Franco-Mongol alliance

Among the Christian states in the Levant, the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (in blue) and the northern Frank realms of the Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli (green) were the most regular allies/subjects of the Mongols, and were required to supply troops to participate in Mongol campaigns.

Many attempts were made towards forming a Franco-Mongol alliance between the mid-1200s and the early 1300s, starting around the time of the Seventh Crusade. Historians note that in hindsight, an alliance between the Mongols and the Franks often appears a logical choice. The Mongols were already very sympathetic to Christianity as many Mongols were Nestorian Christians. The Europeans were open to the idea of assistance coming from the East, due to the longrunning legend of a mythical Prester John, an Eastern king in a magical kingdom who many believed would arrive someday to help with the fight in the Holy Land. The Mongols and the Franks also shared a common enemy in the Muslims. There were numerous exchanges of letters, gifts and emissaries between the Mongols and the Europeans as well as offers for varying types of cooperation. However, despite many attempts, there was never any long-term successful military collaboration. Modern historians also debate whether or not such an alliance, if it had been successful, would have been effective in shifting the balance of power in the region, and/or whether or not it would have been a wise choice on the part of the Europeans. Traditionally, the Mongols tended to see outside parties as either subjects, or enemies, with little room in the middle for something such as an ally.

The closest thing to actual Frankish cooperation with Mongol military actions was the overlord-subject relationship between the Mongols and the Frankish Principality of Antioch. Other Christian vassal states included Georgia, and Cilician Armenia. Once these countries had submitted, they were required to provide military forces to fight under the Mongol banner, and these forces often showed great enthusiasm in attacking Muslim targets.

The most successful points of both collaboration and non-collaboration between the Mongols and the Christians were in 1260, when most of Muslim Syria was briefly conquered by the joint efforts of the Mongols and the Christians of Armenia and Antioch. However, that same year there were other Christians, the Franks of Acre, who entered into a passive truce with the other side, the Egyptian Mamluks. This unusual neutrality on the part of the Franks allowed the Muslim Egyptians to advance northwards through Palestine, to obtain a major and historic success against the Mongols at 1260's pivotal Battle of Ain Jalut.

The Mongols again invaded Syria several times between 1281 and 1312, sometimes in attempts at joint operations with the Europeans, though there were considerable logistical difficulties involved, which usually resulted in the forces arriving months apart, and being unable to satisfactorily combine their activities. Ultimately, the attempts at alliance bore little fruit, and ended with the victory of the Egyptian Mamluks, the total eviction of both the Franks and the Mongols from Palestine by 1303, and a treaty of peace between the Mongols and the Mamluks in 1323, the Treaty of Aleppo.

Early contacts (1209-1244)

See also: Christianity among the Mongols

Among Europeans, there had long been rumors and expectations that a great Christian ally would come from "the East." These rumors circulated as early as the First Crusade, and usually surged in popularity after the loss of a battle by the Crusaders, which resulted in a natural human desire that a Christian hero would arrive from a distant land, to help save the day. This resulted in the development of a legend about a figure known as Prester John. The legend fed upon itself, and some individuals who came from the East were greeted with the expectations that they might be the long-awaited Christian heroes. For example, around 1210, news reached the West of the battles of the Mongol Kuchlug, leader of the largely Christian tribe of the Naiman, against the powerful Khwarezmian Empire, whose leader was Muhammad II of Khwarezm. Rumors circulated in Europe that Kuchlug was the mythical Prester John, and was again battling the Muslims in the East.

In 1221, during the Fifth Crusade, as the Christians were unsuccessfully laying siege to the Egyptian city of Damietta, the legends of Prester John were again conflated with the reality of the Mongols under Genghis Khan. Mongol raiding parties were beginning to invade the eastern Islamic world, in Transoxania and Persia in 1219-1221. Rumors circulated among the Crusaders that a "Christian king of the Indies", a King David who was either Prester John or one of his descendants, had been attacking Muslims in the East, and was on his way to help the Christians in their Crusades. In a letter dated June 20, 1221, Pope Honorius III even commented about "forces coming from the Far East to rescue the Holy Land".

Genghis Khan died in 1227, and his Empire was split up into four sections, or Khanates, for each of his sons. The northwestern Kipchak Khanate, also known as the Golden Horde, began to encroach upon Europe, primarily via Hungary and Poland. The southwestern section, known as the Ilkhanate, was under the leadership of Genghis Khan's son Hulagu and continued to advance towards Persia and the Holy Land.

See also: Mongol invasions of Georgia and Armenia

See also: Mongol invasion of Europe

Papal overtures (1245-1248)

File:Letter from Guyuk to Innocent IV.gif

The 1246 letter of Güyük to Pope Innocent IV, written in Persian

The Mongol invasion of Europe subsided in 1242 with the death of the Great Khan Ögedei, successor of Genghis Khan. However, the relentless march westward of the Mongols had displaced the Khawarizmi Turks, who themselves moved west, and on their way to ally with the Ayyubid muslims in Egypt, took Jerusalem from the Christians in 1244. This event prompted Christian kings to prepare for a new Crusade, decided by Pope Innocent IV at the First Council of Lyon in June 1245, and revived hopes that the Mongols, who had their Nestorian Christian princesses among them and had brought so much destruction to Islam, could be converted to Christianity and become allies of Christendom.

