Who was the greatest Mongol general?
Genghis Khan is the greatest commander of the Mongol Empire in our ranking, with 46 of 50 points: he united the steppe and led the conquests of the Jin and Khwarazm in person. Subutai, who won at the Kalka and planned the victory at Mohi, is second, level on 43 points with Kublai Khan.
In a single century the Mongols built the largest contiguous land empire in world history, and a handful of commanders did it. This list ranks the twelve who did most in the field, from Genghis Khan's rise to about 1300. Khans count only for the battles they led in person, which is why Ögedei, under whom the empire reached from Korea to Hungary, is only eleventh, and Timur, who rose long after the empire broke up, is ranked among the greatest commanders by era. The order follows a score out of 50 for recognition, battlefield record, consequence, legacy and certainty; how we chose and ranked them is explained below the list.1
1 Genghis Khan, about 1162 to 1227
- Lived
- About 1162 (some scholars prefer 1167) to 1227
- Served
- Khan of the Mongols, 1206 to 1227
- Greatest victory
- The conquest of Khwarazm, 1219 to 1221: the Shah’s empire overrun
- Record
- Took Beijing from the Jin (1215), then Bukhara and Samarkand; beat Jalal al-Din on the Indus (1221); no reliable count of battles survives
- Legacy
- Founded the empire his heirs made the largest contiguous land empire in history
Temujin was born in 1162 by Mongol tradition, or about 1167 as many scholars think. He united the steppe tribes until, in 1206, an assembly of the Mongol nobility, the quriltai, proclaimed him Genghis Khan. The Secret History of the Mongols calls four of his generals, Jebe, Qubilai, Jelme and Subutai, his “four hounds”.2
In 1211 he went to war with the Jin of northern China, and in 1215 his troops took Beijing. In 1219 he led his main army against the empire of the Shah of Khwarazm, taking Bukhara and Samarkand in 1220. In 1221 Genghis himself trapped the Shah’s son Jalal al-Din against the Indus; Juvaini, a Persian historian in Mongol service, tells how the prince rode into the river and the khan, admiring him, forbade pursuit. The conquests were also massacres: when a grandson of his fell before Bamiyan, Juvaini says, Genghis had every living creature there killed. On his conquests his heirs built the largest contiguous land empire in history.3
Myth vs fact: the Mongols did not win by sheer numbers. Against Khwarazm, René Grousset writes, they were greatly outnumbered overall but better disciplined and led, and Columbia University’s Asia for Educators adds that they drew conquered peoples, above all Turks, into their armies.4
Why it ranks here: Genghis Khan is No. 1 because only he has full marks for recognition, consequence and legacy: he built the army and the empire that all the others served. His battlefield record scores 4, because many victories were won by Jebe, Subutai and Muqali, not by the khan in person, and certainty 3, because the army sizes come from chronicles no one can check.
2 Subutai, 1176 to 1248
- Lived
- 1176 (some give 1175) to 1248; the Yuan annals say he died at 73
- Served
- One of Genghis Khan’s “four hounds”; field commander under Genghis, Ögedei and Batu
- Greatest victory
- Mohi, April 1241: King Béla IV’s Hungarian army destroyed, though Batu’s scouts, by Juvaini’s account, reported it twice the Mongols’ size
- Record
- Won the Kalka with Jebe (1223); took Kaifeng (1233); planned and won Mohi (1241); checked at the Tong Pass about 1230
- Legacy
- The strategist of the western campaign that reached Hungary and Poland
Subutai, of the Uriangkhai, entered Genghis Khan’s service as a hostage, according to his biography in the Yuan annals, and rose to command armies. The Secret History counts him among the khan’s “four hounds”.5
In 1220 he and Jebe hunted the fleeing Shah of Khwarazm with 30,000 men, by Juvaini’s count, then rode on through the Caucasus; in 1223 they destroyed the Rus princes and their Cuman allies on the Kalka and put Mstislav III of Kiev to death. In 1232 he advised Tolui before the victory at Sanfengshan and was left to besiege the Jin capital, Kaifeng, which fell in 1233. From 1236 he was the real commander of the western campaign led by Batu. At Mohi on 10 to 11 April 1241, while Batu fought for the bridge over the Sajó, Subutai crossed downstream and the Hungarian camp was surrounded. By Juvaini’s account, as Stephen Pow and József Laszlovszky relate it, Batu’s scouts had reported the Hungarian army twice the size of the Mongols’. His one recorded setback came earlier: in Ögedei’s first attack on the Tong Pass, the Yuan annals say, his army was beaten and the khan rebuked him.6
Myth vs fact: his biographer Richard Gabriel relays a claim, credited to Muslim historians, that Subutai conquered 32 nations and won 65 pitched battles; no surviving record allows that tally to be checked.7
Why it ranks here: Subutai ties Kublai Khan on 43 points and on recognition, and ranks above him because his victories changed more: consequence 5 against 4. Full marks for battlefield record; legacy 3 and certainty 2, since his career rests on chronicles written decades later, keep him three points behind Genghis Khan.
