Hulugu, grandson of Genghis (1217-1265) 23-04-2004

Text and pictures copied from: "The Mongol Warlords" by David Nicolle, pictures are made by Richard Hook, see Sources.

Relatively little is known about the early life of Hulegu. He was born around 1217 and was, like the Great Khan Kublai, a son of Tolui and a grandson of the world conqueror Genghis Khan. His name of Hulegu meant 'the one in excess' or 'the overflowing' and while his brother Kublai soon earned a reputation for intelligence, Hulegu's talents seem to have been more bellicose. The two boys were personally blooded by Genghis Khan in an ancient Mongol hunting ritual after making their first kills with a bow. But while the eleven-year-old Kublai only brought down a wild hare, the nine-year-old Hulegu bagged a wild mountain goat. Nevertheless Hulegu was given abetter education than most Mongol princes, as his mother had huge ambitions for her sons. He developed an interest in philosophy, alchemy and astrology and liked to surround himself with learned men. Yet he always remained unpredict-able and at times displayed appalling savagery. This cannot be put down solely to his Mongol heritage, for his brother Kublai grew into a remarkably tolerant and humane ruler. Perhaps it is true, as some chroniclers claimed, that Hulegu was epileptic and that this affected his temper.

Hulegu's Inheritance
Many years passed between Genghis Khan's descent upon the Muslim Middle East and Hulegu's arrival in the region where he would carve out his own claim to fame. Jalal al Din, last of the Khwarazmshahs, had kept up a desperate fight against the Mongols until his death in 1231 -murdered in the mountains ofKurdistan after his army melted away in despair. Yet Muslim resistance did not end, for two of Jalal al Din's former generals fought a guerrilla campaign around Nishapur for some time. Meanwhile the Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad still ruled Iraq and were even extending their influence now that the Khwarazmshahs had gone. The most dangerous foes still to defy the Mongols in Iran were, however, the Assassins in their mountain fastness south of the Caspian sea.
These Assassins were, in fact, an extreme Shi'a Islamic sect more properly called Isma'ilis. They had broken away from the Shi'a Muslims who ruled Egypt before the days of Saladin and they now controlled a series of castles in two of the most inaccessible regions of the Middle East. The Assassin headquarters was at Alamut, high in the Alburz range north-west of modern Tehran. Another branch of the Assassins, under the 'Old Man of the Mountain', held castles in the Syrian coastal range between Crusader and Saracen territory. The nickname of Assassin came from their supposed indulgence in hashish and entered various European languages through the Isma'ilis' terrifying use of murder to achieve their political or religious ends.
There is no doubt that the surviving population of conquered Iran was cruelly treated by its Mongol masters and the country was in a state of virtual chaos. A rudimentary administration had been set up by the governors Korguz and Arghun Aqa, the latter even restoring some devastated towns. Another man, who would later become Hulegu's most famous general, had meanwhile consolidated Mongol military control and had even captured some outlying Assassin castles. This was Kit-Buqa, a Nestorian Christian who was said to be descended from one of the Three Wise Men.
From the start the Mongols had allowed some local rulers to remain as vassals. Among these were the Afghan Karts, who now held Herat. This Kart dynasty would, in fact, outlast the Mongols themselves. In south-ern Iran other vassals struggled to maintain their autonomy in Kirman, Fars and Shiraz. Near Isfahan the Caliph of Baghdad's army had even defeated the invaders in battle, while numerous Mongol attempts to capture Isfahan failed until that city finally fell in 1237. The following year a Mongol army invaded Iraq but was again defeated by the Caliph's forces near Samarra. Although the Mongols immediately returned and conquered northern Iraq, the Caliph's record of resistance would have an influence on events just over twenty years later when Hulegu himself descended upon Baghdad.
During the intervening years, however, anew Caliph came to the throne. This weak and vacillating man, named al Musta'sim, was doomed to be the last of a line that stretched back five centuries and included such famous names as al Mansur and Harun al Rashid. The Mongol hold on northern Iraq now cut Baghdad off from the indepen-dent Muslim areas of Syria and Egypt, except by the virtually impassable Syrian desert. Al Musta'sim had also allowed the Caliph's small but efficient army to deteriorate while he ruled over a court riddled by factionalism and treachery. The once great city of Baghdad had shrunk to a series of separate and squabbling suburbs, frequently beyond the Caliph's control. Drainage systems had fallen into disrepair so that even these suburbs were frequently flooded. Nevertheless Baghdad remained an enormous city by medieval standards.
To the west, in Syria, the A yyubid descendants of Saladin still held power, though the country was divided among petty princes with al Nasir Yusufof Damascus and Aleppo as the most powerful. The coast was dominated by now drastically reduced Crusader States while in Egypt the Mamluks, one-time slave soldiers of the A yyubids, had seized control in 1250. Mongol armies had already penetrated Syria, being bought off beneath the walls of Aleppo inl244 and demanding a tribute of three thousand virgins from Bohemond V, the Crusader Prince of Antioch (Antakya). Bohemond proudly refused and as yet there was no question of the Crusaders seeing Mongols as potential allies against the surrounding Muslims. The Mongols were, in fact, regarded as barba-rous infidels and a serious military threat. Native Syrian Christians perhaps took a more positive view of the invaders than did the Catholic Crusader States. They knew that many Mongols were themselves Christians and followed rites similar to those of some Middle Eastern sects. For their part the Mongols viewed the Crusaders with caution and kept themselves informed of plans for any new Crusades.
Mongol raids continued, however. In 1252 one captured a valuable caravan taking six hundred loads of Egyptian sugar to Baghdad. Four years later a second Mongol defeat of the Saljuqs of Rum (Anatolia) confirmed the Saljuqs' status as vassals of the Mongol world empire and caused further alarm in Syria and the Crusader States. When Kiiyiik was proclaimed Great Khan in 1246 Saljuq princes, as well as Ayyubid, Abbasid, Isma'ili, Byzantine, Russian and Armenian delegations, hur-ried to bow at his feet. Christian Georgia was now a vassal of those Mongols who ruled southern Russia and who would later become known as the Golden Horde, while the Christian Armenians of Cilicia had also voluntarily placed themselves under Mongol suzereinty. By so doing, the Armenian King Hethoum hoped to win back lands lost to the Saljuqs and perhaps harness Mongol might to a great revival ofChristian fortunes throughout the Middle East. The Great Khan Mongke is even said to have promised Hethoum that he would destroy Baghdad and the Caliphate, described as the 'mortal enemy' of Christians. This, like the story that Mongke would restore the Holy Land to Christendom or that Hulegu himself made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, is a fable. Yet Hethoum and various other Eastern Christian leaders did try to sow the Mongol wind for their own advantage and in return reaped a whirlwind of Muslim vengeance.

