Battle of Ain Jalut
3 September 1260 · in Battle View, played out step by step on the ground where it was fought
The Mamluks of Egypt under Qutuz and Baybars defeated a Mongol army in Galilee, halting the Mongol advance towards Egypt.
The sides
- Mamluks, led by Qutuz: about 20,000 men
- Mongols, led by Kitbuqa: about 12,000 men
States that fought: Mamluk Sultanate, Mongol Empire.
How it went
Battle of Ain Jalut
The Mongols have taken Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus, and their envoys order the Mamluk sultan of Egypt, Qutuz, to submit. He has them killed. Then news comes that the Great Khan is dead, and Hülegü marches most of his army home, leaving his general Kitbuqa with a fraction of it.
Into the valley
Qutuz marches north through crusader Acre, by agreement, and into the valley of Jezreel. He hides his main army in the hills round the spring of Ain Jalut and sends his best commander, Baybars, ahead to find the Mongols.
Baybars strikes
At dawn Baybars falls on the Mongol army in the valley and skirmishes with it for hours, drawing it on.
The feigned flight
Then the vanguard turns and runs up the valley, the old steppe trick turned on the Mongols, and Kitbuqa follows it towards the hills.
The trap
From the slopes of Gilboa and the hills to the north the hidden Mamluk wings close in. The Mongols charge, and on the left the Mamluks give way.
"O Islam!"
Qutuz throws his helmet to the ground so his men can see his face and cries "O Islam!". He leads the main army into the fight, and the left wing rallies behind him.
Kitbuqa falls
Surrounded, Kitbuqa fights on until he is unhorsed and killed. His army breaks and flees towards Beisan, where it turns once more and is beaten again.
Ain Jalut
For the first time a Mongol army has been beaten in open battle and not avenged. Egypt is saved, and the Mamluks take Syria. Weeks later, on the road home, Baybars murders Qutuz and makes himself sultan.
Numbers are guesses; the Mongol force may have been as small as 10,000 or twice that, with Georgian and Armenian allies. The sources agree on Baybars' feigned retreat and Qutuz's rally, less on where everyone stood.
People and wars
- Baybars (c. 1223 CE – 1277 CE): A Kipchak-born Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria who fought the Mongols at Ain Jalut and captured many crusader strongholds.