The Battle of Ain Jalut (), also spelled Ayn Jalut, was fought between the
Bahri Mamluks
The Bahri dynasty or Bahriyya Mamluks ( ar, المماليك البحرية, translit=al-Mamalik al-Baḥariyya) was a Mamluk dynasty of mostly Turkic origin that ruled the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate from 1250 to 1382. They followed the Ayyubid ...
of
Egypt and the
Mongol Empire on 3 September 1260 (25 Ramadan 658 AH) in southeastern
Galilee in the
Jezreel Valley
The Jezreel Valley (from the he, עמק יזרעאל, translit. ''ʿĒmeq Yīzrəʿēʿl''), or Marj Ibn Amir ( ar, مرج ابن عامر), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern Distr ...
near what is known today as the
Spring of Harod (). The battle marked the height of the extent of
Mongol conquests
The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire ( 1206-1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastatio ...
, and was the first time a Mongol advance was permanently beaten back in direct combat on the battlefield.
Continuing the westward expansion of the
Mongol Empire, the armies of
Hulagu Khan
Hulagu Khan, also known as Hülegü or Hulegu ( mn, Хүлэгү/ , lit=Surplus, translit=Hu’legu’/Qülegü; chg, ; Arabic: fa, هولاکو خان, ''Holâku Khân;'' ; 8 February 1265), was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of We ...
captured and
sacked Baghdad in 1258, along with the
Ayyubid capital of
Damascus sometime later.
Hulagu sent
envoys to
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
demanding
Qutuz
Saif ad-Din Qutuz ( ar, سيف الدين قطز; died 24 October 1260), also romanized as Kutuz or Kotuz and fully al-Malik al-Muẓaffar Sayf ad-Dīn Quṭuz (), was a military leader and the third or fourth of the Mamluk Sultans of Egy ...
surrender Egypt, to which Qutuz responded by killing the envoys and displaying their heads on the
Bab Zuweila
Bab Zuweila or Bab Zuwayla ( ar, باب زويلة) is one of three remaining gates in the city wall of the Old City of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. It was also known as Bawabbat al-Mitwali during the Ottoman period. It is considered one of the ...
gate of Cairo.
Shortly after this,
Möngke Khan
Möngke ( mn, ' / Мөнх '; ; 11 January 1209 – 11 August 1259) was the fourth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire, ruling from 1 July 1251, to 11 August 1259. He was the first Khagan from the Toluid line, and made significant reform ...
was slain in battle against the
Southern Song
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
. Hulagu returned to
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
with the bulk of his army to attend the
kurultai in accordance with Mongol customs, leaving approximately 10,000 troops west of the
Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...
under the command of general
Kitbuqa
Kitbuqa Noyan (died 1260), also spelled Kitbogha, Kitboga, or Ketbugha, was an Eastern Christian of the Naimans, a group that was subservient to the Mongol Empire. He was a lieutenant and confidant of the Mongol Ilkhan Hulagu, assisting him ...
.
Learning of these developments, Qutuz quickly advanced his army from
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
towards
Palestine.
Kitbuqa sacked Sidon, before turning his army south towards the
Spring of Harod to meet Qutuz' forces. Using
hit-and-run tactics
Hit-and-run tactics are a tactical doctrine of using short surprise attacks, withdrawing before the enemy can respond in force, and constantly maneuvering to avoid full engagement with the enemy. The purpose is not to decisively defeat the en ...
and a
feigned retreat
A feigned retreat is a military tactic, a type of feint, whereby a military force pretends to withdraw or to have been routed, in order to lure an enemy into a position of vulnerability.
A feigned retreat is one of the more difficult tactics for ...
by Mamluk general
Baibars, combined with a final
flanking maneuver
In military tactics, a flanking maneuver is a movement of an armed force around an enemy force's side, or flank, to achieve an advantageous position over it. Flanking is useful because a force's fighting strength is typically concentrated i ...
by Qutuz, the Mongol army was pushed in a retreat toward
Bisan, after which the Mamluks led a final counterattack, which resulted in the death of several Mongol troops, along with Kitbuqa himself.
The battle has been cited as the first time the Mongols were permanently prevented from expanding their influence,
and also incorrectly cited as the first major Mongol defeat.
