Bayan of the Baarin

Bayan of the Baarin (Mongolian: Баян; 1236 – January 11, 1295), or Boyan (), was an ethnic Mongol general of the Yuan dynasty of China. He was known to Marco Polo as "Bayan Hundred Eyes" (probably from a confusion with ). He commanded the army of Kublai Khan against the Southern Song dynasty, ushering in the Southern Song collapse and the conquest of southern China by the Yuan dynasty. "Bayan" literally means "rich" in the Mongolian language. Born a grandnephew of Nayagha, a general under Genghis Khan, Bayan came from the Mongol Baarin tribe. Nayagha, together with Bayan's grandfather Alagh and Alagh's and Nayagha's father Shirgügetü Ebügen, appear in the Secret History of the Mongols. However, at least one well-respected scholar presents Bayan as a Turk whose family had long served the Great Khans. His grandfather Alagh was the viceroy in Khorazm province under the Mongol Empire. Bayan's father died during the Mongol siege of the stronghold of the Assassins (Hashshashin). While Bayan served in Persia with Hulegu's army, Kublai Khan recalled him. Kublai liked him, but he did not hold commanding rank in the Yuan army. After the success of the Battle of Xiangyang in 1273, Kublai appointed Bayan as the commander of the Yuan army and general Aju agreed the decision. Bayan married the niece of Kublai's Khatun Chabi of the Kunggirat. Bayan of the Baarin is wrongly said to have had an Iranian or Persian wife but the biography Xiao wrote on Bayan of Baarin does not mention the ethnicity of the wife and says that it was a wife "in Persia". The Song Emperor Duzong died in 1274, and his three-year-old son Zhao Xian became the Emperor Gongdi (reigned 1274–1276). The Mongols sent Shi Tianze and Bayan on a full-scale campaign against the Song. Shi Tianze died en route. Bayan ordered that Aju head the first column and depart for the Yangtze from Xiangyang, with Lu Wenhuan as fore-runner general; the second column headed by Mang-wu would depart from Yangzhou, with Liu Zheng as forerunner general.