historical documents and books on subjects ranging from medicine to astronomy, was destroyed. Citizens attempted to flee but were intercepted by Mongol soldiers.
Death counts vary widely and cannot be easily substantiated: A low estimate is about 90,000 dead;[8] higher estimates range from 200,000 to a million.[9] The Mongols looted and then destroyed buildings. Mosques, palaces, libraries, hospitals—grand buildings that had been the work of generations—were burned to the ground. The caliph was captured and forced to watch as his citizens were murdered and his treasury plundered. Il Milione, a book on the travels of Venetian merchant Marco Polo, states that Hulegu starved the caliph to death, but there is no corroborating evidence for that. Most historians believe the Mongol and Muslim accounts that the caliph was rolled up in a rug and the Mongols rode their horses over him, as they believed that the earth would be offended if touched by royal blood. All but one of his sons were killed. Baghdad was a depopulated, ruined city for several centuries. Smaller states in the region hastened to reassure Hulegu of their loyalty, and the Mongols turned to Syria in 1259, conquering the Ayyubid dynasty and sending advance patrols as far ahead as Gaza.
A thousand squads of northern Chinese sappers accompanied Hulegu during his conquest of the Middle East.[10]
The Muslim scholar Ibn Kathir, who was born 45 lunar years after the event, records the following[11]:
Hulegu (left) imprisons the Caliph among his treasures to starve him to death. Medieval depiction from "Le livre des merveilles", 15th century.
This year [656 AH] began with the Mongol armies laying siege to Baghdad, accompanied by the two commanders leading the vanguard of the Mongol Sultan Hulagu Khan’s forces. Reinforcements from the ruler of Mosul came to assist the Mongols against the people of Baghdad, along with supplies, gifts, and offerings. All this was out of fear for himself from the Mongols and to ingratiate himself with them—may God disgrace them. Baghdad was fortified, and catapults, trebuchets, and other defensive equipment were set up, though none could avert the decree of God Almighty, as mentioned in the tradition: "Precaution does not avert destiny," and as God Almighty says: "Indeed, the decree of Allah, when it comes, will not be delayed" (Quran 71:4) and "Indeed, Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. And when Allah intends for a people ill, there is no repelling it. And they have besides Him no protector" (Quran 13:11).
The Mongols surrounded the Caliph’s palace and began pelting it with arrows from all sides until one struck a concubine of the Caliph. She was playing before him and making him laugh, one of his favored women named Arfa, a maidservant. A stray arrow struck her as she danced before him, killing her. The Caliph was deeply disturbed and greatly alarmed by this. He had the arrow brought to him, and inscribed on it were the words: "When He [God] decrees His command and destiny, He takes away the wisdom of the wise." This prompted the Caliph to order heightened precautions, and more screens were erected around the Caliph’s palace.
Hulagu Khan arrived with his full army, numbering around 200,000 soldiers, in Baghdad on the 12th of Muharram of that year. He harbored intense anger toward the Caliph because of previous matters that God had decreed and ordained. When Hulagu set out from Hamadan towards Iraq, the vizier Mu'ayyid ad-Din Muhammad ibn Al-Alqami advised the Caliph to send lavish gifts to Hulagu to pacify him and avert his intentions against their lands. However, the Caliph’s commander Duwaidar Al-Saghir Aybak and others dissuaded him, accusing the vizier of using this as a ploy to appease the Mongol ruler with bribes. Consequently, the Caliph sent only modest gifts, which Hulagu dismissed as insignificant. Hulagu then demanded that the Caliph send him Duwaidar and Suleiman Shah, but the Caliph ignored him and did not comply, leading to Hulagu’s advance on Baghdad.
Hulagu’s godless, wicked, oppressive, and ruthless forces surrounded Baghdad from both its western and eastern sides. Baghdad’s army was vastly outnumbered and dispirited, with fewer than 10,000 cavalrymen, weak and destitute. Most of the troops had been dismissed from their posts, with many begging in markets and at the doors of mosques. Poets composed lamentations about their plight, mourning the state of Islam and its people.