3 Kublai Khan, 1215 to 1294
- Lived
- 1215 to 1294
- Served
- Viceroy of northern China under Möngke; Great Khan from 1260; emperor of the Yuan dynasty from 1271
- Greatest victory
- Over his kinsman Nayan near the Liao river, 1287, in person and past seventy
- Record
- Took Dali (1253 to 1254); won the war with Ariq Böke (1260 to 1264); crushed Nayan (1287); his fleets failed against Japan (1274, 1281)
- Legacy
- Founded the Yuan dynasty; his generals completed the conquest of China in 1279
Kublai, a son of Tolui and grandson of Genghis Khan, was born in 1215 and served his brother Möngke in China, by René Grousset’s account governing its conquered parts from 1251. This page counts only the battles he led himself. In 1253 and 1254 he marched with Subutai’s son Uriyangkhadai into Yunnan and took Dali, capital of the kingdom of Dali. When Möngke died in 1259 he fought his younger brother Ariq Böke for the throne; proclaimed Great Khan in 1260, he had won by 1264, and Marco Polo’s editor Henry Yule notes that he led the army against Ariq Böke in person in 1261.8
The conquest of the Song, from 1268 to 1279, was fought by his generals, Bayan above all, and the fleets he sent against Japan in 1274 and 1281 both failed, the second wrecked by a typhoon. His last battle was his own. In 1287, past seventy, he took the field against his kinsman Nayan, whose rising in Manchuria was backed by Kaidu. Marco Polo, then in his service, gives Kublai 360,000 horse and 100,000 foot against Nayan’s 400,000, figures Yule calls exaggeration on a great scale. The Yuan annals and the Chinese records Yule quotes agree on the outcome: Nayan’s army was beaten near the Liao river and Nayan was taken and put to death.9
Why it ranks here: Kublai ties Subutai on 43 points and on recognition, and ranks below him because his own victories changed less: consequence 4 against 5. Full marks for recognition and legacy carry him this high, but his battlefield record is 3, because the battles that built the Yuan empire were won by Bayan and his other generals.
4 Hulagu Khan, died 1265
- Lived
- Year of birth uncertain; died 1265
- Served
- Commander of Möngke’s army in the west from 1253; first Ilkhan of Persia, 1260 to 1265
- Greatest victory
- Baghdad, February 1258: the Abbasid caliphate ended
- Record
- Took the Assassin castles (1256), Baghdad (1258) and Aleppo (1260); his army routed on the Terek (winter of 1262 to 1263)
- Legacy
- Founded the Ilkhanate, which ruled Iran until 1335
Hulagu, a brother of Möngke and Kublai, was sent west by Möngke in 1253; Juvaini and Rashid al-Din record that two men in every ten from the princes’ armies went with him.10
In November 1256 Rukn al-Din, leader of the Ismailis known as the Assassins, surrendered his castles round Alamut; the historian Juvaini, then in Hulagu’s service, drew up the safe-conduct. In February 1258 Hulagu took Baghdad after a short siege; those who came out to surrender were slaughtered and the city sacked for days. Myth vs fact: Marco Polo has the last caliph starved in a tower full of his own gold; Rashid al-Din, quoted by Polo’s editor Henry Yule, says only that he was put to death on 20 February 1258, and later writers that he was rolled in a carpet and trampled.11
In January 1260 he took the town of Aleppo within a week. After Möngke’s death he pulled most of his army back, and the force left in Syria was destroyed by the Mamluks at Ain Jalut on 3 September 1260. In the war with his cousin Berke of the Golden Horde he crossed the Caucasus at Derbent in December 1262, and in January 1263 his son Abaqa’s army was routed on the Terek, by Berke himself in Yule’s and Boyle’s account, by Nogai in René Grousset’s. He died in 1265.12
Why it ranks here: Hulagu ended the Abbasid caliphate and founded a state that lasted 75 years, so consequence 5, and Juvaini, who served him, gives certainty 4. The rout on the Terek and the loss of Syria hold his battlefield record at 4, and recognition 4 leaves him one point behind Kublai and Subutai.
