ABSTRACT
Evidence of the perceptions of an influential elite is provided by the letters sent to Europe by leading brothers of the Temple and the Hospital. Fifty-two letters written by them between 1149 and 1291 survive, of which 24 were addressed to kings, 10 to higher clergy, 4 to lay nobles and 14 to fellow members of their orders living in the west. The letters are full of news about the Mongols. The ilkhan of Iran, Hulegu, had initiated rather cautious contacts with the west in the 1260s and these had been developed by his successor, the ilkhan Abaqa. These letters have the same features as those written to Louis VII of France over a century earlier. It is clear that the Hospitallers knew quite well what was happening in western Asia but did not believe everything they heard uncritically. Louis was being provided with a fairly accurate survey of events of military significance over a period of about eighteen months.
