The Yuan Dynasty ( ; pinyin: Yuáncháo; Yuan Güren ) was a khanate of the Mongol Empire, considered the center of the four major divisions of the empire, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. In the historiography of China, the Yuan dynasty followed the Song Dynasty and preceded the Ming Dynasty. The dynasty was established by ethnic Mongols under Kublai Khan (the last Great Khan) (although Kublai Khan placed his grandfather Genghis Khan on the official record as the founder of the dynasty or Taizu), and he had nominal control over the Mongol Empire (stretching from Eastern Asia to the fertile crescent to Russia and eastern Europe) because of his title of Khagan, which was however unrecognized by all but one of the other khanates. Later successors never attempted to stake claim over the Khagan title and saw themselves as Emperor of China, as the Yuan Dynasty became another one of the long list of dynasties in the history of imperial China.