Medieval Europeans pursued Mongol alliances against Islam until Mongol conversion dashed those hopes

Evidence

Llull finally embraced crusade following the fall of Acre in 1291. There was indeed still some hope of an alliance with the Mongols. In 1300 Ilkhan Mahmud Ghazan took Damascus from the Mamluks; Jaume II of Aragon wrote to congratulate him; and Llull himself set out for the East in hopes of converting him to Christianity, though he was not able to reach the sultan. Ghazan in 1302 wrote to Pope Boniface VIII proposing an anti-Muslim alliance, but in 1303 he was defeated by the Mamluks. Llull learned that the khan had converted to Islam, not Christianity. Christendom would have to make practical plans for crusade without counting on Eastern allies. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1326

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the vault’s Anidjar/Aziz genealogical claims about Europe’s self-definition against Islam — here the early-1300s window when Europe sought an Eastern ally against Islam, showing the West-East binary was historically contingent, not fixed.