Editing Eighth Crusade (section)

===The death of Hulagu and rise of Abaqa===
[[File:AbaqaEnthroned.png|thumb|[[Abaqa]] with Doquz Khatun.]]
Hulagu died of natural causes in February 1265, weakening the Mongols' position. His widow Doquz Khatun secured the succession for her step-son [[Abaqa Khan|Abaqa]], a Buddhist who was then governor of Turkestan. Before his death, Hulagu had been negotiating with [[Michael VIII Palaiologos]] to add a daughter of the Byzantine imperial family to his large number of wives. The emperor's illegitimate daughter [[Maria Palaiologina]] was sent in 1265, escorted by Euthymius. Since Hulagu died before Maria arrived, she was instead married to Abaqa. Abaqa's transition to [[Ilkhanate|Ilkhan]] was slow, and was continually threatened by the Golden Horde, invading his territory the next spring as part of an alliance with the Mamluks. The hostilities continued until the death of Berke in 1267. [[Kublai Khan]] attempted to intervene and the new khan [[Mengu-Timur|Möngke-Temür]] did not launch a major invasion into Abaqa's territory. Nevertheless, Möngke-Temür maintained the alliance with Baibars, who then felt that he could resume his campaigns against the Christians without fear of interference.{{sfn|Runciman|1954|pp=318–319|loc=Death of Hulagu}}