But as it turned out, Hülagü and his successors had strictly limited success against the Mamluks. Descended from steppe nomads themselves, highly disciplined and adept at warfare, the Mamluks proved to be the bulwark that set the limits of Mongol expansion in the Levant. They secured Egypt, Palestine, and eventually much of Syria, and by the end of the thirteenth century had ended any Mongol drive into north Africa or Arabia. What this meant was that the Mongols of the Ilkhanate effectively became the latest rulers of the old Persian empire, and as they settled into this role, they gradually
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