Abaqa Khan

Abaqa Khan (27 February 1234 – 4 April 1282, Mongolian: Абаха/Абага хан (Khalkha Cyrillic), ᠠᠪᠠᠭ᠎ᠠ
ᠬᠠᠨ (Traditional script), "paternal uncle", also transliterated Abaġa), was the second Mongol ruler (Ilkhan) of the Ilkhanate. The son of Hulagu Khan and Lady Yesünčin and the grandson of Tolui, he reigned from 1265 to 1282 and was succeeded by his brother Ahmed Tekuder. Much of Abaqa's reign was consumed with civil wars in the Mongol Empire, such as those between the Ilkhanate and the northern khanate of the Golden Horde, and the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia. Abaqa also engaged in unsuccessful attempts at invading Syria under the Mamluk Sultanate, which included the Second Battle of Homs.

Abaqa was born in Mongolia on 27 February 1234, son of Ilkhanate founder Hulagu Khan. Abaqa was a Buddhist. A favoured son of Hulagu, he was made governor of Turkestan.

Hulagu died from illness in 1265. Before his death, he had been negotiating with the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos to add a daughter of the Byzantine imperial family to Hulagu's number of wives. Michael VIII had selected his illegitimate daughter Maria Palaiologina, who was dispatched in 1265, escorted by the abbot of Pantokrator monastery, Theodosius de Villehardouin. Historian Steven Runciman relates how she was accompanied by the Patriarch Euthymius of Antioch. Since Hulagu died before she arrived, she was instead married to Hulagu's son, Abaqa. He received her hand in marriage when he was installed as Ilkhan. When Hulagu's wife Doquz Khatun also died in 1265, the role of spiritual leader transferred to Maria, who was called "Despina Khatun" by the Mongols.

It was Abaqa who decided that the permanent location for the Ilkhanate capital would be Tabriz, which was in the northwestern grasslands that the Mongols preferred.

Abaqa took power four months after the death of his father, and then spent the next several months redistributing fiefs and governorships.

Some of the coins from Abaqa's era display the Christian cross, and bear in Arabic the Christian inscription "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, only one God".

Since Hulagu's reign, the Mongols of the Ilkhanate had been at war with the Mongols of the Golden Horde. This continued into Abaqa's reign, and the Golden Horde invaded the Ilkhanate in the spring after his accession. The invasion was partly due to an alliance between the Golden Horde and the Egyptian Mamluks. As part of this alliance, the Golden Horde attempted to distract Abaqa through attacks on his territories so as to keep him from invading Mamluk-held Syria. The hostilities continued until the death of the Golden Horde's khan, Berke, in 1267. The Great Khan Kublai attempted to intervene to stop the civil war, and due to his influence, the Golden Horde's new khan, Möngke Temür did not launch a major invasion into Abaqa's territory. However, Möngke Temür still commanded Commander Nogai to establish an alliance with the Egyptian Mamluk sultan Baibars promising that he would attack Abaqa and share any conquered territories. But, at the same time, Möngke Temür sent envoys to congratulate Abaqa when the Ilkhan defeated Ghiyas-ud-din Baraq. In 1270, he allowed Mengu-Timur to collect his revenues from workshops in Iran.

Ögedei's grandson Kaidu, Batu's grandson Mengu-Timur and Baraq of the Chagatai Khanate formed an alliance against Kublai Khan and Abaqa in Talas. They appointed Kaidu a ruler of Central Asia. The resulting Kaidu–Kublai war which started in 1268 would carry on until the end of the century.