Military Campaigns
Hulagu's brother Möngke had been installed as Great Khan in 1251. In 1255, Möngke charged Hulagu with leading a massive Mongol army to conquer or destroy the remaining Muslim states in southwestern Asia. Hulagu's campaign sought the subjugation of the Lurs of southern Iran, the destruction of the Hashshashin sect, the submission or destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad, the submission or destruction of the Ayyubid states in Syria based in Damascus, and finally, the submission or destruction of the Bahri Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. Möngke ordered Hulagu to treat kindly those who submitted, and utterly destroy those who did not. Hulagu vigorously carried out the latter part of these instructions.
Hulagu marched out with perhaps the largest Mongol army ever assembled – by order of Möngke, two tenths of the empire's fighting men were gathered for Hulagu's army. He easily destroyed the Lurs, and the Assassins (the Hashshashin) surrendered their impregnable fortress of Alamut without a fight, accepting a deal that spared the lives of their people.
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