The Buhturid emirate in the Gharb passed to Muhammad's sons Jamal al-Din Hajji II (d. 1298) and Sa'd al-Din Khidr (d. 1314) and their father's cousin, Zayn al-Din Salih (d. 1296). Their leadership coincided with a particularly turbulent period in the Levant: the Crusaders had regained their control of the Levantine coastlands amid Ayyubid infighting, the Mamluks had toppled the Ayyubids of Egypt in 1250 and moved to wrest control of their emirates in the Levant, while the Mongols conquered and destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate in Iraq in 1258 and afterward invaded the Levant. According to Salibi, the unstable political circumstances of the region left the Buhturids to "have a foot in every camp and thus ingratiate all the parties concerned". To that end the family maintained relatively cordial ties with the Crusader lords of Beirut and Sidon, made assurances of loyalty to the Ayyubid emirs, requested negotiations with the Mamluks of Egypt and had been willing to accommodate the Mongols. Their historian Salih ibn Yahya records and dates letters recognizing their leadership of the Gharb the Ayyubid emir of Damascus al-Nasir Yusuf, the Mamluk sultan Aybak, the Mongol ruler Hulagu and the lords of Beirut and Sidon.