5 Batu Khan, about 1205 to 1255
- Lived
- About 1205 to 1255
- Served
- Head of the western Jochid lands from 1227; commander of the western campaign, 1236 to 1242; first khan of the Golden Horde
- Greatest victory
- Mohi, 1241, won with Subutai, who planned it
- Record
- Sacked Riazan and Vladimir (1237 to 1238) and Kiev (1240); shared Mohi (1241), where his own attack on the bridge was thrown back
- Legacy
- Founded the Golden Horde, which dominated the Rus for two centuries
Batu, a son of Genghis Khan’s eldest son Jochi, succeeded his father in the Jochid lands, which by Genghis Khan’s will took in every country to the west that Mongol horses had trodden. Ögedei gave him command of the great western campaign, with his cousins Güyük, Möngke and Kadan, and with Subutai as the real commander.13
The army crossed the Volga in 1236 and broke the Volga Bulgars. In the winter of 1237 to 1238 Batu’s forces sacked Riazan and devastated Vladimir, and in 1240 they laid waste to Kiev. In 1241 one wing crushed the Poles at Legnica while Batu and Subutai led the main army into Hungary. At Mohi, by the account in Subutai’s Yuan biography, Batu’s men fought for the bridge over the Sajó before Subutai’s column was across, lost thirty armored men and an officer, and the princes wanted to call Subutai back and wait; Batu blamed Subutai for being slow, and later admitted that the victory had been Subutai’s.14
When the Mongols left Hungary in 1242, Batu did not ride home to elect a new Great Khan. He stayed on the Volga, built his capital at Sarai, took the Rus princes as his vassals and in 1251 made his ally Möngke Great Khan.15
Why it ranks here: Batu has full marks for consequence, because the Golden Horde he founded dominated the Rus for two centuries. His battlefield record is only 3, since Subutai planned and won the great battles and Batu’s own attack at Mohi was the costly one, and with certainty 3 he stands three points behind Hulagu.
6 Jebe, died about 1224
- Lived
- Birth year unknown; died between 1223 and 1225
- Served
- Once an enemy archer; one of Genghis Khan’s “four hounds”
- Greatest victory
- The Kalka, 1223, with Subutai, over the Rus princes and the Cumans
- Record
- Took the Jin Eastern Capital by a feigned retreat; ran down Küchlüg; won the Kalka (1223); a force on its way home beaten by the Volga Bulgars (1223)
- Legacy
- Remembered with Subutai for the great raid round the Caspian
Jebe began as an enemy. Fighting against Genghis Khan, he shot an arrow that brought down the khan’s own horse, and the khan, admiring his courage, made him one of his generals. The Secret History counts him among the “four hounds”.16
In the war on the Jin, the Secret History says, he failed to storm the Eastern Capital, withdrew six days’ march, then came back overnight, each man leading a spare horse, and took the city by surprise. Genghis later sent him after the Naiman prince Küchlüg, who was run down in the mountains of Badakhshan and beheaded. In 1220 he and Subutai hunted the Shah of Khwarazm with 30,000 men, by Juvaini’s count, then rode on round the Caspian, and in 1223 they destroyed the Rus princes and the Cumans on the Kalka.17
His end is murky. On the way home a Mongol force was beaten by the Volga Bulgars; the only direct account, by Ibn al-Athir, gives a figure of 4,000 that V. V. Stavitsky reads as the Mongol dead of a vanguard. Modern historians put Jebe’s death between 1223 and 1225, and Stephen Pow argues that the Cumans captured and killed him during the Kalka campaign.18
Why it ranks here: Jebe has full marks for battlefield record and recognition of 4, as one of the best-known names among Genghis Khan’s generals. Certainty 2, because he has no biography in the Yuan annals and even the year of his death is uncertain, and legacy 3 put him one point behind Batu.
