Division of the Mongol Empire

The division of the Mongol Empire began after Möngke Khan died in 1259 in the siege of Diaoyu Castle with no declared successor, precipitating infighting between members of the Tolui family line for the title of khagan that escalated into the Toluid Civil War.

[7] In 1260, the Mamluks advanced from Egypt, being allowed to camp and resupply near the Christian stronghold of Acre, and engaged Kitbuqa's forces just north of Galilee, at the Battle of Ain Jalut.

[7] In a separate part of the empire, another brother of Hulagu and Möngke, Kublai, heard of the great khan's death at the Huai River in China proper.

Their younger brother Ariq Böke took advantage of the absence of Hulagu and Kublai, and used his position at the capital to win the title of great khan (khagan) for himself, with representatives of all the family branches proclaiming him as the leader at the kurultai in Karakorum.

When Kublai learned of this, he summoned his own kurultai at Kaiping, where virtually all the senior princes and great noyans resident in North China and Manchuria supported his own candidacy over that of Ariq Böke.

Battles ensued between the armies of Kublai and those of his brother Ariq Böke, which included forces still loyal to Möngke's previous administration.

Kublai's army easily eliminated Ariq Böke's supporters and seized control of the civil administration in southern Mongolia.

[8][9][10] In the southwestern Ilkhanate, Hulagu was loyal to his brother Kublai, but clashes with their cousin Berke, the ruler of the Golden Horde in the northwestern part of the empire, began in 1262.

[11][page needed] Berke also forged an alliance with the Egyptian Mamluks against Hulagu and supported Kublai's rival claimant, Ariq Böke.

The fleets of the Yuan dynasty attempted to invade Japan in 1274 and 1281, but both invasions failed, and a large number of their ships were destroyed in sea storms called kamikazes (divine wind) on both occasions.

The Ilkhanate, ruled by the Toluid House of Hulagu, formed in 1256 and comprised Iran, Iraq, Transcaucasus, eastern Asia Minor, and western Turkestan.

In 1300, Rashid-al-Din Hamadani in cooperation with Mongol historians commenced writing Jami al-Tawarikh (Sudur un Chigulgan,[citation needed] Compendium of Chronicles) under Ghazan's order.

Altan Debter, written by Mongol historian Bolad Chinsan, served as a basis for writing Jami al-Tawarikh.