While the Mongols were famous for their ultimatums of destruction and submission, as the thirteenth
century went on and the dream of Chinggisid world hegemony seemed ever further away, the
Mongol Khans began to seek not the capitulation, but the cooperation of western Europe.
For the Ilkhanate’s sixty-year struggle against the Mamluk Sultanate, the Il-Khans
sought to bring the Popes and Monarchs of Europe to a new crusade to assist in the defeat
of the Mamluks.
The first Mongol messages to the Kings of Europe came in the late 1230s and 40s, accompanying
Batu and Subutai’s western invasion, asking the Hungarians how they possibly could hope
to flee the grasp of the Mongols.
Over the 1240s and 50s, European envoys to the Mongol Empire returned from Karakorum
with orders for the Kings and Popes to come to Mongolia and submit in person.
While Rus’ and Armenian lords and kings did do so, there is little indication that
European rulers even responded to these demands.
For the Mongols, who seemed poised to dominate everything under the Eternal Blue Sky, there
was little reason to adopt more conciliatory language.
From their point of view, the Europeans were only stalling the inevitable: soon Mongol
hoofbeats would certainly be heard in Paris and Rome.
The rare diplomatic exception was an embassy sent to King Louis IX of France during his
stay in Cyprus in 1248 before the 7th Crusade, when messengers came from the Mongol commander
in the west, Eljigidei.
Calling Louis ‘son,’ the letter brought no demand of submission, but mentioned Mongol
favouritism to Christians, urged the French King not to discriminate between Latin and
non-Latin Christians as all were equal under Mongol law, and wished him well in his endeavors.
The letter was forwarded back to France and ultimately King Henry III of England.
It has been speculated this letter was Mongol wariness at the sudden appearance of Louis’
army in Cyprus, and a desire to find out his military intentions, rather than any genuine
interest in cooperation at this point.
Ultimately, it was for naught, as Eljigidei was soon put to death in the political turmoil
following Guyuk Khan’s death in 1248, and Louis IX suffered a humiliating defeat in
Egypt at Mansura, captured and ransomed by the newly emerging Mamluks.
The halting of the Mongol advance at Ayn Jalut by the Mamluks, and the fracturing of the
Empire into independent Khanates after Great Khan Mongke’s death, left the new Ilkhanate
in a precarious position.
Surrounded by enemies on all sides, the only direction they could expand not at the expense
of fellow Mongols was against the Mamluks, who fortified their shared border with the
Ilkhans.
Even a small raid could trigger the arrival of the full Mamluk army, a dangerous prospect
against such deadly warriors.
Opening a new front against the Mamluks was necessary, and there were already convenient
beachheads established in the form of the remaining Crusader States.
A shadow of their former selves, the Crusader states were represented by a few major coastal
holdings like Antioch, Tripoli, and Acre, and inland fortifications like Krak de Chevaliers
and Montfort, as well as the Kingdom of Cyprus, whose ruler Hugh III took the title King of
Jerusalem in 1268.
The Crusader States had shown neutrality to the Mongols, or even joined them, such as
the County of Tripoli in 1260 after the Mongols entered Syria.
In early 1260, the papal legate at Acre sent an embassy to Hulegu, most likely to discourage
him from attacking the Crusader holdings.
Along with information from the Kings of Armenian Cilicia, their most important regional vassals,
the Mongols would have had a vague knowledge of western Europe and their crusading history.
The Ilkhanate’s founder, Hulegu, sent the first letter to the west in 1262, intended
once more for King Louis IX, though this embassy was turned back in Sicily.
Pope Urban IV may have learned of the attempt, and the next year sent a letter to Hulegu,
apparently having been told that the Ilkhan had become a Christian.
Delighted at the idea, the Pope informed Hulegu that if he was baptised, he would receive
aid from the west.
In reality, Hulegu never converted to Christianity, and died in 1265 without sending any more
letters.
His son and successor, Abaqa, was the Ilkhan most dedicated to establishing a Franco-Mongol
alliance and came the closest to doing so.