7 Bayan of the Baarin, 1236 to 1295
- Lived
- 1236 to 1295; the Yuan annals say he died at 59
- Served
- Kublai’s minister from 1265; commander against the Song, 1274 to 1276; on the Mongolian frontier from 1289
- Greatest victory
- Dingjiazhou, 1275: Jia Sidao’s Song army, 130,000 men by the Yuan annals’ count, routed
- Record
- Forced the Yangtze (1274 to 1275); won Dingjiazhou (1275); stormed Changzhou (1275); took the Song capital (1276); beat Melik Temur (1292)
- Legacy
- Conqueror of the Song for Kublai; Marco Polo’s “Bayan Hundred Eyes”
Bayan, of the Baarin tribe, grew up in western Asia, where his father served Hulagu. Sent to Kublai’s court on an errand, he so impressed the khan that he was kept on, and in 1265 he was made a chief minister.19
In 1274 Kublai gave him the main army against the Song, 200,000 men by the Yuan annals’ count. He passed by fortified cities, saying that attacking cities was the worst of plans, and forced the Yangtze near Hankou at the turn of 1274 and 1275. In March 1275, the Yuan annals record, he met the Song chancellor Jia Sidao at Dingjiazhou, and the Song army and fleet broke when their admiral fled first. Changzhou held out for months; when Bayan stormed it in late 1275 his army massacred its people. Early in 1276 the Song court sent him the imperial seal and surrendered its capital, Lin’an (Hangzhou). Later he held the Mongolian frontier against Kaidu and his allies, beating Melik Temur in 1292.20
Myth vs fact: Marco Polo says Bayan’s title “Chincsan” meant “Hundred Eyes”, fulfilling a prophecy that only a man with a hundred eyes could take the kingdom; his editor Henry Yule explains that chincsan was the Chinese title of a chief minister, and that only Bayan’s own name, in Chinese Pe-yen, could be punned as “hundred eyes”.21
Why it ranks here: Bayan has full marks for battlefield record and consequence, because he conquered the largest state in the world for Kublai, and the Yuan annals give certainty 4. Recognition 3 and legacy 2, because outside China and the specialist literature he is little known, keep him one point behind Jebe.
8 Muqali, 1170 to 1223
- Lived
- 1170 to 1223; the Yuan annals say he died at 54
- Served
- One of Genghis Khan’s “four steeds”; commander of the left wing from 1206; viceroy in northern China, 1217 to 1223
- Greatest victory
- Yehuling, in the first war on the Jin, against an army the Jin called 400,000 strong
- Record
- Led the charge at Yehuling; took Daming and much of Shandong and Shanxi (1217 to 1222); failed before Yan’an and Fengxiang
- Legacy
- Picked with Subutai by modern scholars as the “real stars” of the Mongol conquest
Muqali, of the Jalair, was the son of a retainer who, the Yuan annals say, gave Temujin his own horse in a rout and died covering his escape. The Secret History ranks Muqali among the khan’s “four steeds” and records the title of gui ong, prince of state, granted to him and his descendants.22
In the first war on the Jin, his biography says, he led the charge that broke an army the Jin called 400,000 strong at Yehuling. In 1217, as Genghis prepared to turn west, he named Muqali grand preceptor and prince of state and told him: “North of the Taihang I will see to myself; south of it, do your best.” With Mongol, Khitan and Chinese troops Muqali took Daming and much of Shandong and Shanxi, and won over Chinese commanders such as Yan Shi; he could also be merciless, ordering the people of rebel towns killed except for craftsmen and performers. But he could not take Yan’an or Fengxiang, and in 1223 he fell ill and died on campaign. Genghis Khan said later that had Muqali lived, he would not have had to come himself.23
Modern scholars rate him highly: the editors of the collection In the Service of the Khan chose Muqali and Subutai as the “real stars” of the Mongol conquest.24
Why it ranks here: Muqali scores 4 for battlefield record, with many victories and no recorded defeat in the field but walled cities he could not take, and 4 for consequence, since he held northern China while Genghis Khan conquered Khwarazm. Recognition 3 and legacy 2, because few outside the specialists know him, leave him five points behind Bayan.
