Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, variously rendered in English as John of Pian de Carpine, John of Plano Carpini or Joannes de Plano, was a medieval Italian diplomat, archbishop and explorer and one of the first Europeans to enter the court of...

Ögedei Khan, also Ogotai or Oktay, was the third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire by succeeding his father. He continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun, and was the Great Khan when the Mo...

Güyük was the third Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. He was the eldest son of Ögedei Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, and reigned from 1246 to 1248. Genghis Khan's sons and grandsons were haunted by alcoholism, a vice that Genghis himself ha...

Möngke Khan, also transliterated as Mongke, Mongka, Möngka, Mangu or Mangku, was the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from July 1, 1251 – August 11, 1259. He was the first Great Khan from the Toluid line. Under Möngke, the Mongols con...

Kublai Khan was the fifth Khagan (Great Khan) of the Ikh Mongol Uls (Mongol Empire), reigning from 1260 to 1294, and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, a division of the Mongol Empire. Kublai was the fourth son of Tolui and a grandson of G...

Hulagu Khan was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of Southwest Asia. Son of Tolui and the Kerait princess Sorghaghtani Beki, he was a grandson of Genghis Khan, and the brother of Arik Boke, Möngke Khan and Kublai Khan. Hulagu's army greatly...

William of Rubruck was a Flemish Franciscan missionary and explorer. His account is one of the masterpieces of medieval geographical literature comparable to that of Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta. Born in Rubrouck, Flanders, he is known also a...

Marco Polo was a Christian merchant from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò a...

Alauddin Khalji, born as Ali Gurshasp, was the second and the most powerful emperor of the Khalji dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate in the Indian subcontinent. Alauddin instituted a number of significant administrative changes, related...

Longchenpa or Longchen Rabjampa, Tib., klong chen pa, (1308 - 1363 possibly 1369) was a major teacher in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Along with Sakya Pandita and Je Tsongkhapa, he is commonly recognized as one of the three main...

The Hongwu Emperor, personal name Zhu Yuanzhang, was the founder and first emperor 1368-1398 of the Ming Dynasty of China. His era name, Hongwu, means "Immensely Martial." The previous Mongol Yuan Dynasty was perceived as "foreign", and the...

Timur meaning "iron" or Tamerlane in English, was a 14th-century conqueror of much of western and central Asia, founder of the Timurid Empire and Timurid dynasty (1370–1405) in Central Asia, and great great grandfather of Babur, the founder...

The Yongle Emperor, born Zhu Di, was the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty of China from 1402 to 1424. His era name means "Perpetually Jubilant". His usurpation of the throne is now sometimes called the "Second Founding" of the Ming. He is...

Zheng He, formerly romanized as Cheng Ho, was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China's early Ming dynasty. He was originally born as Ma He in a Muslim family, later adopted the conferred surname...

Afonso de Albuquerque, Duke of Goa, was a Portuguese general, admiral, and statesman. He served as Governor of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across the Indian Ocean and built a reputation...