 The Ayyubids had been under the nominal sovereignty of the Mongol Empire after a Mongol force targeted Ayyubid territories in Anatolia in 1244 . An @-@ Nasir Yusuf sent an embassy to the Mongol capital Karakorum in 1250 , shortly after assuming power . These understandings did not last , however , and the Mongol Great Khan , Möngke , issued a directive to his brother Hulagu to extend the realms of the empire to the Nile River . The latter raised an army of 120 @,@ 000 and in 1258 , sacked Baghdad and slaughtered its inhabitants , including Caliph al @-@ Musta 'sim and most of his family after the Ayyubids failed to assemble an army to protect the city . That same year the Ayyubids lost Diyar Bakr to the Mongols . 