9 Tolui, about 1190 to 1232
- Lived
- About 1190 to 1232
- Served
- Genghis Khan’s youngest son; regent of the empire, 1227 to 1229; commander in Khorasan (1221) and against the Jin (1231 to 1232)
- Greatest victory
- Sanfengshan, 1232: the last Jin field army, 150,000 foot and horse by the Yuan annals’ count, destroyed in a snowstorm
- Record
- Took Merv and Nishapur (1221); won Sanfengshan (1232) with fewer than 40,000 men, by the Yuan annals’ count
- Legacy
- Father of Möngke, Kublai and Hulagu, whose house ruled the empire from 1251
Tolui, the youngest son of Genghis Khan, held the government as regent after his father’s death, until Ögedei was enthroned in 1229.25
In 1221 Genghis sent him to conquer Khorasan. Juvaini describes him riding round Merv for six days to inspect its walls, then leading the assault on foot; the city surrendered, and its people were massacred. A local scholar, Juvaini says, counted more than 1,300,000 dead, a chronicle figure no one can check. In April Nishapur was stormed by his army and laid waste, all but 400 craftsmen killed.26
His greatest battle came against the Jin. In 1231 he led the right wing through Song territory to get round the Tong Pass, and early in 1232 a Jin army of 150,000 foot and horse, by the Yuan annals’ count, followed his column of fewer than 40,000. In heavy snow at Sanfengshan he attacked the frozen Jin troops without waiting for Ögedei, and, in the annals’ words, the best of the Jin perished there; Ögedei told him the victory could not have been won without him. Subutai’s biography says he advised Tolui before the battle. Tolui died later in 1232: René Grousset puts his death down to drink, while the Secret History says he drank a cup prepared by shamans to take Ögedei’s illness on himself.27
Why it ranks here: Tolui has full marks for battlefield record, because Sanfengshan destroyed the last Jin field army against heavy odds, and consequence 4 for the fall of the Jin that followed. He is remembered mostly as the father of Möngke, Kublai and Hulagu, so recognition 2 and legacy 2 put him one point behind Muqali.
10 Möngke Khan, 1209 to 1259
- Lived
- 1209 to 1259
- Served
- Commander of a wing in the western campaign, 1237 to 1241; Great Khan, 1251 to 1259
- Greatest victory
- Against the Cumans north of the Caspian, where their chief Bachman was taken
- Record
- Broke the Cumans and captured Bachman; led the war on the Song in person; died before the fortress of Diaoyu (1259) with the war unfinished
- Legacy
- The last Great Khan of a united empire
Möngke was the eldest son of Tolui. In the western campaign he commanded the wing that attacked the Cumans on the lower Volga; their chief Bachman was captured on an island in the river and, on Möngke’s orders, cut in two. A chronicle quoted by the Museum of Polish History names the princes sent west: Batu, Möngke and Güyük.28
With Batu’s backing he became Great Khan in 1251 and purged the rival houses of Ögedei and Chagatai, putting to death, among others, the former regent Oghul Qaimish and the head of the Chagatai line. He sent Hulagu west and Kublai against southern China, and in 1258 took over the war on the Song himself. In 1259 he was besieging the mountain fortress of Diaoyu in Sichuan, which held out against Mongol attacks from 1243 to 1279, when he died on 11 August; René Grousset puts it down to dysentery caught during the siege, while the site’s official description says the fortress claimed his life.29
His death stopped the Mongol advance on two continents. Kublai broke off the siege of Ezhou, Hulagu pulled most of his army out of Syria, and the empire slid into the war between Kublai and Ariq Böke. The Franciscan William of Rubruck, who reached his court, left a close description of Möngke’s empire.30
Why it ranks here: Möngke’s own battles were a wing of Batu’s campaign and a siege he did not live to finish, so battlefield record 3 and consequence 3; good sources, William of Rubruck among them, give certainty 4, but recognition 3 and legacy 2 leave him two points behind his father Tolui.