In 1245, Pope Innocent IV issued bulls and sent an envoy in the person of the Franciscan John of Plano Carpini to the "Emperor of the Tartars". The message initiated what was to be a regular pattern in Christian-Mongol communications: Pope Innocent asked the Mongol ruler to become a Christian and to stop killing Christians. The new Mongol khan Guyuk, installed at Karakorum in 1246, replied with a demand for the submission of the Pope and a visit from the rulers of the West in homage to Mongol power:

"You must say with a sincere heart: "We will be your subjects; we will give you our strength". You must in person come with your kings, all together, without exception, to render us service and pay us homage. Only then will we acknowledge your submission. And if you do not follow the order of God, and go against our orders, we will know you as our enemy."

— Letter from Güyük to Pope Innocent IV, 1246.

This pattern, of the Europeans asked for conversion and the Mongols asking for submission, was to be repeated over and over during the coming decades. Innocent sent another mission, through another route, led by the Dominican Ascelin of Lombardia, also bearing letters. The mission met with the Mongol commander Baiju near the Caspian Sea in 1247. Baichu, who had plans to capture Baghdad, welcomed the possibility of an alliance and had envoys, Aïbeg and Serkis, accompany the embassy back to Rome, where they stayed for about a year. They met with Innocent IV in 1248, who again appealed to the Mongols to stop their killing of Christians.

Christian vassals

See also: Mongol invasions of Georgia and Armenia

As the Ilkhanid empire continued to move towards the Holy Land, city after city fell to the Mongols. The typical Mongol pattern was to give a region one chance to surrender. If the target acquiesced, the Mongols absorbed the populace and warriors into their own Mongol army, which they would then use to further expand the empire. If a community did not surrender, the Mongols moved in and simply slaughtered everyone, thousands at a time. Accordingly, many communities simply surrendered immediately, including some Christian realms in the path of the Mongols. Christian Georgia was repeatedly attacked starting in 1220, and in 1243 Queen Rusudan formally submitted to the Mongols, turning Georgia into a vassal state which then became a regular ally in the Mongol military conquests. King Hetoum I of Armenia submitted in 1247, and became the main conduit of diplomacy between the Mongols and the Europeans, as he strongly encouraged other European monarchs to follow his own example. He sent his brother Sempad to the Mongol court in Karakorum, and Sempad's positive letters (some call them propaganda) about the Mongols were influential in European circles. However, the only monarch who followed Hetoum's advice was his son-in-law, Prince Bohemond VI of Antioch.

Antioch

Coat of arms of Bohemond VI of Antioch

When Bohemond VI of Antioch, under the influence of his father-in-law king Hetoum I of Armenia, submitted to Hulagu around the 1250s, a Mongol representative and a Mongol garrison were stationed in the capital city, where they remained until the Principality was destroyed by the Mamluks in 1268. Bohemond was also required by the Mongols to accept the restoration of a Greek Orthodox patriarch, Euthymius, as a way of strengthening ties between the Mongols and the Byzantines. In return for this loyalty, Hulagu awarded Bohemond all the Antiochene territories which had been lost to the Muslims in 1243. But for his relations with the Mongols, Bohemond was also temporarily excommunicated by Jacques Pantaléon, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, though this was lifted in 1263.

In 1262, the Mamluk leader Baibars threatened Antioch for its association with the Mongols. Baibars attempted an attack, but Antioch was saved by Mongol intervention. In later years however the Mongols were not able to offer as much support. In 1264–1265 the Mongols were only able to attack the frontier fort of Al-Bira, and in 1268 Baibars completely overran the area, and the hundred-year-old principality was no more. After this defeat, Bohemond obtained a truce with Baibars, but was left with no estates except Tripoli. In 1271, Baibars then sent a letter to Bohemond threatening him with total annihilation and taunting him for his alliance with the Mongols:

"Our yellow flags have repelled your red flags, and the sound of the bells has been replaced by the call: "Allâh Akbar!" (...) Warn your walls and your churches that soon our siege machinery will deal with them, your knights that soon our swords will invite themselves in their homes (...) We will see then what use will be your alliance with Abagha."

— Letter from Baibars to Bohemond VI, 1271

Saint Louis and the Mongols

Main articles: Seventh Crusade and Louis IX of France

Louis IX of France had engaged in communications with the Mongols since his first Crusade, when he was met on December 20, 1248 in Cyprus by two Mongol envoys, Nestorians from Mossul named David and Marc, who brought a letter from the Mongol commander in Persia, Eljigidei. The letter communicated a proposal to form an alliance against the Muslim Ayyubids, whose Caliphate was based in Baghdad. Eljigidei suggested that King Louis should land in Egypt, while Eljigidei attacked Baghdad, as a way of preventing the Saracens of Egypt and those of Syria from joining forces. Louis responded by sending an emissary to the Great Khan Güyük in Mongolia. However, Güyük died, from drink, before the emissary arrived at his court, and his widow Oghul Ghaimish simply gave the emissary a gift and a condescending letter to take back to King Louis, demanding that the king pay tribute to the Mongols.

Statue of Louis IX at the Sainte Chapelle, Paris.

Louis IX's crusade against Egypt did not go well. Despite initial success in capturing Damietta, he then lost his entire army at the Battle of al Mansurah and he was himself captured by the Egyptians. His release was eventually negotiated, in return for a ransom (some of which was a loan from the Templars), and the surrender of the city of Damietta.

