Several attempts at a
Franco-Mongol alliance against the
Islamic caliphates, their common enemy, were made by various leaders among the
Frankish Crusaders and the
Mongol Empire in the 13th century. Such an alliance might have seemed an obvious choice: the Mongols were already sympathetic to Christianity, given the presence of many influential
Nestorian Christians in the Mongol court. The
Franks (Western Europeans and those in the
Crusader States of the
Levant) were open to the idea of support from the East, in part owing to the long-running legend of the mythical
Prester John, an Eastern king in a magical kingdom who many believed would one day come to the assistance of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. The Franks and Mongols also shared a common enemy in the Muslims. However, despite many messages, gifts, and emissaries over the course of several decades, the often-proposed alliance never came to fruition.