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Kublai Khan Biography

Ruler

The grandson of marauding conqueror Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan is famous as the founder of the Yuan or Mongol Dynasty of China. Kublai Khan centralized taxes and administration, improved agriculture, and established a famously splendid court at Cambaluc (now Beijing). He also welcomed foreign traders, including the traveler Marco Polo. He was immortalized in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1816 poem Kubla Khan, which begins "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree."

Four Good Links

Kublai Khan

Brief summary with a list of his achievements

The Mongols in World History

Great comprehensive resource from Columbia University

Kublai Khan Rules China

From a larger site on China and Asia

Coleridge's Kubla Khan

Full text of the famous poem plus a few notes

Vital Stats

Birth

1215 (?)

Birthplace

?

Death

1294

Best Known As

Founder of the Mongol Dynasty in China