Following Mongolian tradition, Genghis Khan divided the empire between his four favourite sons on his death, while a general assembly of Mongol nobles voted his middle son Ögödei ‘great khan’. During this period, expansion continued: the Mongols conquered Russia and staged raids on Poland and even Germany. They also further expanded into Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The division of the empire led to fueds after Ögödei’s death, however as Genghis Khan’s children and grandchildren fought to be the ‘Great Khan’. While all his descendants continued to expand Mongol territory, the Empire became so vast that there was little cultural consistency. The descendants of Genghis Khan began to identify with the cultures they conquered, such as Kublai Khan, the first non-Chinese person to conquer all of China. Mongolia was no longer the heart of the Mongolian Empire. While the Mongols would eventually be expelled from China, Genghis Khan’s descendants would shape world history. Most famous is the ruler Timur (Tamerlane), who tried to regain Mongol power, staging invasions from India to Russia. Tamerlane’s descendants ruled Central Asia for centuries, and his descendent Babur would conquer Delhi, beginning the powerful Mughal Empire of India (note the similarities between Mongol and Mughal). In Iran, the descendants of Mongol rulers in the Middle East – known as the Il-Khans – ruled for centuries, creating a culture that fused Mongol, Chinese, Iranian and Turkish elements, particularly in the famed Chinese-style miniatures of the 13th and 14th centuries; while in Russia the last khanate was defeated as late as 1783.