| Kublai also spelled KHUBILAI,
OR KUBLA Mongolian general and statesman, grandson of Genghis Khan. He conquered China
and became the first emperor of its Yüan, or Mongol, dynasty. He was thus at one and the
same time the overlord of all the Mongol dominions--which included areas as diverse as
that of the Golden Horde in southern Russia, the Il-Khanate
of Persia, and the steppe heartlands where Mongol princes were still living the
traditional nomadic life--and the ruler of his own realm of China. To govern China, with
its long and individual political and cultural history, demanded statecraft of a special
order.
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