Muqali

Muqali (; 1170–1223), also spelt Mukhali and Mukhulai, was a Mongol general who became a trusted and esteemed commander under Genghis Khan. The son of Gü'ün U'a, a Jalair leader who had sworn fealty to the Mongols, he became known by his epithet "Muqali" ('one who dulls'), earned through his committed and able service to the Great Khan and the Mongol Empire.

By the time of Ogedei's reign (1229–1241), he was viewed as the best of the extraordinarily talented pool of Mongol generals. Given his undefeated record despite very limited resources, he might be regarded as the greatest military commander in history. He was "unquestionably one of the leading Mongol personalities and a supreme leader". Several servants of Genghis Khan would be later appointed to prominent positions in his army, such as Jelme, who was promised as a slave to Genghis as an infant, and later rose to the position of captain of a Mingghan. During his time spent as Genghis Khan's servant, he and Genghis Khan presumably became very close. This intimacy would result in him becoming one of Genghis' closest advisors. a title not given to any other in Genghis Khan's army, and the title of taishi, a Chinese title also used by the Mongols. Muqali also set up a Chinese-style court protocol and wore Chinese-style imperial robes. Despite Genghis Khan having taken most of the main Mongol forces away and being sent to the West, Muqali was able to subdue most of northern China with his small force of around 20,000 Mongols, men to account for his foreign auxiliaries.

In 1217, Muqali attacked modern-day Hebei Province, northern Shandong Province, and northern Shaanxi Province, four towns were captured, but the hard-pressed Jin forces managed to hold on elsewhere in the province. After suffering a number of devastating defeats by Muqali in the field, the Jin learned that they could only hope to resist him by holding their cities and outlasting Muqali's staying power.

Final campaign and death

Muqali's last campaign was in the 1220s. He crossed the Ordos in mid-1221, spending the rest of the year conquering major cities in northern and central Shaanxi. He crossed the Yellow River into Shaanxi, first conquering, in November 1221, the strategic Jiazhou. Then, in the following months, he conquered the major Jin strongholds in northern and western Shaanxi. Although the gui ong title passed to his descendants, his autonomous command and civil authority in North China was broken up. Subsequently the gui ong and his family (Qurumchi and Nayan) became increasingly "civil" (as opposed to martial) or Confucianised in their behaviour and were sidelined during the reign of Mongke Khan; later the family joined the Confucianizing party of Kublai Khan.

Legacy He received many posthumous honours, since as early as the 1320s.

Muqali is considered a superb leader, and one of the "very few men who could exert a real influence on Genghis Khan's decisions".