Mongol alliances in the Middle-East

Mongol alliances in the Middle-East occurred throughout the second half of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century, and involved widely spread polities. These alliances were organized between, on the one hand a North-South axis consisting of the Mongol Golden Horde, the Egyptian Mamluks and the Genoese, and on the other, a East-West axis consisting of the Mongol Il-Khanids, the Armenians, the Franks. The Byzantine Empire would ally with the two parties alternatively.

North-South axis

The North-South axis consisted of the Mongol Golden Horde, the Egyptian Mamluks and the Genoese. This alliance started as early as 1261, when Berke, the khan of Kipchak drew up an alliance with the Mamluk Sultan Baibars.

Various elements especially facilitated the contacts between the Mamluks and the Mongols of the Golden Horde. Religiously, the Golden Horde was getting progressively closer to Islam. Commercially, the Mamluks imported most of their slave soldiers from the Mongol-Turkish Kipchak territory of southern Russia. Finally, the Mamluks and the Golden Horde were both in heated conflict with the Persian Mongol Il-Khanate, which facilitated an objective alliance.

These friendly relations would continue until 1320, a time when the Crusaders had been completely eliminated from the Levant, and when the Il-Khanate finally decided to sue for peace with the Mamluks.

Cultural impact was also significant, as many exchanges of artists and technicians occured.

East-West axis

The East-West axis consisted of the Mongol Il-Khanate of Persia, the Christian Armenians of Cilicia and the Franks. The first attempts at an alliance originated during the Crusade of Saint-Louis in the Levant in 1248. Envoys from the Mongol Il-Khan ruler Hulagu went sent to Saint-Louis temporary court in Cyprus and offered submission and a collaborative relationship.

The conflict between the two Mongol realms originated in a territorial dispute. Following the Mongol invasion of Central Asia, the Mongol Khagan Batu had attributed several of the territories south of the Caucasus to the Golden Horde: specifically Georgia, Armenia and Anatolia. The Il-Khan ruler Hulagu however invaded these territories and took them for himself. This led to a drawn-out conflict between the two Mongol realms, which would last well into the 14th century.

Strategically, as the Il-Khanate was surrounded by the alliance between the Golden Horde and the Mamluks, the Il-Khanate seeked desperately to develop an alliance with the other power in the Middle-East, the Christian Crusader States. Religiously, these two realms were also in a relatively close proximity, as the Il-Khanate particularly favoured Christianity.

Shifting alliances of the Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Emperor was especially careful in his relations with the Mongols, usually trying to preserve both the Golden Horde and the Il-Khanate. He became the key axis of the various alliances in the Middle-East.

Constantinople controlled the sealane through which the Mongol-Mamluk trade had to transit, giving the Emperor considerable leverage. For this reason, the Byzantine emperor (Michael VIII Palaeologus, and later his son Andronicus II) were highly involved in a relationship with both the Mongols and the Mamluks, and formalized alliances with them.

Michael VIII Palaeologus concluded an alliance with Hulagu, the ruler of the Il-Khanate, by marrying one of his natural daughters to him.

Italian merchant cities
The Italians cities of Genoa and Venice were highly involved in these alliances and trade relations with the Mongols, and especially with the Golden Horde, as they were their intermediary for the trade of the Silk Road. Their military role would be limited, but Italian traders such as Marco Polo, and adventurers such as Buscarello de Ghizolfi, Tommaso Ugi di Siena or Isol the Pisan played a considerable role in collaborating with the Mongols, particularly on the diplomatic front.

Effects
The alliance between the Golden Horde and the Mamluks was a defensive one. The agreement was that each realm would intervene if the other was attacked by the Il-Khan. This agreement effectively forced Il-Khan rulers to fight on two front everytime they tried to invade the Levant. Typically, a ruler would start a campaign in Syria, only to be forced to recall his troops within a few months because he was being attacked by the Golden Horde in the north.

The Ilkhante invaded Syria on several occasions, most of the time in alliance with the Armenians who supplied Christian troops, and sometimes in alliance or attempted alliance with the Franks. Although they had some initial successes, they could never occupy the Levant more than a few months at a time, and usually retreated, whether because the Mamluks successfully counter-attacked, of because the Il-Khan Mongol had to face another offensive by the Golden Horde on their northern front.

In the end, the Il-Khan converted to Islam, starting with the rule of Ghazan in 1295, and, abandonned further ambitions for conquest, reaching a peace settlement with the Mamluks in 1323, when the Treaty of Aleppo was ratified. The Il-Khanate further atomized and disintegrated from 1335 throughout the 14th century.

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