Mongol invasion After the Crusades from the West that resulted in the instability of the Islamic world during the 11th century, a new threat came from the East during the 13th century: the Mongol invasions. In 1206, Genghis Khan from Central Asia established a powerful Mongol Empire. A Mongolian ambassador to the Abbasid Leader in Baghdad is said to have been murdered, which may have been one of the reasons behind Hulagu Khan’s sack of Baghdad in 1258.
