If you wish to spare yourself and your venerable family, give heed to my advice with the ear of intelligence. If you do not, you will see what God has willed.

A Christian Mass was celebrated in the Grand Mosque of the Umayyads (the former cathedral of Saint John the Baptist) and numerous mosques were profaned. 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. Abaqa was second Ilkhan of Persia from 1265–1282 Teguder Ahmad was third Ilkhan from 1282–1284 and Taraqai's son Baydu became Ilkhan in 1295.

1218 – 8 February 1265) was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of Southwest Asia. Under Hulagu's leadership the Mongols destroyed the greatest center of Islamic power Baghdad and also weakened Damascus causing a shift of Islamic influence to the Mamluks in Cairo. Hulagu's army greatly expanded the southwestern portion of the Mongol Empire founding the Ilkhanate of Persia a precursor to the eventual Safavid dynasty and then the modern state of Iran.