A few years later, in 1252, Louis tried unsuccessfully to ally with the Egyptians, and then in 1253 he tried to seek allies from among both the Ismailian Assassins and again from the Mongols. When he saw a letter from the Armenian noble Sempad which spoke well of the Mongols, Louis dispatched the Franciscan William of Rubruck to the Mongol court. However, the Mongol leader Möngke replied only with a letter via William in 1254, asking for the King's submission to Mongol authority.

King Louis attempted a second crusade (the Eighth Crusade) in 1270. The Mongol Ilkhanate leader Abaqa wrote to Louis IX offering military support as soon as the Crusaders landed in Palestine, but Louis instead went to Tunis in modern Tunisia. His intention was evidently to first conquer Tunis, and then to move his troops along the coast to reach Alexandria in Egypt. Some historians say that this Crusade may still have been an attempt at coordination with the Mongols, in that Louis may have attacked Tunis instead of Syria following a message from Abaqa that he would not be able to commit his forces in 1270, and asking to postpone the campaign to 1271.

Envoys from the Byzantine emperor, the Armenians and the Mongols of Abaqa were present at Tunis, but events put a stop to plans for a continued Crusade, as Louis died there of illness. According to legend, his last words were "Jerusalem".

Relations with the Ilkhanate

Hulagu (1256-1265)

Main article: Hulagu Khan

A certain amount of military collaboration between the Christians and the Mongols did not really take place until 1258-1260, when the forces of Bohemond VI of Antioch, Hetoum I of Armenia, and the Christian Georgians combined forces with the Mongols under the leader of the Mongol Ilkhanate, Hulagu, a grandson of Genghis Khan. Though an avowed shamanist, Hulagu was nevertheless very tolerant of Christianity. His mother Sorghaghtani Beki, his favorite wife, and several of his closest collaborators were Nestorian Christians. One of his most important generals, Kitbuqa, was a Naiman Christian.

Hulagu's army, with the forces of his Christian subjects, effectively destroyed two of the most powerful Muslim dynasties of the era. Both that of the Abbasids in Baghdad, and the Ayyubids in Syria.

Fall of Baghdad

Mongol attack of Baghdad (1258)

Main article: Battle of Baghdad (1258)

Baghdad, the seat of the Abbasid dynasty, the jewel of Islam and one of the largest and most powerful cities in the world for 500 years, fell on February 15, 1258, an event often considered as the single most catastrophic event in the history of Islam. The Christian Georgians had been the first to breach the walls, and were among the fiercest in their destruction. When Hulagu conquered the city, the Mongols demolished buildings, burned entire neighborhoods, and massacred nearly 80,000 men, women, and children. But at the intervention of Hulagu's Nestorian Christian wife, the Christian inhabitants were spared.

After Baghdad, in 1260 the Mongols with their Christian subjects conquered Muslim Syria, domain of the Ayyubid dynasty. They took together the city of Aleppo, and on March 1, 1260, the Mongols with the Armenians and the Franks of Antioch took Damascus, under the Christian Mongol general Kitbuqa. The three Christian rulers entered the city of Damascus together in triumph. Mass was celebrated in the Grand Mosque of the Umayyads (the former cathedral of Saint John the Baptist), and numerous mosques were profaned.

With both the Abbasid and Ayyubid dynasties destroyed, the Near East was never again to dominate civilization. The last Ayyubid king An-Nasir Yusuf died in 1260, and with the Islamic power centers of Baghdad and Damascus gone, the center of Islamic power transferred to the Egyptian Mamluks in Cairo.

However, before the Mongols could continue their advance towards Egypt, they needed to withdraw because of a new internal conflict in Turkestan. Hulagu departed with the bulk of his forces, leaving only about 10,000 Mongol horsemen in Syria under Kitbuqa to occupy the conquered territory. Some Mongol raiding parties were sent southwards into Palestine towards Egypt, with small Mongol garrisons of about 1,000 established in Gaza and Naplouse.

Incidents

See also: Mongol raids into Palestine

With Mongol territory now bordering the Franks, a few incidents occurred, one of them leading to an incident in Sidon. Julian de Grenier, Lord of Sidon and Beaufort, described by his contemporaries as irresponsible and light-headed, took the opportunity to raid and plunder the area of the Bekaa in Mongol territory. When the Mongol general Kitbuqa sent his nephew with a small force to obtain redress, they were ambushed and killed by Julian. Kitbuqa responded forcefully by raiding the city of Sidon, although the Castle of the city was left unattained. Another similar incident occurred when John II of Beirut and some Templars led a raid into Galilee. These events generated a significant level of distrust between the Mongols and the Crusader forces, whose own center of power was now in the coastal city of Acre.

The incidents also raised the ire of the Mamluk leader Baibars. He declared that the treaty that had been signed between the Crusaders and the Mamluks in 1240 had been invalidated when Christian forces assisted the Mongols to capture Damascus. He demanded the evacuation of Saphet and Beaufort, and when the Christians balked, Baibars used that as his excuse to violate the pre-existing truce, and start launching new attacks on such settlements as Nazareth, Mount Tabor, and Bethlehem.

Battle of Ain Jalut

Main article: Battle of Ain Jalut

The Franks of the Principality of Antioch and the County of Tripoli and the Armenians aside, other Christians worked against the Mongols. The Patriarch of Jerusalem saw the Mongols as a clear threat, and had written to the Pope to warn him about them in 1256.

