Sep 1, 2018
"When King Abagha [son of Hulagu and grandson of Chinggis Khan] set out from the East, he conquered all the world. Whoever opposed him was killed. If you go up to the sky or down into the ground, you will not be saved from us. The best policy is that you will make peace between us... you are a mamlūk [slave soldier] who was bought in Sīwās. How do you rebel against the kings of the earth?" -Message from Ilkhanid envoy to Mamluk Sultan Baibars, 1268. From Reuven Amitai-Preiss, "Mongol Imperial Ideology and the Ilkhanid War against the Mamluks," in The Mongol Empire and its Legacy, 64.