Timeline

?1167

Birth of Temujin (Chinggis Khan);

Claims for Temujin’s date of birth are between 1155 and 1167

1174

Temujin engaged to Borte, daughter of Daisechen of the Onggirat;

Yesugei (Chinggis’s father) poisoned by Tatars

1180

Temujin murders half-brother Bekter. Later held in captivity by Tayichi’uts

1183/4

Borte abducted by Merkits;

Toghril and Jamuka assist in Borte’s rescue. Significantly, first son Jochi born shortly after her release

1187

Temujin defeated at the Battle of Dalan Balzhut;

Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi expels Crusaders from Jerusalem;

Gap in Temujin’s life history; possibly in exile in China

1198

Death of medieval Andalusian Islamic polymath Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (b.1126)

1200

Accession of ʿAla’ al-Din Muhammad II, Khwarazmshah

1201

Temujin attacked by Jamuka

1203

Toghril forces Temujin to flee. Later returns to victory

1205–87

Rise of Delhi Sultanate

1206

Temujin (Chinggis Khan) proclaimed supreme ruler of the tribes at quriltai in Mongolia

1207

Mongols annex lands of Oirats, Kirghiz and Uyghurs

1209

Mongols invade Tangut (Xixia), followed by a peace treaty;

The Tangut (Xixia) were the first and last people to experience the wrath of Chinggis Khan

1211

Mongols invade Jin (Jurchen) Empire of northern China;

Invasion followed a quriltai on the River Kerulen

1215

Jin capital, Zhongdu, falls to Mongols;

Zhongdu later rebuilt and renamed Khanbaliq (Dadu)

1216

Chinggis destroys the Merkits;

It was the Merkits who had kidnapped Chinggis’s wife, Borte

1218

Mongol troops under Jebe occupy Qara-Khitai;

Governor of Utrar murders a caravan of Mongol envoys and merchants;

The Muslims of eastern Turkestan received the Mongols as liberators from the oppression of the anti-Muslim Kuchluq

1219

Chinggis Khan invades empire of the Khwarazmshah;

The Khwarazmshah believed that he could defeat the upstart Chinggis and continue to conquer China for himself

1220

Utrar, Bokhara and Samarqand taken

1221

Mongols take the ancient city of Merv, capital of the last Great Saljuq, Sultan Sanjar (d.1157);

This was a period of great destruction

1221–3

Journey of Chang Chun from China to Hindu Kush;

The infamous reconnaissance trip of noyans Jebe and Subodai occurred around this period

1223

Chinggis Khan returns to Mongolia

1227

Death of Chinggis Khan. Final conquest of Xixia

1229

Election of Ogodai as Great Khan

1231

Death of Jalal al-Din Khwarazmshah

1234

End of Jin resistance to Mongols

1235

Ogodai builds walls of Qaraqorum, Mongol imperial capital

1237–42

Mongol campaigns, under Batu, take place in Russia and eastern Europe;

Batu takes Riazan

1238

Mongols take Vladimir, capital of north-east Russia

1239

Invasion of what is now Ukraine. Kiev taken

1240

Death of Ibn ʿArabi (b.1165);

Ibn ʿArabi was an extremely influential Sufi whose impact is detectable on the Sufi poets of the Ilkhanate in particular

1241

Battles of Liegnitz and River Sajo. Battle of Mohi, Hungarian army defeated. Gran on the Danube sacked;

Death of Ogodai

1243

Battle of Kose Dagh, eastern Rum;

This decisive battle left Rum under Mongol control and the Saljuqs of Rum their subjects

1245–7

Journey of John of Plano Carpini to Mongolia

1246

Election of Guyuk as Great Khan

1248

Death of Guyuk

1250

Mamluks seize effective power in Egypt, under the amir ʿIzz al-Din Aybak (r.1250–57);

The Ayyubid puppet-sultan, a child, al-Malik al-Ashraf al-Musa nominally on throne

1250

Death of Frederick II;

His death led to the collapse of imperial authority in Germany and Italy

1251

Election of Mongke, Tolui’s son, as Great Khan

1252–79

Conquest of Song dynasty in southern China by the Mongols

1253–5

Journey of William of Rubruck to Mongolia

1253

Hulegu’s forces set off for Persia

1254

ʿIzz al-Din Aybak assumes full powers in Egypt;

The Bahri line of Mamluks of Egypt and Syria, 1250–1390; mainly ethnic Qipchaq (Cuman) Turks from Russian steppes

1255

Death of Batu, first khan of the Golden Horde

1256

Hulegu takes Assassin castles in north Persia. Fall of Alamut;

