Baiju Noyan | |
|---|---|
ᠪᠠᠶᠢᠵᠤ ᠨᠣᠶᠠᠨ | |
.jpg) A French depiction of Baiju in 1462 byDavid Aubert in theChronique des Empereurs | |
| Viceroy ofMongol Empire inNear East | |
| Preceded by | Chormaqan |
| Succeeded by | Eljigidei |
| Appointed by | Möngke |
| Personal details | |
| Died | c. 1258 |
Baiju Noyan orBaichu (Mongolian:ᠪᠠᠶᠢᠵᠤ ᠨᠣᠶᠠᠨ;Chagatai: بایجو نویان;Chinese:拜住;pinyin:Bàizhù; inEuropean sources:Bayothnoy;fl. diedc. 1258) was aMongol commander inPersia,Armenia,Anatolia andGeorgia. He was appointed byÖgedei Khan to succeedChormagan. He was the last direct imperial governor of the Mongol Near East; after his deathHulagu's descendants inherited domains he once commanded.
Baiju belonged to Besut tribe of Mongols and was a relative ofJebe. His father was amingghan commander underGenghis Khan and he inherited this contingent upon his death.[1]
Baiju was a second-in-command of Chormaqan and took part in an attack onJalal ad-Din nearIsfahan in 1228. After Chormaqan's paralysis in 1241, Baiju took over his troops and became atümen commander by appointment ofÖgedei Khan.[2] After Ögedei's death, Baiju started to take orders fromBatu, former's nephew. Baiju immediately moved against theSeljuk Sultanate of Rûm, weakening its power at theBattle of Köse Dağ on 26 June 1243. After this battle, the Sultanate became a vassal state of the Mongol Empire and was forced to releaseDavid VII Ulu. Baiju demanded the submission ofPrincipality of Antioch too in 1244.[3] He made a raid onAbbasid Caliphate in 1245.[4] He also led Mongol tumens to raidSyria in 1246.
He received ambassadors fromPope Innocent IV in 1247. Embassy was headed byAscelin of Lombardy and found him atSisian, on 24 May 1247. Embassy's disrespect and Ascelin's refusal to triple genuflection angered Baiju, he insulted the pope and demanded his submission as well.[5] Ascelin left for Rome on 24 July 1247. Meanwhile he was replaced by new khaganGüyük withEljigidei. His next two attempts to invade the Abbasid Caliphate in Iraq met less success in 1249–50. He again rose to prominence as Eljigidei and his entire family were purged byBatu for his opposition to election ofMöngke Khan in 1251.
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Under Baiju in the 1240s and 1250s, the Mongols retained their power in what is roughly modern-dayIran, and tolerated the independence of theSeljuk Sultanate of Rûm,, Georgia, and petty states in Iran as clients, interfering with dynastic succession and extracting tribute militarily as necessary. However, theAbbasids in Baghdad and theAssassins in the Elbruz mountains maintained their independence until the coming ofHülegü, Möngke's brother, in 1255. Baiju was supposedly reproached by Hulegu for failing to extend Mongol power further, and, indeed, was replaced by him as supreme commander as early as 1255, but served under him ably in further campaigns: against the Sultanate of Rum (to extract tribute and replace the sultanKaykavus II) in 1256, in theassault on Baghdad in 1258, and in the advance onSyria towardsEgypt[citation needed] in September 1259.
It is unclear what happened to Baiju after that: when the Mongol force was heavily depleted by the departure of Hülegü in 1260, the force that remained was commanded byKitbuqa. According to various sources Baiju was executed by Hülegü after the capture of Baghdad due to his hesitation to join Hulagu during the campaign and his secret correspondence with CaliphAl-Musta'sim.[7]