It also marked the first of two defeats the Mongols would face in their attempts to invade
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
and the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...
, the other being the
Battle of Marj al-Saffar in 1303. The earliest known use of the
hand cannon
The hand cannon ( Chinese: 手 銃 ''shŏuchòng'', or 火 銃 ''huŏchòng''), also known as the gonne or handgonne, is the first true firearm and the successor of the fire lance. It is the oldest type of small arms as well as the most mech ...
in any military conflict is also documented to have taken place in this battle by the Mamluks, who used it to frighten the Mongol armies, according to Arabic military treatises of the 13th and 14th centuries.
Background
When
Möngke Khan
Möngke ( mn, ' / Мөнх '; ; 11 January 1209 – 11 August 1259) was the fourth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire, ruling from 1 July 1251, to 11 August 1259. He was the first Khagan from the Toluid line, and made significant reform ...
became
Great Khan
Khagan or Qaghan (Mongolian:; or ''Khagan''; otk, 𐰴𐰍𐰣 ), or , tr, Kağan or ; ug, قاغان, Qaghan, Mongolian Script: ; or ; fa, خاقان ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan ...
in 1251, he immediately set out to implement his grandfather
Genghis Khan's plan for a world empire. To lead the task of subduing the nations in the West, he selected his brother, another of Genghis Khan's grandsons,
Hulagu Khan
Hulagu Khan, also known as Hülegü or Hulegu ( mn, Хүлэгү/ , lit=Surplus, translit=Hu’legu’/Qülegü; chg, ; Arabic: fa, هولاکو خان, ''Holâku Khân;'' ; 8 February 1265), was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of We ...
.
Assembling the army took five years, and it was not until 1256 that Hulagu was prepared to begin the invasions. Operating from the Mongol base in
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, Hulagu proceeded south. Möngke had ordered good treatment for those who yielded without resistance and destruction for the rest. In that way, Hulagu and his army had conquered some of the most powerful and longstanding dynasties of the time.
Other countries in the Mongols' path submitted to Mongol authority and contributed forces to the Mongol army. When the Mongols had reached Baghdad, their army included
Cilician Armenians and even some Frankish forces from the submissive
Principality of Antioch
The Principality of Antioch was one of the crusader states created during the First Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. The principality was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It exte ...
. The
Assassins
An assassin is a person who commits targeted murder.
Assassin may also refer to:
Origin of term
* Someone belonging to the medieval Persian Ismaili order of Assassins
Animals and insects
* Assassin bugs, a genus in the family ''Reduviida ...
in Persia fell, the 500-year-old
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
of
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
was destroyed (see
Battle of Baghdad) and the
Ayyubid dynasty in
Damascus fell as well. Hulagu's plan was then to proceed southwards through the
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establish ...
towards the
Mamluk Sultanate
The Mamluk Sultanate ( ar, سلطنة المماليك, translit=Salṭanat al-Mamālīk), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz (western Arabia) from the mid-13th to early 16t ...
, to confront the major Islamic power.
During the Mongol attack on the Mamluks in the Middle East, most of the Mamluks were
Kipchaks, and the
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragme ...
's supply of Kipchaks replenished the Mamluk armies and helped them fight off the Mongols.
Mongol envoys in Cairo
In 1260, Hulagu sent envoys to
Qutuz
Saif ad-Din Qutuz ( ar, سيف الدين قطز; died 24 October 1260), also romanized as Kutuz or Kotuz and fully al-Malik al-Muẓaffar Sayf ad-Dīn Quṭuz (), was a military leader and the third or fourth of the Mamluk Sultans of Egy ...
in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
with a letter demanding his surrender that read:
Qutuz responded, however, by killing the envoys and displaying their heads on
Bab Zuweila
Bab Zuweila or Bab Zuwayla ( ar, باب زويلة) is one of three remaining gates in the city wall of the Old City of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. It was also known as Bawabbat al-Mitwali during the Ottoman period. It is considered one of the ...
, one of the gates of Cairo.
Hulagu's departure to Mongolia
Shortly before the battle, Hulagu withdrew from the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...
with the bulk of his army, leaving his forces west of the
Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...
with only one
tumen (nominally 10,000 men, but usually fewer),
and a handful of vassal troops under the
Naiman Nestorian Christian general Kitbuqa. Contemporary Mamluk chronicler
al-Yunini's ''Dhayl Mirat Al-Zaman'' states that the Mongol army under Kitbuqa, including vassals, numbered 100,000 men in total, but this was likely an exaggeration.
