But Mongol power was already waning, as the Empire dissolved into civil war, and it reached a turning point in 1295, when Ghazan, the Mongol ruler of the Ilkhanate, made a formal conversion to Islam when he took the throne.
Ghazan Marri | Ghazan |
During one of these campaigns, Chupan's army, under the command of Ghazan's chief military officer Qutlugh Shah, was defeated by the Mamelukes in the battle of Marj al-Saffar (1303).
Sixteen galleys combining the forces of Cyprus with those of the Templars and Hospitallers, and accompanied by Ghazan's ambassador Isol the Pisan, were able to raid Rosetta, Alexandria, Acre, Tortosa and Maraclea.
•
In 1299, as he prepared an offensive against Syria, Ghazan had sent embassies to Henry II of Jerusalem (now located on Cyprus) and to Pope Boniface VIII, inviting them to participate in combined operations against the Mamluks.