The vizier Ibn Al-Alqami, a Shiite, was accused of orchestrating this calamity. The previous year, fierce fighting between Sunnis and Shiites had erupted in Baghdad, during which the district of Karkh and the homes of the Shiites, including those of the vizier’s relatives, were looted. This embittered the vizier, who allegedly conspired to bring about the catastrophic events that unfolded, the likes of which had never been recorded in the history of Baghdad. He was the first to meet the Mongols, leaving with his family, companions, and servants to join Hulagu Khan. He then returned to Baghdad and persuaded the Caliph to surrender and meet Hulagu in person, proposing a treaty whereby half of Iraq’s revenues would go to the Mongols and the other half to the Caliph.
The Caliph, compelled by circumstances, left with 700 men, including judges, scholars, Sufi leaders, prominent officials, and nobles. Upon approaching Hulagu’s camp, all but 17 individuals were denied access to Hulagu. The rest were dismounted, looted, and killed. The Caliph was brought before Hulagu and interrogated on various matters. The Caliph reportedly stammered in fear at the humiliation and tyranny he witnessed. He was then sent back to Baghdad with Nasir Al-Din Al-Tusi, Ibn Al-Alqami, and others. The Caliph was stripped of vast amounts of gold, jewelry, and precious items from the palace.
That group of Shiites, along with other hypocrites, advised Hulagu against reconciliation; the vizier argued that a truce based on shared revenues would only last a year or two before the situation returned to its former state. They encouraged Hulagu to execute the Caliph. Hulagu eventually ordered the Caliph’s execution, allegedly upon the counsel of Ibn Al-Alqami and Al-Tusi. [...] So when Hulagu came [to Baghdad], he was hesitant to kill the Caliph, but the vizier convinced him. The Caliph was reportedly killed by being trampled while wrapped in a sack, so as not to spill his blood, as they feared vengeance. Others say he was strangled or drowned—God knows best. Thus, they incurred the sin of killing the Caliph and the many scholars, judges, nobles, and leaders of Baghdad [...].
The Mongols then unleashed their wrath upon the city, massacring everyone they could find—men, women, children, elderly, and young alike. Many sought refuge in wells, latrines, and waste pits, hiding for days without emerging. Groups of people barricaded themselves in caravanserais, locking the doors, but the Mongols broke in, either by force or by fire. They pursued the people to rooftops, killing them and causing blood to flow through the gutters and streets. The same horrors occurred in mosques, madrasas, and Sufi lodges. None were spared except the dhimmis—Jews, Christians, and those who sought refuge with them or in the house of the vizier Ibn Al-Alqami—and a group of merchants who secured safety by paying hefty bribes.
Baghdad, once the most flourishing of cities, was left in ruins, inhabited only by a few who lived in fear, hunger, and humiliation. Before these events, Ibn Al-Alqami had worked to dismiss soldiers and remove their names from the military registry. During the last years of Al-Mustansir’s reign, the army had numbered nearly 100,000 fighters, including distinguished commanders of near-royal stature. Through Ibn Al-Alqami’s efforts, this number dwindled to only 10,000. He then corresponded with the Mongols, encouraging them to seize the land, revealing the truth of the situation, and exposing the weakness of the defenders. All this was allegedly driven by his ambition to eradicate Sunnism entirely, establish Shiism, and install a Fatimid Caliphate while exterminating scholars and jurists.
But God Almighty’s will prevails. Ibn Al-Alqami’s schemes rebounded against him, and he was disgraced after his period of glory. He was reduced to being a mere servant to the Mongols after having been a vizier to the Caliphs. He bore the sin of the countless men, women, and children slain in Baghdad. Ultimate judgment belongs to God, the Exalted, the Great, the Lord of the heavens and the earth.
[...]
There was disagreement among people regarding the number of Muslims killed in Baghdad during this calamity. Some estimated 800,000, others said 1,800,000, and still others claimed the death toll reached two million. To God we belong, and to Him we shall return. There is no power or might except with God, the Almighty, the Wise. The Mongols entered Baghdad at the end of Muharram, and the slaughter of its inhabitants continued for forty days.
[...]
The senior officials of the state were executed one by one, including [...] a group of Sunni leaders and prominent figures of the city. Abbasid men were often summoned from the Caliph's palace along with their children, wives, and concubines, only to be taken to the Khalal Cemetery, opposite the viewing platform, where they were slaughtered like camels, and the Mongols would choose whom to enslave from among their daughters and concubines.