In 1260, the Franks of Acre maintained a position of cautious neutrality between the Mongols and the Mamluks. The powerful Venetian commercial interests in the city regarded with concern the expansion of the northern trade routes opened by the Mongols and serviced by the Genoese, and they favoured an appeasement policy with the Mamluks, that would support their traditional trade routes to the south. In May 1260 they sent a letter to Charles of Anjou, complaining about Mongol expansion and Bohemond's subservience to them, and asking for his support.

The Franks did send the Dominican David of Ashby to the court of Hulagu in 1260, but also entered into a passive truce with the Egyptian Mamluks. The Barons of Acre allowed the Mamluk forces to move through Christian territory unhampered in order to engage the Mongols, in exchange for an agreement to purchase captured Mongol horses at a low price in the event of a Mamluk victory (a promise which was not honoured by the Mamluks).

The truce allowed the Mamluks to proceed north with their army and engage the Mongols at the pivotal Battle of Ain Jalut on September 3, 1260, where they achieved a decisive and historic victory. It was the first major battle that the Mongols lost, and set the western border for what had seemed an unstoppable expansion of the Mongol Empire.

Following Ain Jalut, the remainder of the Mongol army retreated to Cilician Armenia under the commander Ilka, where the Mongols were received and re-equipped by Hetoum I.

Papal communications

Pope Urban IV communicated with the Mongols in 1263

A change occurred in the European perception of the Mongols around 1260. As recently as 1259, Pope Alexander IV had been encouraging a new Crusade against the Mongols, and had been extremely disappointed in hearing that the monarchs of Antioch and Armenia had submitted to Mongol overlordship. Alexander had put their cases on the agenda of his upcoming council, but died in 1261 just months before the Council could be convened, and before the new Crusade could be launched.

For a new Pope, the choice fell to Pantaléon, the same Patriarch of Jerusalem who had earlier been warning of the Mongol threat. He took the name Pope Urban IV, and tried to raise money for a new crusade, but could not succeed, since the French clergy pointed out that there was a truce with the Muslims.

On April 10, 1262, the Mongol leader Hulagu sent through John the Hungarian a new letter to the French king Louis IX, offering again an alliance. The letter mentioned Hulagu's intention to capture Jerusalem for the benefit of the Pope, and asked for Louis to send a fleet against Egypt. Though Hulagu promised the restoration of Jerusalem to the Christians, he also still insisted on Mongol sovereignty, in the Mongols' quest for conquering the world.

King Louis transmitted the letter to Pope Urban, who answered in the same way as his predecessors, by asking for Hulagu's conversion to Christianity. However, the timing of Hulagu's communication was good, as the Muslim Sultan Baibars was engaging in new offensives against the Crusaders. This made Westerners more open to the idea of an alliance, and the Pope issued the papal bull Exultavit cor nostrum, which congratulated Hulagu on his expression of goodwill towards the Christian faith. This was a turning point in the relations with the Mongols, after which the Mongols were considered more as potential allies, than as enemies. The French historian Jean Richard argues that it was in response to this forming coalition between the Franks, Ilkhanid Mongols and Byzantines, that the Mongols of the Golden Horde allied with the Muslim Mamluks in return.

Abaqa (1265-1282)

The Mamluks defeated the Armenians at the Battle of Mari in 1266, killing one of Hetoum I's sons and capturing another (the future king Leon II). They then ravaged the land of Little Armenia.

Main article: Abaqa Khan

Hulagu died in 1265, and was succeeded by Abaqa (1234-1282), who further pursued Western cooperation. Though a devout Buddhist, upon his succession, he received the hand of the Christian Maria Despina Palaiologina, the illegitimate daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, in marriage.

Abaqa corresponded with Pope Clement IV through 1267-1268, and reportedly sent a Mongol ambassador in 1268. He proposed a joint alliance between his forces, those of the West, and the Byzantine emperor, Michael VIII Palaeologos (Abaqa's father-in-law). Abaqa received responses from Rome and from Jaume I of Aragon, who sent an ambassador to Abaqa in the person of Jayme Alaric de Perpignan. It is unclear if this was what led to Jaume's unsuccessful expedition to Acre in 1269. Jaume initiated the small Aragonese Crusade, but it was ultimately handled by his two sons Fernando Sanchez and Pedro Fernandez after a storm forced most of the fleet to return. The ships arrived in Acre in December 1269. Abaqa, despite his earlier promises of an alliance, was in the process of facing another threat, an invasion in Khorasan by fellow Mongols from Turkestan, and so could only commit a small force for the Holy Land, which did little but brandish the threat of an invasion along the Syrian frontier in October 1269.

Jaume's ambassador Jayme Alaric returned to Europe in 1269 with a Mongol embassy, again proposing an alliance. Pope Clement welcomed Abaqa's proposal in a non-committal manner, but did inform him of an upcoming Crusade.