Due to conflict on his distant borders with the Golden Horde and Chagatayids, as well
as the troubles of consolidating power as new monarch in a new realm, for the 1260s
he was unable to commit forces to the Mamluk frontier.
As a good Mongol, Abaqa was unwilling to allow the enemy total respite, and made it his mission
to encourage an attack from the west on the Mamluks.
His first embassy was sent in 1266, contacting the Byzantines, Pope Clement IV, and King
James I of Aragon, hoping for a united Christian front to combine efforts with the Mongols
against the Mamluks, inquiring which route into Palestine the Christian forces would
take.
The responses were generally positive, Pope Clement replying that as soon as he knew which
route, he would inform Abaqa.
Abaqa sent a message again in 1268, inquiring about progress.
James of Aragon found himself the most motivated by the Il-Khans requests, encouraged by the
promises of Abaqa’s logistical and military support once they reached the mainland.
James made his preparations, and launched a fleet in September 1269.
An unexpected storm scattered the fleet, and only two of James’ bastard children made
it to Acre, who stayed only briefly, accomplishing little there.
Not long after, King Louis IX set out for Crusade once more, making the inexplicable
choice to land in Tunis in 1270.
Despite his well planned efforts, the Crusade was an utter disaster, and Louis died of dysentery
outside the walls of Tunis in August 1270.
Prince Edward of England with his army landed in Tunis shortly before the evacuation of
the crusaders, and disgusted by what he saw, set his fleet for the Holy Land, landing at
Acre in May 1271, joined by Hugh of Lusignan, King of Cyprus.
Edward’s timing was good, as Abaqa had returned from a great victory over the Chagatai Khan
Baraq at Herat in July 1270, though had suffered a major hunting accident that November.
The Mamluk Sultan Baybars was campaigning in Syria in spring 1271, the famous Krak des
Chevaliers falling to him that April.
Tripoli would have fallen next, had Baybars not retreated back to Damascus hearing of
the sudden arrival of a Crusader fleet; he was wary of being caught between European
heavy cavalry and Mongol horse archers.
Soon after landing, Edward made his preparations for an offensive, and reached out to Abaqa.
Abaqa was delighted, and sent a reply and orders for Samaghar, the Mongol commander
in Anatolia, to head to Syria.
Edward did not wait for Abaqa’s reply, and there is no indication he ever responded to
Abaqa’s letter.
He set out in mid-July, ensuring his army suffered the most from the summer heat, while
missing the Mongols who preferred to campaign in the winter.
Suffering high casualties and accomplishing little, he withdrew back to Acre.
In mid-October Samaghar arrived with his army, raiding as far as to the west of Aleppo while
an elite force of Mongols scouted ahead, routing a large group of Turkmen between Antioch and
Harim, but they were soon forced to retreat with the advance of the Mamluk army under
Baybars.
Missing Samagahr by only a few weeks, in November Edward marched south from Acre at the head
of a column of men from England, Acre, and Cyprus, with Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic
Knights.
They ambushed some Turkmen on the Sharon plain, and forced the local Mamluk governor to withdraw,
but with the arrival of large Mamluk reinforcements the Crusaders fled, losing their prisoners
and booty.
That was the closest the Mongols and the Franks came to proper coordination.
Edward helped oversee a peace treaty between the Mamluks and the Kingdom of Jersualem,
but the heat, difficulties campaigning, political infighting and an assassination attempt on
his life permanently turned him off of crusading.
By September 1272, Edward set sail for England.
A few weeks after his departure the Mongols again invaded, besieging al-Bira but were
defeated by the Mamluks in December.
Edward’s brief effort in Syria demonstrated the difficulties prefacing any Mongol-Frankish
cooperation.
The Mamluks were a cohesive, unified force, well accustomed to the environment and working
from a well supplied logistic system and intelligence network, while the Franks and Mongols were
unable to ever develop a proper timetable for operations together.
