Baiju Noyan

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Baiju Noyan (also known as Baichu) was a Mongol commander who operated in the Near East, including Persia, Armenia, Anatolia, and Georgia. He came from the Besut tribe, was related to the general Jebe, and inherited his father’s command when his father died. He served as the second-in-command to Chormaqan and fought Jalal ad-Din near Isfahan in 1228. After Chormaqan became unable to lead in 1241, Baiju took over his troops and became a tümen commander, with orders from Ögedei Khan; after Ögedei’s death, he began taking orders from Batu.

Baiju led campaigns against the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, defeating them at the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243, which forced Rum to become a Mongol vassal and to release David VII Ulu. He pressed for the submission of the Principality of Antioch in 1244 and raided the Abbasid Caliphate in 1245, followed by raids into Syria in 1246. In 1247 he received ambassadors from Pope Innocent IV; the embassy led by Ascelin of Lombardy visited him, and Baiju insulted the pope when the envoy refused to perform a triple genuflection. Ascelin left for Rome later that year.

Baiju was replaced by Eljigidei after political shifts, and his subsequent attempts to invade the Abbasids in 1249–50 were less successful. In the 1240s and 1250s, under Baiju, the Mongols maintained control over much of Iran and tolerated the independence of the Seljuk Rum, Georgia, and other client states, though Baghdad and the Assassins remained autonomous until Hülegü arrived in 1255. Hülegü criticized Baiju for not expanding Mongol power further, and around 1255 Baiju was replaced as supreme commander, though he continued to serve under Hülegü in campaigns against Rum (1256), the assault on Baghdad (1258), and the advance toward Syria (1259).

Baiju’s fate after 1259 is unclear. Some sources say Hülegü executed him for hesitating to join the Baghdad campaign and for secret correspondence with the Caliph Al-Musta'sim, while other accounts disagree. By 1260 the Mongol force in the region was weakened, with Kitbuqa leading the remaining troops.