Until the late 20th century, historians believed that Hulagu's sudden retreat had been caused by the power dynamic having been changed by the death of the Great Khan Möngke on an
expedition to the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
's China, which made Hulagu and other senior Mongols return home to decide his successor. However, contemporary documentation discovered in the 1980s reveals that to be untrue, as Hulagu himself claimed that he withdrew most of his forces because he could not sustain such a large army logistically, that the fodder in the region had been mostly used up and that a Mongol custom was to withdraw to cooler lands for the summer.
Qutuz advances into Palestine
Upon receiving news of Hulagu's departure, Mamluk Sultan Qutuz quickly assembled a large army at Cairo and invaded Palestine.
[p. 424, 'The Collins Encyclopedia of Military History' (4th edition, 1993), Dupuy & Dupuy,] In late August, Kitbuqa's forces proceeded south from their base at
Baalbek, passing to the east of
Lake Tiberias
The Sea of Galilee ( he, יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ar, بحيرة طبريا), also called Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest f ...
into
Lower Galilee. Qutuz was then allied with a fellow Mamluk,
Baibars, who chose to ally himself with Qutuz in the face of a greater enemy after the Mongols had captured
Damascus and most of
Bilad ash-Sham.
Mongol invasion of the crusader states
The Mongols attempted to form a
Franco-Mongol alliance
Several attempts at a Franco-Mongol alliance against the Islamic caliphates, their common enemy, were made by various leaders among the Frankish Crusaders and the Mongol Empire in the 13th century. Such an alliance might have seemed an obvious ...
or at least to demand the submission of the remnant of the
Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establish ...
, now centered on
Acre; but
Pope Alexander IV
Pope Alexander IV (1199 or 1185 – 25 May 1261) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 December 1254 to his death in 1261.
Early career
He was born as Rinaldo di Jenne in Jenne (now in the Province of Rome), he ...
had forbidden it. Tensions between the
Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
and the Mongols had also increased when
Julian of Sidon
Julian Grenier (died 1275) was the Count of Sidon from 1239 to 1260, then becoming merely titular. He was the son and successor of Balian Grenier and Ida of Reynel. He did not exhibit the wisdom of his father in his dealings with the Saracens.
...
caused an incident which resulted in the death of one of Kitbuqa's grandsons. Angered, Kitbuqa sacked
Sidon
Sidon ( ; he, צִידוֹן, ''Ṣīḏōn'') known locally as Sayda or Saida ( ar, صيدا ''Ṣaydā''), is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate, of which it is the capital, on the Mediterranean coast. ...
. The
Barons of Acre and the remainder of the Crusader outposts, contacted by the Mongols, had also been approached by the Mamluks and sought military assistance against the Mongols.
Though the Mamluks were the traditional enemies of the Franks, the Barons of Acre recognised the Mongols as the more immediate menace and so the Crusaders opted for a position of cautious neutrality between the two forces. In an unusual move, they agreed that the Egyptian Mamluks could march north through the Crusader states unmolested and even camp to resupply near Acre. When news arrived that the Mongols had crossed the
Jordan River, Sultan Qutuz and his forces proceeded southeast, toward the site known in Arabic as "the Spring of Goliath" (Ain Jalut), in the
Jezreel Valley
The Jezreel Valley (from the he, עמק יזרעאל, translit. ''ʿĒmeq Yīzrəʿēʿl''), or Marj Ibn Amir ( ar, مرج ابن عامر), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern Distr ...
, today called the
Spring of Harod in Hebrew.
[Bartlett, p. 253]
Battle
The first to advance were the Mongols, whose force also included troops from the
Kingdom of Georgia
The Kingdom of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამეფო, tr), also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval Eurasian monarchy that was founded in circa 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic ...
and about 500 troops from the
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, both of which had submitted to Mongol authority. The Mamluks had the advantage of knowing the terrain, and Qutuz capitalized on that by hiding the bulk of his force in the highlands and hoping to bait the Mongols with a smaller force, under Baibars.