[...] Preachers, imams, and Quran reciters were killed, and mosques, congregational prayers, and Friday prayers were suspended for months in Baghdad. The vizier Ibn Al-Alqami—may God disgrace and curse him—attempted to abolish mosques, schools, and Sufi lodges in Baghdad, intending to replace them with shrines and centers of Shiite influence. He also sought to build a grand Shiite school to propagate their teachings and doctrines. However, God Almighty did not allow him to achieve this. Instead, God stripped him of His blessings, shortened his lifespan, and caused his death a few months after this tragedy. His son followed him shortly thereafter, and both were united—but God knows best—in the lowest depths of Hell.
When the predetermined events came to an end and the forty days had passed, Baghdad was left desolate, its structures abandoned, with only a few survivors. Corpses lay in the streets like hills, and the rain fell upon them, disfiguring their remains and causing the stench of decay to fill the city. The foul air led to a severe plague, which spread to other regions, including the Levant, causing widespread death due to the altered atmosphere and the corrupted wind. As a result, famine, disease, and mass fatalities afflicted the people.
When peace was finally declared in Baghdad, those who had been hiding underground in tunnels, latrines, and graves emerged, resembling the dead exhumed from their tombs. Many failed to recognize one another; fathers could not recognize their sons, nor brothers their siblings. The survivors were then struck by a severe plague, further decimating them until they joined the earlier victims under the earth. All were united beneath the soil by the decree of the One who knows the secrets and what is hidden. There is no deity but Him; He has the best of names.
In 1260 Mongol forces combined with those of their Christian vassals in the region, including the army of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia under Hethum I, King of Armenia and the Franks of Bohemond VI of Antioch. This force conquered Muslim Syria, a domain of the Ayyubid dynasty. They captured Aleppo by siege and, under the Christian general Kitbuqa, seized Damascus on 1 March 1260.[a] A Christian Mass was celebrated in the Umayyad Mosque and numerous mosques were profaned. Many historical accounts describe the three Christian rulers Hethum, Bohemond, and Kitbuqa entering the city of Damascus together in triumph,[14][15] though some modern historians such as David Morgan have questioned this story as apocryphal.[16]
The invasion effectively destroyed the Ayyubids, which was until then a powerful dynasty that had ruled large parts of the Levant, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula. The last Ayyubid king, An-Nasir Yusuf, had been killed by Hulegu this same year.[17] With Baghdad ravaged and Damascus weakened, the center of Islamic power shifted to the Mamluk sultan's capital of Cairo.
Hulegu intended to send forces southward through Palestine toward Cairo. So he had a threatening letter delivered by an envoy to the Mamluk Sultan Qutuz in Cairo demanding that Qutuz open his city or it would be destroyed like Baghdad. Then, because food and fodder in Syria had become insufficient to supply his full force, and because it was a regular Mongol practice to move troops to the cooler highlands for the summer,[18] Hulegu withdrew his main force to Iran near Azerbaijan, leaving behind one tumen (10,000 men or less) under Kitbuqa, accompanied by Armenian, Georgian, and Frankish volunteers, which Hulegu considered sufficient. Hulegu then personally departed for Mongolia to play his role in the imperial succession conflict occasioned by the death some eight months earlier of Great Khan Möngke. But upon receiving news of how few Mongols now remained in the region, Qutuz quickly assembled his well-trained and equipped 20,000-strong army at Cairo and invaded Palestine.[19][unreliable source?] He then allied himself with a fellow Mamluk leader, Baybars in Syria, who not only needed to protect his own future from the Mongols but was eager to avenge for Islam the Mongol capture of Damascus, looting of Baghdad, and conquest of Syria.
The Mongols, for their part, attempted to form a Frankish-Mongol alliance with (or at least, demand the submission of) the remnant of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, now centered on Acre, but Pope Alexander IV had forbidden such an alliance. Tensions between Franks and Mongols also increased when Julian of Sidon caused an incident resulting in the death of one of Kitbuqa's grandsons. Angered, Kitbuqa had sacked Sidon. The Barons of Acre, contacted by the Mongols, had also been approached by the Mamluks, seeking military assistance against the Mongols. Although the Mamluks were traditional enemies of the Franks, the Barons of Acre recognized the Mongols as the more immediate menace. Instead of taking sides, the Crusaders opted for a position of cautious neutrality between the two forces. In an unusual move, however, they allowed the Egyptian Mamluks to march northward without hindrance through Crusader territory and even let them camp near Acre to resupply.
