Kublai Khan
23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294
Kublai Khan (1215-1294) was a grandson of Genghis Khan who ruled as the fifth great khan of the Mongol Empire from 1260 and founded the Yuan dynasty of China in 1271. By completing the conquest of the Song dynasty in 1279 he became the first non-Han emperor to rule all of China, presiding over a cosmopolitan court famously described by Marco Polo.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Kublai Khan.
- Saadi Shirazi (1210–1291) Overlapped 76 years →
- Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288) Overlapped 73 years →
- Roger Bacon (1219–1292) Overlapped 73 years →
- Tran Hung Dao (1228–1300) Overlapped 66 years →
- Albertus Magnus (1200–1280) Overlapped 65 years →
- Guo Shoujing (1231–1316) Overlapped 63 years →
Life events
Kublai was born on 23 September 1215, the fourth son of Tolui and the Keraite princess Sorghaghtani Beki.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgIn 1251, when his brother Mongke became great khan, Kublai received viceregal authority over Mongol-held northern China, where he cultivated Chinese advisers.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgBetween 1253 and 1254 Kublai led a campaign that subdued the Dali Kingdom in southwestern China for the Mongol Empire.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgOn 5 May 1260 Kublai was proclaimed great khan by his supporters at Shangdu (Xanadu), triggering a civil war with his brother Ariq Boke that he won in 1264.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgKublai moved his main capital to Dadu, whose construction began in 1267, shifting the center of Mongol power into China.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgIn 1271 Kublai formally adopted the dynastic name Great Yuan, positioning himself as a legitimate Chinese emperor.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgKublai launched two invasions of Japan, in 1274 and 1281, both of which ended in disaster when the Mongol fleets were wrecked by storms.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAccording to his own account, the Venetian traveler Marco Polo spent about seventeen years in Kublai's service from around 1275, though the details are debated by historians.
The Mongol victory at the naval Battle of Yamen on 19 March 1279 destroyed the last Song resistance, uniting all of China under Kublai's rule.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgKublai died on 18 February 1294, his final years marked by grief over the deaths of his favorite wife Chabi and his heir Zhenjin.
Source: en.wikipedia.org