Kitbuqa

Kitbuqa Noyan (Mongolian: Хитбух; Kazakh: Кетбұға Жырау; died 1260) was a Nestorian Christian of the Naiman Turkic, a group that was subservient to the Mongol Empire. He was a lieutenant and confidant of the Mongol Ilkhan Hulagu, assisting him in his conquests in the Middle East. When Hulagu took the bulk of his forces back with him to attend a ceremony in Mongolia, Kitbuqa was left in control of Syria, and was responsible for further Mongol raids southwards towards Egypt. He was killed at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.

In 1252, Möngke Khan ordered Kitbuqa to battle the fortresses of the Ismaili Nizaris. He advanced with Hulagu into western Persia, mounting a series of sieges, and commanded one of the flanks that sacked Baghdad, before assisting in the conquest of Damascus in 1260. Historical accounts, quoting from the writings of the medieval historian Templar of Tyre, would often describe the three Christian rulers (Hetoum I of Armenia, Bohemond VI of Antioch, and Kitbuqa) entering the city of Damascus together in triumph, though modern historians have characterized this story as apocryphal.

When Hulagu Khan withdrew his forces, responding to internal events in the Mongol Empire (the death of Hulagu's brother, the Great Möngke Khan), Kitbuqa was left in charge of the Mongol army remaining in the Middle East:

"Kitbuqa, who had been left by Hulagu in Syria and Palestine, held the Land in peace and in state of rest. And he greatly loved and honoured the Christians because he was of the lineage of the Three Kings of Orient who came to Bethlehem to adore the nativity of Our Lord. Kitbuqa worked at recovering the Holy Land"

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