10. A Brutal Legacy Remembered in the Middle East to This Day
Mongol general and ruler Hulegu (1217 – 1265) was a grandson of the great conqueror Genghis Khan, and a younger brother of the Grand Khans Mongke and Kublai. He expanded the Mongol domain into Western Asia with brutal savagery that remains seared in the region’s memory to this day. Among other things, Hulegu destroyed Baghdad and extinguished the Abbasid Caliphate, conquered Syria, and menaced Egypt and the surviving Crusader states. He also destroyed medieval Persian culture, and founded the Ilkhanate, a precursor of modern Iran.
In 1251, Hulegu’s brother, the Grand Khan Mongke, recognized him as ruler of the Ilkhanate in Persia, and ordered him to extend Mongol power into the Islamic world. As a preliminary, Hulegu attacked and seized the mountain fortress of the Assassins cult, a militant Islamic sect led by a mystic known as the “Old Man of the Mountain”. The Assassins’ leader brainwashed young men by claiming that he controlled the keys to paradise. He “proved” it through a process that began with getting recruits high on hashish, and setting them loose in a beautiful garden full of gorgeous women.
