Möngke Khan
Fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire
Möngke Khan (also Möngke Khagan or Möngke; 11 January 1209 – 11 August 1259) was the fourth khagan of the Mongol Empire, ruling from 1 July 1251 to 11 August 1259. He was the first Khagan from the Toluid line, and made significant reforms to improve the administration of the Empire during his reign. Under Möngke, the Mongols conquered Iraq and Syria as well as the Dali Kingdom (modern Yunnan).
Möngke's death in 1259 without a designated successor led to the four-year Toluid Civil War between his two younger brothers, Kublai Khan and Ariq Böke. Though Kublai Khan eventually won, the succession war and the subsequent Kaidu–Kublai war essentially resulted in the permanent division of the Mongol Empire.
Early life
Möngke was born on 11 January 1209, as the eldest son of Genghis Khan's teenaged son Tolui and Sorghaghtani Beki. Teb Tengri Khokhcuu, a shaman, claimed to have seen in the stars a great future for the child and bestowed on him the name Möngke, meaning 'eternal' in Mongolian. His uncle Ögedei Khan's childless queen Angqui raised him at her orda (nomadic palace). Ögedei instructed Persian scholar Idi-dan Muhammed to teach writing to Möngke.
On his way back home after the Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire, Genghis Khan performed a ceremony on his grandsons Möngke and Kublai after their first hunting in 1224 near the Ili River.
“Möngke Khan” enters the record as fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Möngke, Khan and Fourth can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7521. VIAF identifies the subject as 50027343. The Library of Congress control number is n85284733. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1209, 1259, 1251 and 1224.
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This entry incorporates text from “Möngke Khan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.