Great Khan Okkodai was dead [A. D. 1241] in the depths of
   Asia, and a courier had come to recall the army from Europe.
   In 1255 a new wave of conquest rolled westward from Mongolia,
   this time directed against the Ismaelians or 'Assassins' on
   the south of the Caspian, and then successively against the
   Khalif of Baghdad and Syria. The conclusion of this expedition
   under Hulagu may be considered to mark the climax of the
   Mongol power. Mangu Khan, the emperor then reigning, and who
   died on a campaign in China in 1259, was the last who
   exercised a sovereignty so nearly universal. His successor
   Kublai extended indeed largely the frontiers of the Mongol
   power in China [see CHINA: A. D. 1259-1294], which he brought
   entirely under the yoke, besides gaining conquests rather
   nominal than real on its southern and southeastern borders,
   but he ruled effectively only in the eastern regions of the
   great empire, which had now broken up into four. (1) The
   immediate Empire of the Great Khan, seated eventually at
   Khanbalik or Peking, embraced China, Corea, Mongolia, and
   Manchuria, Tibet, and claims at least over Tunking and
   countries on the Ava frontier; (2), the Chagatai Khanate, or
   Middle Empire of the Tartars, with its capital at Almalik,
   included the modern Dsungaria, part of Chinese Turkestan,
   Transoxiana, and Afghanistan; (3), the Empire of Kipchak, or
   the Northern Tartars, founded on the conquests of Batu, and
   with its chief seat at Sarai, on the Wolga, covered a large
   part of Russia, the country north of Caucasus, Khwarizm, and a
   part of the modern Siberia; (4), Persia, with its capital
   eventually at Tabriz, embraced Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan
   and part of Asia Minor, all Persia, Arabian Irak, and
   Khorasan."

      H. Yule,
      Cathay and the way Thither: Preliminary Essay,
      sections 92-94 (volume 1).
      ALSO IN:
      H. H. Howorth,
      History of the Mongols,
      chapters 4-5.
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