When news arrived that the Mongols had crossed the Jordan River in 1260, Sultan Qutuz and his forces proceeded southeast toward the 'Spring of Goliath' (Known in Arabic as 'Ain Jalut') in the Jezreel Valley. They met the Mongol army of about 12,000 in the Battle of Ain Jalut and fought relentlessly for many hours. The Mamluk leader Baybars mostly implemented hit-and-run tactics in an attempt to lure the Mongol forces into chasing him. Baybars and Qutuz had hidden the bulk of their forces in the hills to wait in ambush for the Mongols to come into range. The Mongol leader Kitbuqa, already provoked by the constant fleeing of Baybars and his troops, decided to march forwards with all his troops on the trail of the fleeing Egyptians. When the Mongols reached the highlands, Egyptians appeared from hiding, and the Mongols found themselves surrounded by enemy forces as the hidden troops hit them from the sides and Qutuz attacked the Mongol rear. Estimates of the size of the Egyptian army range from 24,000 to 120,000. The Mongols broke free of the trap and even mounted a temporarily successful counterattack, but their numbers had been depleted to the point that the outcome was inevitable. Refusing to surrender, the whole Mongol army that had remained in the region, including Kitbuqa, were cut down and killed that day. The battle of Ain Jalut established a high-water mark for the Mongol conquest.
After the succession was settled and his brother Kublai Khan was established as Great Khan,
Hulegu returned to his lands by 1262. When he massed his armies to attack the Mamluks and avenge the defeat at Ain Jalut, however, he was instead drawn into civil war with Batu Khan's brother Berke. Berke Khan, a Muslim convert and the grandson of Genghis Khan, had promised retribution in his rage after Hulegu's sack of Baghdad and allied himself with the Mamluks. He initiated a large series of raids on Hulegu's territories, led by Nogai Khan. Hulegu 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. In retaliation for his failure, Hulegu killed Berke's ortogh, and Berke did the same in return.[20]
Even while Berke was Muslim, out of Mongol brotherhood he at first resisted the idea of fighting Hulegu. He said, "Mongols are killed by Mongol swords. If we were united, then we would have conquered all of the world." But the economic situation of the Golden Horde due to the actions of the Ilkhanate led him to declare jihad because the Ilkhanids were hogging the wealth of North Iran and because of the Ilkhanate's demands for the Golden Horde not to sell slaves to the Mamluks.[21]
Hulegu's mother Sorghaghtani successfully navigated Mongol politics, arranging for all of her sons to become Mongol leaders. She was a Christian of the Church of the East (often referred to as "Nestorianism") and Hulegu was friendly to Christianity. Hulegu's favorite wife, Doquz Khatun, was also a Christian, as was his closest friend and general, Kitbuqa. Hulegu sent multiple communications to Europe in an attempt to establish a Franco-Mongol alliance against the Muslims. In 1262, he sent his secretary Rychaldus and an embassy to "all kings and princes overseas". The embassy was apparently intercepted in Sicily by Manfred, King of Sicily, who was allied with the Mamluk Sultanate and in conflict with Pope Urban IV, and Rychaldus was returned by ship.[22]
On 10 April 1262, Hulegu sent a letter, through John the Hungarian, to Louis IX of France, offering an alliance.[23] It is unclear whether the letter ever reached Louis IX in Paris – the only manuscript known to have survived was in Vienna, Austria.[24] The letter stated Hulegu's intention to capture Jerusalem for the benefit of the Pope and asked for Louis to send a fleet against Egypt:
From the head of the Mongol army, anxious to devastate the perfidious nation of the Saracens, with the good-will support of the Christian faith (...) so that you, who are the rulers of the coasts on the other side of the sea, endeavor to deny a refuge for the Infidels, your enemies and ours, by having your subjects diligently patrol the seas.
