Chinese stone inscription of a Nestorian Cross from a monastery of Fangshan District in Beijing (then called Dadu, or Khanbaliq), dated to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 AD) of medieval China.
Epitaph of a Nestorian, unearthed at Chifeng, Inner Mongolia
Relations with Christian nations[edit]
Main article: Franco-Mongol alliance
Hulagu and his wife Doquz Khatunin a Syriac Bible
Some military collaboration with Christian powers took place in 1259-1260. Hetoum I of Cilician Armenia and his son-in-law Bohemond VIof Antioch had submitted to the Mongols, and, as did other vassal states, provided troops in the Mongols' expansion. The founder and leader of the Ilkhanate in 1260, Hulagu, was generally favourable to Christianity: his mother was Christian, his principal wife Doquz Khatunwas a prominent Christian leader in the Ilkhanate, and at least one of his key generals, Kitbuqa, was also Christian.[28] A later descendant of Hulagu, the Ilkhan Arghun, sent the Nestorian monk Rabban Bar Sauma as an ambassador to Western courts to offer an alliance between the Mongols and the Europeans. While there, Bar Sauma explained the situation of the Nestorian faith to the European monarchs: