The Mongols were the biggest force in their time, and they managed to create the largest empire that the world had ever seen until then. This empire was stretching from the Manchuria and Korea in the east, to Eastern Europe on the west, having Central Asia and the majority of the Middle East under its control.
Genghis Khan actually didn't planned on expanding the Mongol Empire further west, but he wanted to engage into trade with the Middle East and Central Asia. This all changed when the Shah of Khwarazmia killed the people Genghis Khan sent to negotiate about trade and develop relationship. He was furious by this act, so he ordered his best general Subotai to gather a large army and destroy Khwarezmia. The Mongol army quickly managed to do so, but it didn't stopped there, but instead it continued deeper itno the Middle East and attacked the other Muslim countries.
Baghdad was the center of the Islamic world at this period of time, which was the height of the Islamic world as well. The Mongols didn't really cared about it, and they attacked and destroyed the city, as they did with the other ones as well. The end result of the destruction of Baghdad was the end of the so called ''Islamic Golden Age'', from which the Islamic world seems to have never recuperated.
