19. The Frightful Legacy of This Grandson of Genghis Khan is Remembered in the Middle East to This Day
Hulagu (1217 – 1265) was a grandson of the great Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan, and a younger brother of the Grand Khans Mongke and Kublai. He expanded the Mongol domain into Western Asia with horrific savagery that remains in the region’s memory to this day. Among other things, he destroyed Baghdad and extinguished the Abbasid Caliphate, conquered Syria, and menaced Egypt and the Crusader states. While at it, he also destroyed the culture of medieval Persian, and founded the Ilkhanate in Persia, a precursor of modern Iran.
Genghis Khan had invaded the Islamic Khwarezmian Empire of Central Asia in 1220, and within two years, crushed and conquered it in a campaign that brought the Mongols to eastern Persia. The Muslim world of Western Asia then caught a break for about three decades, as the Mongols refocused their energies against China, the Rus principalities, and Eastern Europe. That reprieve came to an end in 1251, was Hulagu was recognized by his brother the Grand Khan Mongke as ruler of the Ilkhanate in Persia, and was ordered to extend Mongol power into the Islamic world.