The Mongol conquest in the Caucasus was a complex event that took place over a long period of time with many consequences. It took place through a harsh military campaign between 1220 and 1236 and left behind a long trail of blood and destruction on a vast scale. Entire states as well as small, organized local powers were completely leveled. Even from an economic, demographic, and social perspective the effects could hardly be described as minor. In this context the action of Genghis Khan’s successors developed along parallel lines: on one hand, the intransigence of the conquerors towards the rank of the local go­vernors, often suspected of plotting against the foreign invaders; and on the other hand, the need to reconstruct and to give life to a new structural course that stabilized a very wealthy region, but still under severe strain from the war of conquest.

This text divides the Mongolian occupation into four different periods with a concentration on the third phase, between 1251 and 1256 when Mönkge took the throne of the Mongols and reorganized the entire fiscal system in the Cauca­sus. Arghun Aqa was the primary protagonist of this new administra­tive season. His work is still the subject of debate today: Was he an illu­mi­nated official or a tyrannical bureaucrat?

Through the analysis of the sources this essay tries to bring back that his­torical period and the characters in their historical context dispelling where is it pos­sible the issues that still remain unresolved.