Tribal people of the inner Asian steppe who, under Genghis Khan and his successors in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, conquered most of Asia apart from India and established an empire from Korea to Hungary. In the Islamic Middle East, Mongol Ilkhanid rule was concentrated in Iran and Iraq, its spread further south and west halted by the Mamluk army at Ayn Jalut in Syria (1260). Mongol conquests were noted for their ferocity and great devastation. Later Ilkhanid rulers rebuilt cities and irrigation works, sponsored agriculture and trade, patronized traditional urban notables and promoted monumental architecture, painting and manuscript illumination.