Both armies fought for many hours, with Baibars usually implementing
hit-and-run tactics
Hit-and-run tactics are a tactical doctrine of using short surprise attacks, withdrawing before the enemy can respond in force, and constantly maneuvering to avoid full engagement with the enemy. The purpose is not to decisively defeat the en ...
to provoke the Mongol troops and to preserve the bulk of his troops intact. When the Mongols carried out another heavy assault, Baibars, who it is said had laid out the overall strategy of the battle since he had spent much time in that region earlier in his life as a fugitive, and his men feigned a final retreat to draw the Mongols into the highlands to be ambushed by the rest of the Mamluk forces concealed among the trees. The Mongol leader, Kitbuqa, already provoked by the constant fleeing of Baibars and his troops, committed a grave mistake. Instead of suspecting a trick, Kitbuqa decided to march forward with all of his troops on the trail of the fleeing Mamluks. When the Mongols reached the highlands, Mamluk forces emerged from hiding and began to fire arrows and attack with their cavalry. The Mongols then found themselves surrounded on all sides. Additionally, Timothy May hypothesizes that a key moment in the battle was the defection of the Mongol Syrian allies.
The Mongol army fought very fiercely and very aggressively to break out. Some distance away, Qutuz watched with his private legion. When Qutuz saw the left wing of the Mamluk army almost destroyed by the desperate Mongols seeking an escape route, he threw away his
combat helmet, so that his warriors could recognize him and cried loudly three times "O Islam! O Allah grant your servant Qutuz a victory against these Mongols". He was seen the next moment rushing fiercely towards the battlefield yelling ''wa islamah!'' ("Oh my Islam"), urging his army to keep firm and advancing towards the weakened side, followed by his own unit. The Mongols were pushed back and fled to a vicinity of
Beisan, followed by Qutuz's forces, but they managed to reorganize and to return to the battlefield, making a successful counterattack. However, the battle shifted toward the Mamluks, who now had both the geographic and psychological advantage, and some of the Mongols were eventually forced to retreat. Kitbuqa, with almost the rest of the Mongol army that had remained in the region, perished.
Aftermath
Hulagu Khan ordered the execution of the last Ayyubid emir of Aleppo and Damascus,
An-Nasir Yusuf
An-Nasir Yusuf ( ar, الناصر يوسف; AD 1228–1260), fully al-Malik al-Nasir Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn al-Aziz ibn al-Zahir ibn Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shazy (), was the Ayyubid Emir of Syria from his seat in Aleppo (123 ...
, and his brother, who were in captivity, after he heard the news of the defeat of the Mongol army at Ain Jalut. However, the Mamluks captured Damascus five days later after Ain Jalut, followed by Aleppo within a month.
On the way back to Cairo after the victory at Ain Jalut, Qutuz was assassinated by several
emir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...
s in a conspiracy led by
Baibars. Baibars became the new Sultan. Local Ayyubid emirs sworn to the Mamluk sultanate subsequently
defeated
Defeated may refer to:
* "Defeated" (Breaking Benjamin song)
* "Defeated" (Anastacia song)
*"Defeated", a song by Snoop Dogg from the album ''Bible of Love''
*Defeated, Tennessee, an unincorporated community
*''The Defeated
''The Defeated'', al ...
another Mongol force of 6,000 at
Homs, which ended the first Mongol expedition into Syria. Baibars and his successors would go on to capture the last of the
crusader states in the
Holy Land by 1291.
Internecine conflict prevented Hulagu Khan from being able to bring his full power against the Mamluks to avenge the pivotal defeat at Ain Jalut.
Berke Khan, the Khan of the
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragme ...
to the north of Ilkhanate, had converted to Islam and watched with horror as his cousin destroyed the
Abbasid Caliph, the spiritual and administrative center of Islam. The Muslim historian
Rashid-al-Din Hamadani
Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb ( fa, رشیدالدین طبیب; 1247–1318; also known as Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlullāh Hamadānī, fa, links=no, رشیدالدین فضلالله همدانی) was a statesman, historian and physician in Ilk ...
quoted Berke as sending the following message to Mongke Khan, protesting the attack on Baghdad since he did not know that Mongke had died in China: "He (
Hulagu
Hulagu Khan, also known as Hülegü or Hulegu ( mn, Хүлэгү/ , lit=Surplus, translit=Hu’legu’/Qülegü; chg, ; Arabic: fa, هولاکو خان, ''Holâku Khân;'' ; 8 February 1265), was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of West ...
