AHC: Mongol Invasion Disrupts The Third Crusade

The challenge is simple, yet awesome. Produce a scenario by which Richard the Lionheart and Saladin join forces against the Mongols.

The timing of Genghis Khan's invasions isn't quite right, but it's not far off. So what if the Mongols had gotten started 20 or 30 years earlier? What if, in the midst of the Third Crusade, word had reached the Holy Land of a Mongol horde taking Baghdad (or maybe just attacking it)? Could Richard the Lionheart and Saladin - men who, by all accounts, respected one another - have joined forces to defend the Holy Land against pagans? Could they have won? What might the impact have been? And exactly how awesome would the sight of Crusaders and Saracens against Mongols have been?
 
IIRC the Christians had, at least early on, an 'enemy of my enemy' relation with the Mongols, and tried using the friendliness that lies in such a constalation to convert them into being Christians.
 
It's a cool idea. But yeah, I think it's far more likely that the Christians and the Muslims would compete against each other for favor and influence over the Mongols and eventually one of them would have the Mongols as his ally against the other.

Richard and Saladin may have respected each other, but not to the point of compromising their own roles as crusading King and Sultan.

For a reference point, the Latins and Greeks did not stop fighting, let alone become allies, when both were invaded by the Mongols. And the religious distance and animosity between Catholic and Orthodox was not as high as between Christian and Muslim.
 
It's a cool idea. But yeah, I think it's far more likely that the Christians and the Muslims would compete against each other for favor and influence over the Mongols and eventually one of them would have the Mongols as his ally against the other.

Richard and Saladin may have respected each other, but not to the point of compromising their own roles as crusading King and Sultan.

For a reference point, the Latins and Greeks did not stop fighting, let alone become allies, when both were invaded by the Mongols. And the religious distance and animosity between Catholic and Orthodox was not as high as between Christian and Muslim.

Greeks never get invaded by the Mongols... I never heard any Byzantine-Mongol war. You probably mean Russia?
 
Greeks never get invaded by the Mongols... I never heard any Byzantine-Mongol war. You probably mean Russia?

And if does mean Russia, it wasn't exactly like they had time to negotiate a ceasefire or their submission to the Papacy. The invasions happened too quickly.
 
IIRC the Christians had, at least early on, an 'enemy of my enemy' relation with the Mongols, and tried using the friendliness that lies in such a constalation to convert them into being Christians.
Actually early on, the Franks had a greater threat relationship with the Mamluks to the point of allowing them passage through crusader territory so that Qutuz could attack the Mongols. It was only later that vague efforts were made to explore an alliance, with a group that only understood, subjects or enemies.
 
Greeks never get invaded by the Mongols... I never heard any Byzantine-Mongol war. You probably mean Russia?

Mongols did invade Greece (including both Byzantine parts and parts held by the Latin Empire) in 1242.

The invaded states didn't fight each other during the invasion itself, but they got back to fighting very soon, and a few years later both the Byzantine and the Latin Empire would try to ally with the Mongols.
 
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