Hulagu

Hulagu Khan (c. 1217–1265) was a Mongol ruler, grandson of Genghis Khan and son of Tolui and Sorghaghtani Beki. He founded and ruled the Ilkhanate in Persia from 1256 to 1265, a western Mongol successor state that eventually encompassed much of Iran, Azerbaijan, and parts of Iraq and Syria.

He led the Mongol campaigns in the Middle East that established Mongol rule there after northerly campaigns against the Khwarezmian realm and other powers. In 1258, Hulagu's forces captured Baghdad, slaying the last Abbasid caliph, Al-Musta'sim, and effectively ending the Abbasid Caliphate as a political power. The sack of Baghdad marked a turning point in Middle Eastern history and the Abbasid era. Hulagu continued campaigns into the Caucasus and along the eastern Mediterranean coast, and in 1260 his forces pressed into Syria and Palestine, despite earlier successes, which were halted by the Mamluk resistance at Ain Jalut in Galilee. After this, Hulagu withdrew to Persia to consolidate the Ilkhanate's frontiers.

Religiously and administratively, Hulagu maintained the pragmatic tolerance common to the Mongol ruling class, governing a diverse empire that included Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists. His reign set the pattern for the Ilkhanate's later rule, and his death in 1265 permitted his successors to push Islam more deeply into the realm, culminating in the Islamization of the Ilkhanate under Ghazan in 1295.

Hulagu's conquests reshaped the political map of the Middle East, ending the Abbasid political axis and laying the groundwork for a long Mongol presence in Iran and the surrounding regions.