Subutai

Subutai was a Mongol military commander, born around 1175 near Burkhan Khaldun, who served as the principal strategist for Genghis Khan and later Ogedei Khan and is regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in history and the single greatest in Mongol history. Joining Temujin's forces around age fourteen, he took part in campaigns against the Jin dynasty in China from 1211 and orchestrated the conquest of Xi Xia through an unexpected approach from the west, later commanding at the siege of Kaifeng. In Central Asia he defeated the Merkits and the Cuman-Kipchak confederation and fought the forces of Muhammad II of Khwarazm at the Irghiz River. From 1220 to 1223 he led a great reconnaissance raid through the Caucasus, defeating the kingdom of Georgia and a combined Russian and Cuman army at the Battle of the Kalka River. Between 1236 and 1240 he directed operations that crushed the Volga Bulgars and conquered the Russian principalities, including Vladimir and Kiev, and in 1241 and 1242 he planned and executed a five-pronged invasion of Central Europe, winning a decisive victory over Hungary at the Battle of Mohi. He died in 1248.