11 Ögedei Khan, about 1186 to 1241
- Lived
- About 1186 to 1241
- Served
- Great Khan, 1229 to 1241
- Greatest victory
- The fall of the Jin, 1232 to 1234, in a war he joined in person
- Record
- Fought under his father against Khwarazm; led the central army against the Jin (1231 to 1232), but Tolui won Sanfengshan and Subutai took Kaifeng
- Legacy
- Built Karakorum; under him the empire reached from Korea to Hungary
Ögedei, Genghis Khan’s third son, was born around 1186 and fought in his father’s war on Khwarazm. In 1229 the princes made him Great Khan, as his father had wished. René Grousset saw in him none of his father’s genius but the same good sense; Rashid al-Din, as Columbia’s Asia for Educators sums him up, paints a fun-loving drinker.31
He took the field once, against the Jin. In 1231 and 1232 he led the central army across the Yellow River while Tolui swung round through Song territory; the decisive battle, at Sanfengshan, was fought before Ögedei arrived, and he told Tolui that the victory was his. Subutai then besieged Kaifeng, which fell in 1233, and the last Jin emperor killed himself in 1234. Meanwhile his armies took Georgia and Armenia, invaded Korea, and from 1236 marched under Batu and Subutai on the campaign that reached Poland and Hungary. He died in December 1241, in his sleep after heavy drinking, Rashid al-Din says.32
Myth vs fact: his death is often said to have saved Europe by calling the princes home, but Batu never went back to Mongolia, and Ulf Büntgen and Nicola Di Cosmo point to a cold, wet spring in 1242 that turned the Hungarian plain to marsh, while conceding that no single explanation is fully satisfactory.33
Why it ranks here: Ögedei gets consequence 4 for the fall of the Jin, won by the armies he sent, but this page counts khans only for the battles they led themselves, and he led just one campaign, whose victories went to Tolui and Subutai, so battlefield record 2. Recognition 3 and legacy 2 place him one point behind his nephew Möngke.
12 Kitbuqa, died 1260
- Lived
- Year of birth unknown; executed after Ain Jalut, 3 September 1260
- Served
- Hulagu’s general; led the advance army against the Ismaili castles from 1253; commander in Syria and Palestine, 1260
- Greatest victory
- The war on the Ismaili castles, 1253 to 1256, which ended in their surrender to Hulagu
- Record
- Besieged the Ismaili fortresses from 1253; reduced Luristan (1258); sacked Sidon (1260); beaten and killed at Ain Jalut (1260)
- Legacy
- Remembered as the commander who lost Ain Jalut, the battle that stopped the Mongols in Syria
Kitbuqa, a Nestorian Christian, was one of Hulagu’s most trusted generals. In the war on the Ismailis, the sect known as the Assassins, he led the army sent ahead of Hulagu, and by 1253, Henry Yule writes in his notes to Marco Polo, it was besieging their fortresses, three years before their leader surrendered. In 1258, Yule adds, he reduced Luristan.34
In 1260 Hulagu’s armies took Aleppo and Damascus; then news of Möngke’s death drew him east, and he left Kitbuqa to hold Syria and Palestine with no more than 20,000 men, in EBSCO’s account; the Armenian chroniclers Kirakos and Hayton give 20,000 and 10,000. When the Franks of Sidon killed one of his nephews he sacked the town, ending any hope of a Frankish alliance. On 3 September 1260, at Ain Jalut in the Jezreel Valley, his charge failed to break the Mamluk line of Qutuz and Baybars, and troops Baybars had hidden in the hills fell on his flanks. Refusing to retreat, Kitbuqa was surrounded, captured and beheaded.35
Myth vs fact: Ain Jalut is often told as the defeat of the great Mongol army, but Hulagu had taken the bulk of his forces away, and EBSCO has the Mamluks far stronger.36
Why it ranks here: Kitbuqa is remembered for the battle he lost, so battlefield record 2, but Ain Jalut kept the Mongols out of Syria and Egypt, so consequence 3, and its fame gives legacy 3. He ties Kaidu and Nogai on 25 points, recognition and consequence, and takes twelfth place as the oldest: he led an army in 1253, when Kaidu was 17.