Despite many attempts, neither Hulegu nor his successors were able to form an alliance with Europe, although Mongol culture in the West was in vogue in the 13th century. Many new-born children in Italy were named after Mongol rulers, including Hulegu: names such as Can Grande ("Great Khan"), Alaone (Hulegu), Argone (Arghun), and Cassano (Ghazan) are recorded.[26]
Bulughan agha – married Jorma Güregen, son of Jochi (from Tatar tribe, brother of Nukdan khatun) and Chechagan Khatun, daughter of Temüge (Otchi Noyon)
Hulegu Khan fell seriously ill in January 1265 and died the following month on the banks of Zarrineh River (then called Jaghatu) and was buried on Shahi Island in Lake Urmia. His funeral was the only Ilkhanate funeral to feature human sacrifice.[29] His tomb has never been found.[30]
Hulegu Khan laid the foundations of the Ilkhanate and thus paved the way for the later Safavid dynastic state, and ultimately the modern country of Iran. Hulegu's conquests also opened Iran to both European influence from the west and buddhist influence from the east. Thus, combined with patronage from his successors, would develop Iran's distinctive excellence in architecture. Under Hulegu's dynasty, Iranian historians began writing in Persian rather than Arabic.[31] It is recorded however that he converted to Buddhism as he neared death,[32] against the will of Doquz Khatun.[33] The erection of a Buddhist temple at Ḵoy testifies his interest in that religion.[3] Recent translations of various Tibetan monks' letters and epistles to Hulegu confirms that he was a lifelong Buddhist, following the Kagyu school.[34]
^"On 1 March Kitbuqa entered Damascus at the head of a Mongol army. With him were the King of Armenia and the Prince of Antioch. The citizens of the ancient capital of the Caliphate saw for the first time for six centuries three Christian potentates ride in triumph through their streets".[14]
^Vaziri, Mostafa (2012). "Buddhism during the Mongol Period in Iran". Buddhism in Iran: An Anthropological Approach to Traces and Influences. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 111–131. doi:10.1057/9781137022943_7. ISBN9781137022943.
^Josef W. Meri (2005). Josef W. Meri (ed.). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Psychology Press. p. 510. ISBN0-415-96690-6. Retrieved 28 November 2011. This called for the employment of engineers to engage in mining operations, to build siege engines and artillery, and to concoct and use incendiary and explosive devices. For instance, Hulagu, who led Mongol forces into the Middle East during the second wave of the invasions in 1250, had with him a thousand squads of engineers, evidently of north Chinese (or perhaps Khitan) provenance.
^Ibn Kathir. Al-Bidaya wa Al-Nihaya [The Beginning and the End] (in Arabic). Vol. 15. Dar Ibn Kathir. pp. 312–317.
^"In May 1260, a Syrian painter gave a new twist to the iconography of the Exaltation of the Cross by showing Constantine and Helena with the features of Hulegu and his Christian wife Doquz Khatun" in Cambridge History of Christianity Vol. 5 Michael Angold p. 387 Cambridge University PressISBN0-521-81113-9
^Le Monde de la Bible N. 184 July–August 2008, p. 43
^Pow, Lindsey Stephen (2012). Deep Ditches and Well-Built Walls: a Reappraisal of the Mongol Withdrawal from Europe in 1242 (Master's thesis). University of Calgary. p. 32. OCLC879481083.
^Corbyn, James (2015). In What Sense Can Ayn Jalut be Viewed as a Decisive Engagement? (Master's thesis). Royal Holloway University of London. pp. 7–9.
^Enkhbold, Enerelt (2019). "The role of the ortoq in the Mongol Empire in forming business partnerships". Central Asian Survey. 38 (4): 531–547. doi:10.1080/02634937.2019.1652799. S2CID203044817.
Atwood, Christopher P. (2004). The Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire. Facts on File, Inc. ISBN0-8160-4671-9.
Boyle, J.A., (Editor). The Cambridge History of Iran: Volume 5, The Saljuq and Mongol Periods. Cambridge University Press; Reissue ed., (1968). ISBN0-521-06936-X.
Morgan, David. The Mongols. Blackwell Publishers; Reprint ed., 1990. ISBN0-631-17563-6. Best for an overview of the wider context of medieval Mongol history and culture.
Runciman, Steven (1987). A History of the Crusades: Volume 3, The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9780521347723.
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