Franco-Mongol Diplomacy

Timeline

1. 1287–1288Paris · FranceIlkhan Arghun sent the Nestorian cleric Rabban Bar Sauma on a mission to Europe; in 1288 he met Pope Nicholas IV, King Edward I of England, and King Philip IV of France, proposing a joint Mongol–Christian campaign against the Mamluks. Philip IV returned lavish gifts and sent nobles back to Persia with the envoys, laying groundwork for more concrete diplomacy.
2. 1289–1290Palais de Paris · ParisIn 1289 Arghun dispatched the Genoese merchant Buscarello de Ghizolfi on a further mission, presenting Philip IV in Paris with a Mongolian-language letter proposing that in winter 1290 Ilkhanid forces attack Syria while Christian crusaders landed by sea at Acre to jointly assault Damascus; he promised 20,000–30,000 horses and all necessary war materiel. Philip IV was receptive but vague in action.
3. 1291–1292Acre · LevantIn May 1291 the Mamluks captured Acre, losing the crusaders' last stronghold in the East; Arghun died that March, and Pope Nicholas IV also died in 1292. Though the English king sent Geoffrey de Langley to Persia, Western Europe no longer had sufficient crusading zeal, and the Frankish–Mongol military alliance was never realized, leaving only rich diplomatic documents and strategic plans.