Mongke Khan

Mongke was the fourth Great Khan, the last to rule a united Mongol empire, and his death besieging a Chinese fortress ended the invasion of the Middle East and probably saved Egypt. He took power in 1251 in a coup against the descendants of Ogedei, with Batu's backing and his mother Sorghaghtani's organisation, and purged the losing branches thoroughly. He was a serious administrator: he ordered a census across the empire, reformed the tax system away from arbitrary requisition towards fixed assessment, and issued paper money. He also resumed expansion in two directions at once, sending Hulagu west - which produced the destruction of the Assassins and the sack of Baghdad in 1258 - and taking the war against Song China himself. He died at the siege of Diaoyu in Sichuan in August 1259, of dysentery or cholera or a wound; the sources disagree. Hulagu turned back from Syria with most of his army to attend the succession, leaving Kitbuqa with a fraction of it, and the Mamluks destroyed that force at Ain Jalut the following year. The succession war between Kublai and Ariq Boke split the empire permanently into four. William of Rubruck reached his court at Karakorum in 1254 as an envoy from Louis IX and left the fullest European description of the Mongols before Marco Polo, including a debate on religion that Mongke ordered between Christians, Muslims and Buddhists. Mongke told him that God had given men several fingers and likewise several ways. The empire never had a single ruler again after his death.

• Lived: 1209 CE – 1259 CE
• Nationality: Mongol
• Roles: monarch, military_leader