Edward I's Crusade (1269-1274)

Edward I requested assistance of the Mongols, against the Mamluks

In 1269, the English Prince Edward (the future Edward I), inspired by tales of his uncle, Richard the Lionheart, and the second crusade of the French King Louis, started on a Crusade of his own, the Ninth Crusade. The number of knights and retainers that accompanied Edward on the crusade was quite small, possibly around 230 knights, with a total complement of approximately 1,000 people, transported in a flotilla of 13 ships. Edward understood the value of an alliance with the Mongols, and upon his arrival in Acre on May 9, 1271, he immediately sent an embassy to the Mongol ruler Abaqa, requesting assistance. Abaqa answered positively to Edward's request, but was also still busy with other conflicts in Turkestan. He did send 10,000 Mongol horsemen under general Samagar from the occupation army in Seljuk Anatolia, plus auxiliary Seljukid troops, and though the force was small, it triggered an exodus of Muslim populations (who remembered the previous campaigns of Kitbuqa) as far south as Cairo. Edward, for his part, was never able to actually directly combine his activities with those of the Mongols. He primarily engaged in some fairly ineffectual raids that did not actually achieve success in gaining any new territory. For example, when he engaged in a raid into the Plain of Sharon, he proved unable to even take the small Mamluk fortress of Qaqun. The Muslim leader Baibars later taunted Edward for not even being able to take a small fortified house. However, Edward's military operations, limited though they were, were still of assistance in persuading the Mamluk leader Baibars to agree to a 10-year truce between the city of Acre and the Mamluks, signed in 1272.

Council of Lyon (1274)

Pope Gregory X promulgated a new Crusade in liaison with the Mongols, in 1274.

In 1274, Pope Gregory convened the Second Council of Lyon. Abaqa sent a delegation of 13-16 Mongols to the Council, which created a great stir, particularly when their leader underwent a public baptism. Abaqa's Latin secretary Richardus (Rychaldus) delivered a report to the Council which outlined previous European-Ilkhanid relations under Abaqa's father, Hulagu, affirming that after Hulagu had welcomed Christian ambassadors to his court, he had agreed to exempt Latin Christians from taxes and charges, in exchange for their prayers for the Qaghan. According to Richardus, Hulagu had also prohibited the molestation of Frank establishments, and had committed to return Jerusalem to the Franks. Richardus told the assembly that even after Hulagu's death, Abaqa was still determined to drive the Mamluks from Syria.

At the Council, Pope Gregory promulgated a new Crusade, to start in 1278 in liaison with the Mongols. The Pope put in place a vast program to launch the Crusade, which was written down in his “Constitutions for the zeal of the faith”. The text put forward four main decisions to accomplish the Crusade: the imposition of a new tax during three years, the interdiction of any kind of trade with the Sarazins, the supply of ships by the Italian maritime Republics, and the alliance of the West with Byzantium and the Il-Khan Abagha.

Following these exchanges, Abagha sent another embassy, led by the Georgian Vassali brothers, to further notify Western leaders of military preparations. Gregory answered that his legates would accompany the Crusade, and that they would be in charge of coordinating military operations with the Il-Khan.

However, the papal plans were not supported by the other European monarchs, who had lost enthusiasm for the Crusades. Only one western monarch attended the Council, the elderly James I of Aragon, who could only offer a small force. There was some fundraising for a new Crusade, and plans were made but never followed through. The projects essentially came to a halt with the death of Gregory X on January 10, 1276, and the money which had been raised to finance the expedition was instead distributed in Italy.

Invasion of Syria (1280-1281)

Without support from the Europeans, some Franks of Syria, particularly the Hospitallers, and to some extent the Franks of Cyprus and Antioch, attempted to join in combined operations with the Mongols in 1280-1281.

Following the death of Baibars in 1277, and the ensuing disorganization of the Muslim realm, conditions were ripe for a new action in the Holy Land. The Mongols seized the opportunity and organized a new invasion of Syria. In September 1280, the Mongols occupied Baghras and Darbsak, and took Aleppo on October 20, where they massacred many inhabitants.

The king of Cyprus Hugues III and Bohemond VI also mobilized their combined army, but they could not intervene because the Mamluks had already positioned themselves between them and the Mongols. In October 1280, the Mongols sent envoys to Acre to request military support for the campaign, but the Vicar of the Patriarch indicated that the city was suffering from hunger, and that the king of Jerusalem was already embroiled in another war. The Mongols also requested support for a campaign the following winter, informing the Franks that they would bring 50,000 Mongol horsemen and 50,000 Mongol infantry, but the request apparently remained without a response.

Abaqa and Leo III of Armenia urged the Franks to start a new Crusade. Edward I of England responded favorably, but said he could not participate due to lack of funds. Some local Hospitallers from Marqab (in the area which had previously been Antioch/Tripoli) were, however, able to make some raids into the Buqaia, and won several engagements against the Sultan. They raided as far as the Krak des Chevaliers in October 1280, and defeated a Mamluk force from that fortress in February 1281. However, the Mongols again retreated, pledging to come back for the winter of 1281.

Defeat of the Mongols (left) at the 1281 Battle of Homs.

In order to prevent new combined actions between the Franks and the Mongols, the new Muslim sultan Qalawun renewed a truce with the Barons of Acre on May 3, 1281, extending it for another ten years (a truce he would later breach). He also renewed a second 10-year truce with Bohemond VII of Tripoli, on July 16, 1281, and affirmed pilgrim access to Jerusalem.

