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Khubilai Hūbìliè dàhàn ​忽必烈大汗 1215–1294 Founder of the

Born into a ruling Mongol family, Khubilai During this period Khubilai carefully recruited talent Khan began his career as a minor prince who from various quarters, not exclusively Chinese, to build had been granted land in ­present-­day Inner his own coterie of advisors. These allies drew the jealousy , and therefore always had a direct of his brother, who removed Khubilai as viceroy and came near to eliminating him. Later, after the sudden death of interest in north China. Years of opposition Möngke while campaigning in 1259, these same advisors from his brothers and a seemingly constant helped Khubilai claim succession and build a separatist struggle for power finally led Khubilai to es- regime in China. tablish a Mongol empire in China, ending the During the early years Khubilai’s principal opponent in 1279. was his brother ­Ariq-­böke (d. 1266), whom Khubilai ul- timately defeated, but an even more serious opponent emerged in Qaidu (1236–1301), a grandson of Ögödei (reigned 1229–1241), second khan of the unified empire. hubilai Khan, founder of the Mongolian succes- The struggle with Qaidu, although never threatening sor khanate (the state or jurisdiction of a khan Khubilai’s position in China, did prevent him from gain- [sovereign]) in China, was the second of four ing acceptance as the successor to Möngke and confined sons of ­Tolui-­ (c. ­1190–­c. 1231), who was the young- Khubilai’s power to China and such areas of Mongolia est son of Mongol conqueror Chinggis Khan (also known and Turkistan that he could dominate from a Chinese as , reigned 1206–1227). Born on the steppe base. (vast, usually level and treeless tracts in southeastern Forced to make do with what he had, Khubilai built Europe or Asia), the last ruler of Mongol China so born, an empire in China, initially in the north, long conquered Khubilai began his career as a minor prince with an ap- by the , then in the south, too, where Khubi- panage (a grant of territory) in what is now Inner Mongo- lai’s armies ended the independent regime of the Song lia, which gave him a direct interest in ­Mongol-­occupied dynasty by 1279. Even before his final victory, Khubi- north China. In 1251, with the ascension of his brother lai’s regime had adopted the Chinese dynastic designa- Möngke as khan of the ­still-­unified Mongolian empire tion “Yuan,” meaning “origin,” drawn from the Book of (with the house of Tolui as its rulers), Khubilai acquired Changes. considerably more importance. He became his broth- Khubilai’s China, described by the European traveler er’s viceroy in China, then a principal commander as Marco Polo, was a mix of Mongolian, Chinese, and other Möngke set about conquering the Southern Song dynasty cultural influences as Khubilai and his ministers set out to (1127–1279). provide a regime that had a little something for everyone,

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but the most for the Mongols. At its center was a govern- ment that was generally Chinese in nomenclature but be- hind which the reality was very Mongolian. There was no single capital, but the court move from place to place in a regular seasonal cycle based on Daidu, today’s Beijing, and (Xanadu), Khubilai’s summer playground in . At court representatives of so many cultures jostled for influence, speaking not only Chinese and Mongolian but also Persian, various Turkic dialects, and even Old French. Few societies were ever as diverse. Even the food served was drawn from all over Asia, al- though the preferred banquet dish was a ­much-­modified Mongolian soup. Paul D. BUELL Further Reading Halperin, C. (1985). Russia and the : The Mongol impact on medieval Russian history. Bloom- An historical block-print illustration of Khubilai ington: Indiana University Press. Khan, youngest son of Chinggis (Genghis). Rossabi, M. (1988). Khubilai Khan, his life and times. - ley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

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