The European arrivals generally had unrealistic goals for their campaigns, bringing neither
the men, resources or experience to make an impact.
Abaqa continued to organize further efforts, and found many willing ears at the Second
Council of Lyons in France in 1274, a meeting of the great powers of Christendom intended
to settle doctrinal issues, the division of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and plan
the reconquest of the Holy land.
Abaqa’s delegation informed the Council that the Ilkhan had secured his borders and
could now bring his full might against the Mamluks, and urged the Christian powers to
do likewise.
The current Pope, Gregory X, fully supported this and made efforts to set things in motion,
but his death in 1276 killed whatever momentum this process had had.
Abaqa sent another round of envoys, who reached the King of France and the new King of England,
Edward.
The envoys brought the Il-khan’s apologies for failing to cooperate properly during Edward’s
crusade, and asked him to return.
Edward politely declined.
This was the final set of envoys Abaqa sent west before his death in 1282, and his successors
found no more luck than he had.
The most interesting envoy to bring the tidings of the Il-Khan to Europe did not originate
in the Ilkhanate, but in China: Rabban Bar Sawma, born in 1220 in what is now modern
day Beijing, was a Turkic Nestorian priest who had set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem
before being conscripted to act as a messenger for the Il-Khan, in a journey which is a fascinating
contrast to that of his contemporary Marco Polo.
Writing his accounts down upon his return to Baghdad later in life, he described how
he brought messages and gifts to the Byzantine Emperor Andronicos II Palaiologus, marvelled
at the Hagia Sophia, then landed in Sicily and made his way to Rome, having just missed
the death of Pope Honorius IV.
Travelling on to France, he was warmly welcomed by King Phillip IV, and then on to Gascony
where he met the campaigning King Edward of England, who again responded kindly to the
Ilkhan’s envoy.
On his return journey, he met the new Pope Nicholas IV in 1288 before returning to the
Ilkhanate.
Despite the generous receptions he was given by the heads of Europe, and despite the Ilkhan’s
promises to return Jerusalem to Christian hands, the reality was there was no ruler
in the west interested, or capable of, going on Crusade.
By now, the act of Crusading in the Holy land had lost its lustre, the final crusades almost
all disasters, and costly ones at that.
With the final Crusader strongholds falling to the Mamluks in the early 1290s, there was
no longer even a proper beachhead on the coast for a Crusading army.
The sheer distance and cost of going on Crusade, especially with numerous ongoing issues in
their own Kingdoms at hand, outweighed whatever perceived benefit there might have been in
doing so.
In contrast, the Mamluks had somewhat greater success in their own overseas diplomacy: Baybars
initiated contact with the Golden Horde, ruled by the Muslim Berke Khan, encouraging him
to attack his cousins in the Ilkhanate.
Sultan Baybars also kept good relations with the Byzantine Empire and the Genoese, allowing
him to keep the flow of Turkic slave soldiers from the steppes of the Golden Horde open,
the keystone of the Mamluk military.
There is also evidence they undertook some limited diplomacy with Qaidu Khan during the
height of his rule over Central Asia and the Chagatayids.
While the Mamluks and Golden Horde never undertook any true military cooperation, the continuation
of their talks kept the Ilkhanate wary of enemies on all borders, never truly able to
bring the entirety of its considerable might against one foe lest another strike the Il-Khan’s
exposed frontiers.
Ilkhanid-European contacts continued into the 14th century, but with somewhat less regularity
after Rabban bar Sawma’s journey.
An archbishopric was even founded in the new Ilkhanid capital of Sultaniyya in 1318, and
Papal envoys would travel through the Ilkhanate to the Yuan Dynasty in China until the 1330s.
Il-Khan Abu Sa’id organized a peace with the Mamluks in the 1320s, and the disintegration
of the Ilkhanate after his death in 1335 put an end to this fascinating period of European-Mongol
contact, as well as putting an almost total end to European interest and contacts with
the Middle East for the next five centuries.
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