In September 1281, the Mongols returned as promised, with 50,000 of their own troops, plus 30,000 others including Armenians under Leo III, Georgians, Greeks, and about 200 Hospitaliers knights of the fortress of Marqab, who considered they were not bound by the truce with the Mamluks. On October 30, 1281, the Mongol army engaged the Mamluks under Qalawun at the Second Battle of Homs, but they were repelled, with heavy losses on both sides.

Arghun (1284-1291)

Main article: Arghun

Abaqa died in 1282 and was briefly replaced by the Muslim Mongol ruler Teguder, who was not as aggressive as had been Abaqa. This freed the Mamluk Sultan Qalawun to continue his own advance, whereby he captured the northern fortress of Margat in 1285, Lattakia in 1287, and Tripoli in 1289.

In 1284 the new Mongol ruler Arghun, the Buddhist son of Abaqa, again revived the idea of an alliance with the West, and sent envoys to Europe. He sent multiple emissaries, and promised that if Jerusalem were conquered, he would have himself baptised, and would return Jerusalem to the Christians. However, Western Europe was no longer as interested in the crusades, and the mission was ultimately fruitless.

A maritime raiding force consisting in two war galleys was prepared in Baghdad in cooperation with the Genoese, in order to curtail the maritime trade of the Mamluks. Genoese carpenters and sailors were sent to Baghdad, as well as a force of arbaletiers, but the enterprise apparently foundered when an internal fight erupted among the Geneose (between the Guelfe and the Gibelin families)

When the Muslim leader Baibars was threatening the last stronghold of the Crusaders, Acre, Pope Nicolas IV proclaimed a Crusade and negotiated agreements with Arghun, Hetoum II of Armenia, the Jacobites, the Ethiopians and the Georgians. On January 5, 1291, he addressed a vibrant prayer to all the Christians to save the Holy Land, and follow Edward I in a Crusade.

However, all these attempts to mount a combined offensive were too little and too late. On March 1291, the city was conquered by the Mamluks in the Siege of Acre. Arghun himself died on March 10, 1291, and Pope Nicholas IV in March 1292, putting an end to their efforts towards combined action.

According to the 20th century historian Runciman, "Had the Mongol alliance been achieved and honestly implemented by the West, the existence of Outremer would almost certainly have been prolonged. The Mameluks would have been crippled if not destroyed; and the Ilkhanate of Persia would have survived as a power friendly to the Christians and the West".

Ghazan (1295-1304)

Combined offensives in 1300-1301.

See also: Mongol invasions of Syria and Mongol raids into Palestine

Main article: Ghazan

After Arghun's death, he was followed in rapid succession by some brief and fairly ineffective leaders, some of whom only held power for a few months. Stability was restored with the installation of Ghazan in 1295. In 1297, he had consolidated power enough that he was able to resume offensives against the Mamluks. Despite being a Muslim himself he still maintained good relations with his Christian vassal states of Cicilian Armenia and Georgia, and his plan was to coordinate actions between his forces, the Christian military orders, and the forces of Cyprus.

In the summer of 1299, King Hetoum II of Armenia sent a message to Ghazan to obtain his support against the Mamluks. Ghazan marched with his forces towards Syria and sent letters to the Franks of Cyprus (the King of Cyprus, and the heads of the Knights Templar, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights), inviting them to come join him in his attack on the Mamluks in Syria.

The Mongols successfully took the city of Aleppo, and were there joined by their vassal King Hetoum, whose forces participated in the rest of the offensive. The Mongols and their allies defeated the Mamluks in the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar, on December 23 or 24, 1299.

In July 1300, the Crusaders launched some naval operations, presumably in support of Ghazan's land-based actions. A fleet of sixteen galleys with some smaller vessels was equipped in Cyprus, commanded by King Henry of Cyprus and Jerusalem, accompanied by his brother Amalric, Lord of Tyre, the heads of the military orders, and Ghazan's ambassador. The ships left Famagusta on July 20, 1300, to raid the coasts of Egypt and Syria: Rosette, Alexandria, Acre, Tortosa, and Maraclea. The ships then returned to Cyprus, and prepared for an attack on Tortosa in late 1300.

A joint force of Cypriots was sent to the island of Ruad as a staging area, from which raids were launched on Tortosa, while awaiting the arrival of the Mongols. However, the Mongols were delayed, and the Crusader forces ended up returning to Cyprus, leaving a garrison on Ruad. When the Mongols did arrive in February 1301, they were only able to engage in some minor raids before having to withdraw.

Plans for combined operations between the Europeans and the Mongols were again made for the following winter offensives, in 1301 and 1302. In mid-1301 the Egyptian Mamluks besieged the island of Ruad, which surrendered a year later. The Mamluks slaughtered many of the inhabitants, and captured the surviving Templars to send them to prison in Cairo.

In April 1302, Ghazan sent letters to the Pope asking him to send troops, priests, peasants, in order to make the Holy Land a Frank state again, but again Ghazan did not appear with his own troops.

Ghazan ordering the King Of Armenia Hetoum II to accompany Kutlushka on the 1303 attack on Damascus.

In 1303, the remaining Templars from Cyprus continued making raids on the Syrian coast, and ravaged the city of Damour, south of Beyrouth. But since they had lost Ruad, they were not capable of providing important troops. Also in 1303, Ghazan had again sent a letter to Edward I, in the person of Buscarello de Ghizolfi, reiterating Hulagu's promise that they would give Jerusalem to the Franks in exchange for help against the Mamluks. That year, the Mongols appeared in great strength (about 80,000) together with the Armenians, but they were defeated at Homs on March 30, 1303, and at the decisive Battle of Shaqhab, south of Damas, on April 21, 1303. It is considered to be the last major Mongol invasion of Syria.

