West Asia
The Mongols conquered, either by force or voluntary submission, the areas today known as Iran, Iraq, Syria, and parts of Turkey, with further Mongol raids reaching southwards as far as Gaza into the Palestine region in 1260 and 1300. The major battles were the Siege of Baghdad (1258), when the Mongols sacked the city which for 500 years had been the center of Islamic power; and the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, when the Muslim Egyptian Mamluks, were for the first time able to stop the Mongol advance at Ain Jalut, in the northern part of what today is known as the West Bank. One thousand northern Chinese engineer squads accompanied the Mongol Khan Hulagu during his conquest of the Middle East.
The Mongols were never able to expand farther than the Middle East due to a combination of political and environmental factors, such as lack of sufficient grazing room for their horses.
Read more about this topic: Mongol Conquests
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