How we chose and ranked these Mongol commanders
We counted a commander as anyone who led an army of the Mongol Empire or of its khanates in person, from Genghis Khan's rise to about 1300: generals in the field, and khans for the battles they commanded themselves, not for wars fought in their name. Timur is not here: he rose in the 1360s, long after the empire had broken up, and fought the Mongol khanates himself; he is ranked among the greatest commanders of every era. The Mongol battles are in our guide to the greatest medieval battles, and the best of every nation in the greatest military commanders.37
We considered 23 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of who the greatest Mongol commanders were; battlefield record, consequence and legacy count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the commander is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of Mongol commanders, 1 if only specialists know the name.
- Battlefield record (×2). 5 if he won several decisive victories in person, some against the odds, with no defeat to match, 1 if he is known for no victory of his own or for a disaster.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if his victories changed states, wars or borders for centuries, 1 if they changed nothing lasting.
- Legacy (×2). 5 if he is studied, imitated and remembered today (national memory, monuments, staff colleges, film and television), 1 if he is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if his campaigns are documented by independent sources on both sides, 1 if they rest on chronicles written long after or on legend.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better known commander, then to the one whose victories changed more, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. One rule applies to every commander: a serious defeat, or a campaign that was beaten off, costs the same point on record. The table explains, for example, why Batu, who conquered the Rus and led the invasion of Europe, is only fifth: Subutai planned and won his great battles, and at Mohi Batu's own attack at the bridge was thrown back with loss and the princes wanted to break off. Four commanders share 25 points, so the tie rule decides the twelfth place: Kitbuqa takes it as the oldest of the three level on recognition and consequence, and Nogai, whose raids on Hungary and Poland were beaten off, misses the list.
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Battlefield record ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Legacy ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Genghis Khan | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 46 |
| 2 | Subutai | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 43 |
| 3 | Kublai Khan | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 43 |
| 4 | Hulagu Khan | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 42 |
| 5 | Batu Khan | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 39 |
| 6 | Jebe | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 38 |
| 7 | Bayan of the Baarin | 3 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 37 |
| 8 | Muqali | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 32 |
| 9 | Tolui | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 31 |
| 10 | Möngke Khan | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 29 |
| 11 | Ögedei Khan | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 28 |
| 12 | Kitbuqa | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 25 |
Close calls
Three commanders finished level with Kitbuqa on 25 points and did not make the twelve:
Kaidu, 1236 to 1301. A grandson of Ögedei, he was spared in Möngke’s purge of his house, and later fought Kublai and his heirs for decades from Central Asia; Henry Yule notes that he died in 1301 at a great age, said to have fought 41 pitched battles. He backed Nayan’s rising in 1287, and the Yuan annals record courtiers complaining that Bayan, holding the frontier against him, had gained nothing; Bayan beat his allies in 1292, but Kaidu himself got away. He ties Kitbuqa on 25 points, recognition and consequence, and misses the list as the younger.38
Nogai, about 1240 to 1299. The Golden Horde’s “maker of the khans” led Berke’s army south through Derbent against Hulagu in 1262; René Grousset credits him with the surprise attack that routed Hulagu’s army on the Terek, though Yule and J. A. Boyle give that counterstroke to Berke himself. Whether he led the Tatar and Bulgarian army that beat the Byzantines in Thrace in 1264 to 1265 is disputed: A. A. Vasiliev says it fought under Nogai, Aleksandar Uzelac that he certainly did not take part. His invasion of Hungary in 1285 achieved nothing lasting, and in 1287 to 1288 Leszek the Black and the Hungarians drove his raid out of Poland. Under the rule we apply to every commander, campaigns beaten off cost the point on record, so record 3 and 25 points; he is the youngest of the three tied with Kitbuqa.39
Aju, died after 1287. Subutai’s grandson and the son of Uriyangkhadai, he blockaded Xiangyang and Fancheng on the Han river for five years, from 1268, until Fancheng was stormed and Xiangyang surrendered in 1273, the siege that opened the Yangtze to the Mongols. In the winter of 1274 to 1275 he led Bayan’s crossing of the river, and after 1287 he died on campaign, aged 54 by his Yuan biography. He has 25 points too, but only specialists know his name.40
Who was the greatest Mongol general after Genghis Khan?
