Hulegu

Grandson of Chingis Khan and the first ilkhan (r.1256- 65). His conquest of Samarkand (1255) and Persia and Iraq (1256-58) founded the Ilkhanate, and his sack of Baghdad in 1258 ended the Abbasid caliphate. In 1260 Hulegu took Damascus and Aleppo, but defeat at ‘Ain Jalut at the hands of the Mamlukes meant he could never dominate the Middle East.