Daily Medieval

Arghun Khan (1258 - 1291) was the son of Abaqa Khan and ruler of the Ilkhanate, in the southwestern part of the Mongol Empire. Arghun (shown...

After spending time at the court of Kublai Khan , Niccolò and Maffeo Polo tried to get home to Venice and to deliver a letter from Kublai t...

Marco Polo didn't get to China on his own; he was taken there as a young man by his father and uncle, who had been there before. Why? B...

When Marco Polo returned to Venice after two decades of traveling in the East, he signed up to join the war between Venice and Genoa. Incarc...

Marco Polo was not the first European to visit China—far from it—but he was the first to write a detailed account of his time there. And he ...

Now we approach the part that everyone knows about Kublai Khan even if they don't know anything about Kublai Khan. Kublai was emperor o...

With the Toluid Civil War concluded, Kublai Khan still had troubles dealing with the other khanates descended from Genghis, but I'm go...

In the lead up to the Toluid Civil War , Kublai Khan had the upper hand. He controlled most of the supply lines that would have helped his ...

When Kublai found out that his younger brother Ariq Böke was making plans to become Grand Khan while Kublai was off subduing the Song Dynas...

Probably the best-known Khan to modern audiences after Genghis Khan is Kublai Khan, the one we hear about because of Marco Polo. Kublai was ...

Güyük Khan was making plans to conquer Europe. He had been part of the invasion of Eastern and Central Europe, and wished to continue. The M...

The youngest son of Geghis Khan, Tolui, married a Christian woman named Sorghaghtani Beki. They had similarly noble backgrounds. Sorghaghtan...

The death of Möngke Khan in 1259 led to the Toluid Civil War, a fight between two of the remaining sons of Toluid over who would succeed Mön...

Hulagu Khan was a grandson of Genghis Khan (Genghis had 43 grandchildren—known ones, that is, because he slept with a lot  of women in his l...

Möngke Khan (11 January 1209 - 11 August 1259) was the son of Tolui (c.1190 - c.1232), the youngest son of Genghis Khan. Möngke had been suc...

There were many Khans in the Mongol Empire, but none quite like Tëmur. Tëmur was a grandson of Kublai Khan, born on 15 October, 1265; his...

[ source ] The Mongols were expanding westward. Under Genghis Khan they had taken a huge chunk out of Asia, from what is now the Koreas...

Among the western Europeans who traveled eastward and wrote of the wonders of "The Orient," we have mentioned William Rubruck  ...

Today is the anniversary of the death of Kublai Khan (1215 - 1294), grandson of Genghis Khan . During his 34-year reign (he was crowned on...

Today is the anniversary of the death of Pope Gregory X. He has already been mentioned in Daily Medieval, but let's take a closer look a...