Unlike many Mongol leaders who were willing to massacre to gain any advantage, Muqali usually attempted to convert foes into friends by more conciliatory means.

[4] Muqali, third son of Gü'ün U'a, was born into the 'White' clan of the Jalair tribe, who had been the hereditary serfs of the Borjigin Mongols.

[1] During the coronation of Genghis Khan in 1206, the latter recalled Muqali's support, and he was rewarded with the command of the third tumen and control over the eastern mingghans.

He crossed the Ordos in mid-1221, spending the rest of the year conquering major cities in northern and central Shaanxi.

[4] He then left Mönggü Buqa (Bukha)[12][4] in charge in Shaanxi and Gansu,[12] and moved with the main army to Yuzhou, from thence to Jizhou, conquering all the Jin strongholds in the valley of the Fen River.

[citation needed] He was described by Chao Hang as a very tall man with a dark complexion and wavy whiskers, who was "generous and fond of conviviality, and amusing episodes about him have been preserved in the Sung envoy's account".

[13] Although the gui ong title passed to his descendants, his autonomous command and civil authority in North China was broken up.

[4] After his death, descendants of Muqali served the Great Khan of the Mongols, especially those of the Toluid lineage: prominent among these were Dorjeban and Dorǰi [zh; ja].

Members of Muqali's Jalair tribe, as retainers of the Toluid Hulagu, participated in the conquest of Persia, then called Mollai, and later founded the Jalayirid Dynasty which ruled from Baghdad after the collapse of the Hulaguid Ilkhanate.

[15] Muqali is considered a superb leader, and one of the "very few men who could exert a real influence on Genghis Khan's decisions".