c. 1256–1282 · Ilkhanid prince and commander of the Homs campaign
Möngke Temür
Son of Hülegü and an Ilkhanid prince; in 1281 he commanded the Mongol army that invaded Syria and was defeated by Qalawun at Homs.
BIOGRAPHICAL DOSSIER
Life and historical role
Life and political setting
Möngke Temür was a son of Hülegü and brother of the Ilkhan Abaqa. He had also served in the Mongol administration of Anatolia. The great campaign he commanded at a young age was part of Abaqa's policy of taking Syria from the Mamluks.
Role in the Crusades
In 1281 he entered Syria at the head of an army of Mongol, Armenian and Georgian forces; a group of Hospitallers from Marqab also joined the Mongols. On 29 October 1281 near Homs he faced Qalawun's army. The Mongol right wing routed the Mamluk left, but Möngke Temür, wounded in the centre, withdrew and the battle ended in a Mamluk victory.
Historical significance and source problems
The defeat at Homs halted the Ilkhanids' ambitions in Syria for a time. Möngke Temür died in 1282, shortly after the death of his brother Abaqa. Mamluk sources describe the victory in detail; Rashid al-Din gives the Ilkhanid view.
Biographical information is linked to the sources shown on the page and to the connected event records. Disputed dates are given as approximate, gaps are not filled by conjecture, and later literary or visual depictions are not treated as contemporary portraits.