The Final Days

Hulegu held his last quriltai near Tabriz in July 1264. It was an impressive gathering, attended by the Kings of Georgia and Armenia and by the Crusader Prince of Antioch. The Il-Khan's borders now stretched from the Amu Darya river to within 250 kilometres of Istanbul. Hulegu was even negotiating with the Byzantines for the hand of a Greek princess, Maria, the illegitimate daughter of the Emperor Michael Palaeologos. Just over six months later, however, the Destroyer of the Assassins and Conqueror of Baghdad was dead.
The first Il-Khan was buried near his assembled loot on the island fortress of Shahu Tala in Lake Urmia. Towards the end ofhis life Hulegu had shown great savagery but also a respect for civilization and, in particular, Islamic culture. At his death, however, some of the most primitive aspects of Mongol tribal tradition once again rose to the surface. Several of the most beautiful young women at Court were buried with the old conqueror, this being the last recorded example of human sacrifice at the funeral ofa prince of Genghis Khan's line. These sacrifices also make Hulegu's claim to have been a follower of the Buddha ring hollow. He was, in fact, probably a traditional Mongol shamanist with a superficial interest in Buddhism.
Later that summer Hulegu's devoted Christian wife, Doquz-khatun, also died. As a fervent Nestorian, the Khatun had been both protector and patron of the eastern Christians throughout Hulegu's reign. She helped all sects, but made no secret of her dislike of Islam. Small wonder, then, that the loss of this lady and even of her terrifying husband was mourned by Christians across much of the Middle East. Kirakos of Ganja, the Armenian chronicler, described them as having been 'another Constantine, another Helen'. The historian Bar Hebraeus, who had recently been elected head of the Jacobite Syriac Church, bemoaned their loss in fulsome phrases:

"In 1265 Hulegu, the King of Kings, departed from this world. The wisdom of this man, and his greatness of soul, and his wonderful actions are incomparable. And in the days of summer Doquz-khatun, the believing queen, departed, and great sorrow came to all the Christians throughout the world because of the departure of these two great lights who made the Christian religion triumphant."

Even the Muslim Persian chronicler al Juvayni wrote that Hulegu 'united in his person all the graces of kingly beneficence and all the wonder of royal kindness'. The eastern Christians had good reason to bewail Hulegu's death for, although the I1-Khans would continue to show them favour for a while, things would never be the same again. The ruling dynasty would become Muslim towards the end of the thirteenth century and would thereafter rapidly decline in power. After the death of Hulegu's great-great-grandson Abu Sa'id in 1335 the Mongol Il-Khanate would degenerate into chaos whereas its rival, the Golden Horde, would last in one form or another until its absorption by the Russian Empire in 1502.