25. The Mongol Who Terrorized the Middle East
Hulagu (1217 – 1265) was a grandson of Genghis Khan and a younger brother of the Grand Khans Mongke and Kublai. He expanded the Mongol domain into Western Asia and the Middle East with a savagery that remains in the region’s memory to this day.
Hulagu destroyed Baghdad and extinguished the Abbasid Caliphate, wrecked medieval Persian culture, conquered Syria, and menaced Egypt and the surviving Crusader states. He also founded the Ilkhanate in Persia, a precursor of modern Iran.