The Ismaʿilis went underground after the destruction of Alamut and the murder of their Imam

1257

Accession of Berke, Khan of the Golden Horde;

Berke assumed the throne after a general blood-letting of Batu’s descendants, and his accession marked the start of hostilities with the Ilkhanate

1257–8

Failed Mongol invasion of Dai Viet (Vietnam);

This was in fact a major defeat, overshadowed by the death of Mongke

1258

Fall of Baghdad to Hulegu. Death of last ʿAbbasid caliph

1259

Death of Mongke;

Hulegu travels east

1259

Mamluk Qutuz assumes power in Egypt

1260

Ket Buqa invades Syria with a small force, then withdraws. Battle of Ayn Jalut. Rival quriltais elect Qubilai and Ariq Buqa as Great Khan: civil war ensues;

Ket Buqa, a Christian Mongol, was captured and killed

1260

al-Malik al-Zahir Baybars I al-Bunduqdari assumes Mamluk throne;

Baybars 1260–77

1261

Byzantines re-take Constantinople from Crusader ‘Latin’ Empire

1261/2

Outbreak of warfare between Hulegu and Berke

1264

Qubilai victorious over Ariq Buqa

1265

Death of Hulegu, first Ilkhan. Accession of Abaqa

1266

Building begins at new Mongol capital of China, Khanbaliq

1267

Death of Berke, Khan of the Golden Horde

1271

Marco Polo sets off for China, with his father and uncle;

Arrives 1275

1272

Qubilai adopts Chinese dynastic title, Yuan

1274

First Mongol expedition against Japan;

Sayyid ʿAjal appointed governor of Yunnan;

Death of Nasir al-Din Tusi

1276

Hangzhou, capital of the Song Empire, falls to Mongols

1277

Mongol invasion of Pagan

1279

End of Song resistance to Mongols;

Death of Sayyid ʿAjal, governor of Yunnan

1281

Second Mongol expedition against Japan

1285–8

Mongol invasion of Dai Viet

1287

Rabban Sauma, a bishop and Qubilai Khan’s envoy, dispatched to Tabriz and then sent to Europe by Ilkhan Arghun

1292–3

Mongol expedition to Java

1294

Death of Qubilai. Arrival of John of Monte Corvino in China;

John (1247–1328) was a Franciscan missionary who eventually became Bishop of Beijing/Dadu/Khanbaliq

1295

Accession of Ghazan as Ilkhan. Mongols in Persia become Muslim

1299–1300

Major Mongol invasion of Syria: briefly occupied by Ilkhanid forces

1300

The appearance of a small tribe of Turks, who would become the Ottomans;

The origins of the Ottomans is controversial, with evidence suggesting that they might be the remnants of the Khanate of Nogai, once a possible heir to the Golden Horde

1304

Death of Ghazan. Accession of Uljaytu

1313

Accession of Özbeg, under whose rule the Golden Horde becomes Muslim

1325–54

Travels of Ibn Battuta

1326

Ottomans capture Bursa;

This was the first of a long series of victories which eventually saw the Ottomans in possession of much of south-east Europe

1335

Death of Abu Saʿid, last Ilkhan of line of Hulegu

1346

Outbreak of Black Death in Mongol force besieging Caffa, in the Crimea; from there it spreads to Europe

1353–4

Major outbreak of disease in China

1368

Mongols driven from China by Ming forces

1370

Death in Qaraqorum of Toghan Temur, last Yuan emperor

c.1378

Emergence of Timurlane;

Timurlane attempted to re-establish the Mongol Empire. He saw himself as a reincarnation of the last Ilkhan Abu Saʿid

1381

Timurlane takes Herat

1385

Timurlane takes Tabriz

1387

Timurlane takes Isfahan and Shiraz

1389

Battle of the Field of Blackbirds in Kosovo;

The Ottomans sided with rebel Serbs and other Balkan players to establish their presence in the Balkans

1393

Timurlane occupies Baghdad

1396

Ottoman victory over European forces at the Battle of Nicopolis

1398–9

Timurlane invades India, takes Delhi

1405

Death of Timurlane;

Preparing to march against the Ming rulers of China, Timurlane’s empire collapsed following his death

1453

Mehmed Fatih (the Conqueror) captures Constantinople;

Mehmed Fatih (1451–81) established the Ottomans as a world power and regional superpower

1478

Ivan III throws off Mongol suzereinty

1498

Vasco de Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope

1501

Sultan Ismaʿil Safavi assumes power in Tabriz;

The demise of the Aq Qoyunlu represented the disappearance of the last Middle Eastern dynasty claiming Chinggisid legitimacy