Subutai, in our ranking and in most accounts: he is second, level with Kublai Khan on 43 points and ahead of him because his victories changed more. Kublai was a ruler who led few battles himself; Subutai won at the Kalka in 1223, took Kaifeng in 1233 and planned the victory at Mohi in 1241. His biographer Richard A. Gabriel relays a claim, credited to Muslim historians, that Subutai conquered 32 nations and won 65 pitched battles; no surviving record allows that tally to be checked.41
Specialists name two more. Bayan, seventh here, conquered the Song for Kublai between 1274 and 1276 but is little known outside China, and the editors of the collection In the Service of the Khan chose Muqali, eighth, and Subutai as the “real stars” of the Mongol conquest, the one for statesmanship and the other for military skill.42
Did Subutai ever lose a battle?
Not a great battle, but he had setbacks. His biography in the Yuan annals says that when he joined Ögedei's attack on the Tong Pass, about 1230, his army was beaten and the khan rebuked him; Tolui spoke up for him, and Subutai was sent to serve under Tolui, whom he advised before the victory at Sanfengshan in 1232.43
In 1223, after the Kalka, the Volga Bulgars beat a Mongol force on its way home from the campaign of Subutai and Jebe. The only direct account is a short passage by the Arab historian Ibn al-Athir, with a figure of 4,000 that the Russian historian V. V. Stavitsky reads as the Mongol dead of a vanguard pursuing the Cumans, and the site of the battle is unknown. The battles that made Subutai's name, the Kalka in 1223 and Mohi in 1241, were Mongol victories.44
Who led the Mongol invasion of Europe, and why did it turn back in 1242?
Batu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, was the commander in name and Subutai in fact. In 1241 a northern wing crushed a Polish and German army at Legnica on 9 April, and the main army destroyed the Hungarians at Mohi on 10 to 11 April. In 1242 the Mongols withdrew, and why they did so is still debated.45
The traditional explanation, the death of the Great Khan Ögedei in December 1241, is weighed in his entry above, together with the cold, wet spring that turned the Hungarian plain to marsh. Ulf Büntgen and Nicola Di Cosmo list the other explanations historians have offered: that the campaign was only meant to punish Hungary for sheltering the Cumans who had fled the Mongols, that the Mongols struggled to storm fortified towns and had lost heavily, and that the Hungarian plain had too little pasture for their horses. None of them, they write, is fully satisfactory. How the steppe horseman matched up against the armored knight of the West is the subject of Mongol vs knight.46
How big was the Mongol Empire?
At its peak, around 1279 under Kublai Khan, Guinness World Records puts the Mongol Empire at about 24 million km² (9.3 million sq mi) with some 110 million people, about a quarter of the world's population, the largest contiguous empire on record. These are estimates for a realm with wide, loosely held frontiers, so they are best read as orders of magnitude. How it compares with other great conquests is set out in Genghis Khan vs Alexander and Genghis Khan vs Napoleon.47
Why is Timur not on this list?
Because he came after the empire. After Möngke's death in 1259 the Mongol Empire was in practice four separate states, and Timur, or Tamerlane, rose long after that and fought those successor states himself: in 1395, René Grousset writes, he broke Tokhtamysh and the Golden Horde on the Terek. Scored as in our by-era ranking he would have 39 points and stand sixth, level with Batu but behind him on consequence; he is ranked among the greatest commanders by era.48
Walk their battles in the greatest medieval battles, or measure these commanders against the world's best in the greatest military commanders.
Can you tell them apart from a few clues? Try Guess the Commander, or test yourself on Mohi and Legnica in the medieval battles quiz.
