Hülegü (Hulagu) Khan—grandson of Genghis Khan and brother of the Great Khan Möngke—was dispatched west in the 1250s to fold the Middle East into the Mongol imperial system. By 1256 he had destroyed the Nizari Isma’ili strongholds and planted a new Mongol power center in Iran: the Ilkhanate. This wasn’t just conquest for plunder. Hülegü built a government, installed garrisons, demanded regular taxation, and relied on Persian administrators alongside Mongol commanders to keep revenue and supplies