August 11, 1259

Möngke Khan

Möngke Khan dies during the siege of Diaoyucheng

The Great Khan's army left with his body, and the Song fortress it had come to take was still unconquered.

11 August 1259, at Diaoyucheng

Great Khan Möngke died on 11 August 1259 during his unsuccessful campaign against the Southern Song fortress of Diaoyucheng, near modern Chongqing.

“Fishing Town” is a literal rendering of the name. It was a fortified mountain complex near Hezhou, in today's Hechuan District — a 7.7-square-kilometre site defended, according to modern archaeological-historical research, by more than 4,600 troops under Wang Jian.

The cause is genuinely disputed

Möngke's exact cause of death is unknown. Persian accounts derived largely from Rashid al-Din describe epidemic disease; Syriac and later Chinese accounts attribute it to an arrow or a stone projectile.

Rashid al-Din reports dysentery and an epidemic termed wabā, sometimes translated as cholera or plague — wording that cannot establish a modern laboratory diagnosis. Bar Hebraeus reports an arrow; later Chinese histories describe a stone.

The official Yuan annals merely say Möngke felt unwell and later died.

What followed, and when

His death ended his part of the Song campaign. The troops abandoned further operations and withdrew north with his body.

Because he had designated no successor, the death opened a struggle between his brothers Kublai and Ariq Böke. Their competing elections and open civil war followed in 1260, not that day — news travelled slowly, and Kublai reportedly did not learn of the death until mid-September.

The Toluid Civil War ran from 1260 to 1264, ending with Ariq Böke's surrender on 21 August 1264.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.

What the sources leave uncertain

The date and association with the failed siege of Diaoyucheng are well supported, but the cause of death is genuinely disputed.
Rashid al-Din reports dysentery and an epidemic termed wabā, sometimes translated as cholera or plague. That wording cannot establish a modern laboratory diagnosis.
Bar Hebraeus reports an arrow; later Chinese histories describe a stone projectile. The official Yuan annals merely say Möngke felt unwell and later died.
The competing succession assemblies occurred months later in 1260. It is anachronistic to place Kublai's and Ariq Böke's self-elections on 11 August 1259.