Daily Medieval

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...

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...

After the death of Güyük Khan,  Batu Khan saw an opportunity to take the overlordship away from the Ögedei clan and bring it to his own lin...

Sorghaghtani Beki stood firm after the death of her husband: she would not re-marry into the family (as was often Mongol custom), even at t...

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

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...

Part 1 is here . Hulagu Khan did not execute the Abbasid leader, Caliph al-Musta'sim, immediately; he wanted him punished for his foolis...

The House of Wisdom was a marvelous repository of knowledge from all over the world. It also functioned as an informal university long befo...

Toregene (pictured here, with her name in Mongolian) has been called one of the most powerful women in history. Born into the Naiman tribe (...

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...

King Louis IX of France could not convince any of the rulers of Europe to accompany him on a Crusade to free Jerusalem, which had been reca...

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  ...