John Joseph Saunders (17 June 1910 – 25 November 1972) was a British historian whose work focused on medieval Islamic and Asian history.
Born in Alphington, Devon, he was educated at Exeter University. He was a lecturer at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Geoffrey Rice wrote of him:
The Mongol conquests resulted in widespread and well-documented death and destruction throughout Eurasia, as the Mongol army invaded hundreds of cities and killed millions of people. As such, the Mongol Empire, which remains the largest contiguous polity to ever have existed, is regarded as having perpetrated some of the deadliest acts of mass killing in human history.
More recently, the Mongol Empire's conquests have been classified as genocidal. For example, British historian John Joseph Saunders described Mongol troops as "the most notorious practitioners of genocide".