Ariq Böke
Mongol prince proclaimed Great Khan at Karakorum
Biography
Ariq Böke was the youngest son of Tolui and thus the brother of Great Khan Möngke, of Kublai and of Hülegü. While his brothers campaigned in China and Persia, he stayed in the capital, Karakorum, charged with holding the homeland. Born and raised on the steppe, he believed the old Mongol life and customs should be kept intact, and the princes and commanders of the grasslands followed him for it.
When Möngke died on campaign in 1259 the succession broke open. Kublai held a kurultai at his own base of Kaiping in 1260 and was proclaimed Great Khan; a month later Ariq Böke held one in Karakorum and was proclaimed as well. His claim rested on holding the capital and on having been elected in the Mongol homeland itself.
But Karakorum sat in open grassland and had to be fed from the farming south. Once Kublai seized the supply routes, a hungry winter stripped away his supporters one by one, and in 1264 he came to Shangdu and submitted to his brother. Kublai outwardly spared him but executed the men who had backed him. Ariq Böke died suddenly two years later in 1266. While official chronicles allied with Kublai claimed he died of a natural illness, rumors persisted that he was poisoned or starved on Kublai's orders due to the political threat he still posed.