Hulagu Khan

Hulagu Khan was a grandson of Genghis Khan and the founder of the Ilkhanate in Iran. Sent west by his brother Möngke, he destroyed the Nizari Ismaili strongholds and captured Baghdad in 1258, ending the Abbasid caliphate there and causing immense loss of life. His forces advanced into Syria but withdrew substantial troops after Möngke’s death. A remaining army was defeated by the Mamluks at Ain Jalut in 1260.

Hulagu appears in Conn Iggulden’s Conqueror series and in historical fiction about the Mongol invasions of the Islamic world. His campaign gives novelists scenes of siege engineering, diplomacy and catastrophic urban destruction. Portrayals often contrast his patronage of scholars and Christian connections within his household with the brutality of the conquest of Baghdad.

Cecelia Holland’s Heart of the World places Hulagu Khan within a narrative shaped by military command and battlefield decision-making, religion, belief and institutional authority, and political ambition and government.