Ghazan died on May 10, 1304, and dreams of a rapid reconquest of the Holy Land were destroyed.

Oljeitu (1304-1316)

Oljeitu, also named Mohammad Khodabandeh, was the great-grandson of the Ilkhanate founder Hulagu, and brother and successor of Ghazan. In his youth he at first converted to Buddhism and then to Sunni Islam together with his brother Ghazan. He then changed his first name to the Islamic name Muhammad. In April 1305, Oljeitu sent letters to the French king Philip the Fair, Pope Clement V, and Edward I of England. As had done his predecessor Arghun, Oljeitu offered a military collaboration between the Christian nations of Europe and the Mongols against the Mamluks.

Relations were quite warm: in 1307, the Pope named John of Montecorvino the first Archbishop of Khanbalik and Patriarch of the Orient. A Mongol embassy arrived in Poitiers to see the Pope in 1307.

Hayton of Corycus remitting his report on the Mongols, to Pope Clement V, in 1307.

European nations prepared a crusade, but were delayed. In the meantime Oljeitu launched a last campaign against the Mamluks (1312-13), in which he was unsuccessful.

A final settlement with the Mamluks would only be found when Oljeitu's son signed the Treaty of Aleppo with the Mamluks in 1322.

Last contacts

In the 1300s, some diplomatic contacts continued between the Europeans and the Mongols, until the Ilkhanate dissolved in the 1330s, and the ravages of the Black Death in Europe caused contacts with the East to be severed.

The French Pope John XXII was the last to request the help of the Mongols in 1322.

In 1320, the Egyptian sultan Naser Mohammed ibn Kelaoun invaded and ravaged Christian Armenian Cilicia. In a letter dated July 1, 1322, Pope John XXII sent a letter from Avignon to the Mongol ruler Abu Sa'id, reminding him of the positive contacts between his ancestors and Christians, and asking him to intervene in Cilicia. At the same time, Pope John advocated that Abu Sa'id abandon Islam in favor of Christianity. Mongol troops were sent to Cilicia, but only arrived after a ceasefire had been negotiated for 15 years between Constantin, patriarch of the Armenians, and the sultan of Egypt.

After Abu Sa'id, relations between Christian princes and the Mongols became very sparse. He died in 1335 with neither heir nor successor, and the Mongol state lost its status after his death, becoming a plethora of little kingdoms run by Mongols, Turks, and Persians.

In 1336, an embassy to the French Pope Benedict XII in Avignon was sent by Toghun Temür, the last Mongol emperor in China (Yuan dynasty). The embassy was led by a Genoese in the service of the Mongol emperor, Andrea di Nascio, and accompanied by another Genoese, Andalò di Savignone. The carried letters from the Mongol ruler represented that they had been eight years (since Monte Corvino's death) without a spiritual guide, and earnestly desired one. The pope replied to the letters, and appointed four ecclesiastics as his legates to the khan's court. In 1338, a total of 50 ecclesiastics were sent by the Pope to Peking, among them John of Marignolli. In 1353 John returned to Avignon, and delivered a letter from the great khan to Pope Innocent VI. Soon, the Chinese rose up and drove out the Mongols from China however, thereby launching the Ming Dynasty (1368). By 1369 all Christians, whether Roman Catholic or Syro-Oriental, were expelled by the Ming Dynasty.

The Mongol ruler Tamerlane (1336-1405) developed a friendly, if remote, relationship with Western powers, exchanging letters with Western rulers, and inviting ambassadors and traders.

Technology exchanges

In these invasions westward, the Mongols brought with them a variety of eastern, often Chinese technologies, which may have been transmitted to the West on these occasions. The original weaknesses of the Mongols in siege warfare (they were essentially a nation of horsemen) were compensated by the introduction of Chinese engineering corps within their army, who therefore had ample contacts with Western lands.

Weaponry

Earliest picture of a European cannon, "De nobilitatibus, sapientiis et prudentiis regum" Walter de Milemete, 1326.

See also: History of gunpowder

One theory of how gunpowder came to Europe is that it made its way along the Silk Road through the Middle East; another is that it was brought to Eastern Europe during the Mongol invasion in the first half of the 13th century. William of Rubruck, an ambassador to the Mongols in 1254-1255, is often designated as a possible intermediary in the transmission of gunpowder know-how between the East and the West.

Academic relations

The Kangnido world map (1402)

The communications with the Mongol Empire connected the European and western Islamic world with the Chinese sphere, enabling the integration of a large amount of geographical knowledge.

In 1286 Jamāl al-Dīn made Khubilai Khan a proposal for merging several maps of the empire into a single world map, resulting in the Tianxia Dili Zongtu (天下地理總圖). A famous derivative of the work is the Kangnido (1402), a Korean variant preserved in Japan. It depicts Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Europe, including a hundred European place names.

Rashid al-Din, the Jewish Prime Minister of Ghazan and later Oljeitu, wrote a volume on the History of the Franks (1305/1306) in his Universal History Jami al-Tawarikh, probably based on information from Isol the Pisan or Dominican friars. It provided many details on Europe's political organization.

Dispute about the existence of the Franco-Mongol alliance

There is dispute among historians as to the existence, extent, or even wisdom of an alliance. The mainstream view is that there was no alliance, and that it is best described as a series of attempts. A few historians have argued there was an actual alliance, but even among those, there is dispute as to the details. The French historian Jean Richard argues that an alliance began around 1263. The French historian Alain Demurger says that an alliance wasn't sealed until 1300.

Most other historians, however, stress that there were only attempts towards such an alliance, which ultimately ended in failure. Joshua Prawer said simply, "The attempts of the crusaders to create an alliance with the Mongols failed." Steven Runciman lamented that "chances of a Mongol alliance with the Christians faded out." David Nicolle said that the Mongols were "potential allies", but that overall the major players were the Mamluks and the Mongols, and that the Christians were just "pawns in a greater game." Christopher Atwood, in the 2004 Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire summed up the relations between Western Europe and the Mongols: "Despite numerous envoys and the obvious logic of an alliance against mutual enemies, the papacy and the Crusaders never achieved the often-proposed alliance against Islam."

Reasons for failure

There has been much discussion among historians as to why the Franco-Mongol alliance never came together, and why despite all the diplomatic contacts, that it stayed a chimera, a fantasy. Peter Jackson, in his 2005 book The Mongols and the West, 1221-1410 discussed multiple reasons for the failure:

One was that the Mongols at that stage in their empire, were not entirely focused on expanding to the West. By the late 1200s, the Mongol leaders were several generations removed from the great Genghis Khan, and internal disruption was brewing. The original nomadic Mongols from the day of Genghis had become more settled, and had had to turn into administrators instead of conquerors. Battles were springing up that were Mongol against Mongol, which took troops away from the front in Syria.

There was also some confusion within Europe, as to the differences between the Mongols of the Ilkhanate in the Holy Land, and the Mongols of the Golden Horde, who were making attacks on Eastern Europe, in Hungary and Poland. Within the Mongol Empire, the Ilkhanids and the Golden Horde considered each other enemies, but it took some time for Western observers to be able to distinguish between the different parts of the Mongol Empire.

Another reason for the failure, was the decreased interest in Europe in pursuing the Crusades. After Jerusalem had been lost to Saladin in 1187, and the Crusaders fought an ever more desperate battle against the advancing forces from Egypt, it became harder and harder to drum up enthusiasm for the Crusades back in Europe. Monarchs often gave lip service to the idea of going on Crusade, as a way of making an emotional appeal to their subjects, but in reality they would take years to prepare, and sometimes never actually left to go do battle. Internal wars in Europe, such as the War of the Vespers, were also distracting attention, and making it less likely for European nobles to want to commit their military to the Crusades, when they needed them more at home.

Economics also played a factor, as the cost of Crusading had been steadily increasing. Some monarchs responded positively to Mongol inquiries, but became vague and evasive when asked to actually commit troops and resources. Logistics also became more difficult – the Egyptian Mamluks were genuinely concerned about the threat of another wave of Crusader forces, and so each time the Mamluks captured another castle or port, instead of occupying it, they systematically destroyed it so that it could never be used again. This both made it more difficult for the Crusaders to plan military operations, and also increased the expense of those operations.

Another factor had to do with concerns among the Europeans about the longterm goals of the Mongols. The early Mongol diplomacy had been not a simple offer of cooperation, but a clear demand for submission. There was awareness that the Mongols would not have been content to stop at the Holy Land, but were on a clear quest for world domination. It was only in their later communications with Europe that the Mongol diplomats started to adopt a more conciliatory tone; but they still used language that more implied command than entreaty. If the Mongols had achieved a successful alliance with the West, and destroyed the Mamluk Sultanate, there is little doubt that the Mongols would have then proceeded to conquer Africa, where there would have been no strong state standing in their way until Morocco; and the Mongols would have also turned upon the Franks of Cyprus and the Byzantines. Even the Armenian King, the most enthusiastic advocate of Western-Mongol collaboration, freely admitted that the Mongol leader was not inclined to listen to European advice, and that even if working together that European armies and Mongol armies should avoid contact because of the Mongol arrogance.

Jackson also points out that the court historians of Mongol Iran made no mention whatsoever of the communications between the Ilkhans and the Christian West, and barely mentioned the Franks at all. The communications were evidently not seen as important by the Mongols, and Jackson argues that the communications may have even been seen as embarrassing, especially when the Mongol leader Ghazan, a Muslim, could be seen as trying to gain the assistance of infidels, against his fellow Muslims in Egypt. Also, when the Mongol historians did make notes of foreign territories, they were usually categorized as either "enemies", "conquered," or "in rebellion." The Franks, in that context, were listed in the same category as the Egyptians, in that they were enemies to be conquered. The idea of "ally" was foreign to the Mongols.

There was also not much support among the populace in Europe for a Mongol alliance. Many in Europe were writing "recovery" literature with their ideas about how best to recover the Holy Land, but few mentioned the Mongols as a genuine possibility. In 1306, when Pope Clement V asked the leaders of the military orders, Jacques de Molay and Fulk de Villaret, to present their proposals for how the crusades should proceed, neither of them factored in any kind of a Mongol alliance. A few later proposals talked briefly about the Mongols as being a force that could invade Syria and keep the Mamluks distracted, but not as a force that could be counted on for cooperation.

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