) has sacked all the cities of the
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
, and has brought about the death of the
Caliph
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
. With the help of God I will call him to account for so much innocent blood." The Mamluks, learning through spies that Berke was a Muslim and was not fond of his cousin, were careful to nourish their ties to him and his Khanate.
Later on, Hulagu was able to send only a small army of two tumens in his sole attempt to attack the Mamluks in Aleppo in December 1260. They were able to massacre a large number of Muslims in retaliation for the death of Kitbuqa, but after a fortnight could make no other progress and had to retreat.
After the Mongol succession was finally settled, with
Kublai
Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of the ...
as the last Great Khan, Hulagu returned to his lands by 1262 and massed his armies to attack the Mamluks and avenge Ain Jalut. However, Berke Khan initiated a series of raids in force that lured Hulagu north, away from the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...
, to meet him. Hulagu suffered a severe defeat in an attempted invasion north of the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...
in 1263. That was the first open war among the Mongols and signaled the end of the unified empire. Hulagu Khan died in 1265 and was succeeded by his son
Abaqa
Abaqa Khan (27 February 1234 – 4 April 1282, mn, Абаха/Абага хан (Khalkha Cyrillic), ( Traditional script), "paternal uncle", also transliterated Abaġa), was the second Mongol ruler (''Ilkhan'') of the Ilkhanate. The son of Hul ...
.
The Muslim Mamluks defeated the Mongols in all battles except one. Beside a victory to the Mamluks in Ain Jalut, the Mongols were defeated in the
second Battle of Homs,
Elbistan
Elbistan ( 1ca, Ablasta, Ablastayn, Ablastin, Ablistan;Aksüt, Ali"''On the Alevism of Elbistan, Nurhak, Ekinozu and Afsin - Elbistan Nurhak Ekinözü Afşin Aleviliği Üzerine - Zum Alevitentum in Elbistan, Nurhak, Ekinözü und Afşin''"- Alevi ...
and
Marj al-Saffar. After five battles with the Mamluks, the Mongols only won at the
Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar. They never returned to Syria again.
Legacy
The large number of sources in vastly-different languages caused Mongol historians to have generally focused on one limited aspect of the empire. From that standpoint, the Battle of Ain Jalut has been represented by numerous academic and popular historians as an epochal battle. One that saw, for the first time, a Mongol advance that experienced their first major defeat and a permanent halt to forward movements.
[ ][Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.] However, Ain Jalut, placed in the broader scope of the Mongol conquests in more comprehensive recent research, was actually not a first defeat or as pivotal as earlier histories portrayed it to be.
The Mongols had been defeated several times before Ain Jalut, not even including Genghis' defeats to Jamuqa and the Kerait's during the Mongol wars of unification. Mongol General Boro'qul was ambushed and killed by the Siberian Tumad tribe between 1215 and 1217, which prompted Genghis to send Dorbei Doqshin, who outmaneuvered and captured the Tumad tribe. In 1221, Shigi Qutugu was defeated by Jalal al-Din during the Mongol conquest of the
Khwarezmian Empire
The Khwarazmian or Khwarezmian Empire) or the Khwarazmshahs ( fa, خوارزمشاهیان, Khwārazmshāhiyān) () was a Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire that ruled large parts of present-day Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Iran in the app ...
at the
Battle of Parwan
The Battle of Parwan was fought between Sultan Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu of the Khwarezmid Empire and the Mongols ruled by Genghis Khan in September 1221 CE at Parwan, north of Kabul, in present-day Afghanistan. Jalal ad-Din had previously atta ...
. As a result, Genghis Khan himself made forced marches to bring the Sultan Jalal al-Din to battle and annihilated him at the
Battle of Indus. During the initial reign of
Ogedei Khan, his general, Dolqolqu, was heavily defeated by the Jin generals Wan Yen-Yi and Pu'a. In response, Ogedei dispatched the legendary
Subutai, and after encountering fierce resistance, the Mongols brought their entire army to bear under a vast encirclement of the Jin Empire by separate armies under Ogedei, Tolui and Subutai. The Jin armies were decisively defeated and Subutai conquered
Kaifeng
Kaifeng () is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, China. It is one of the Eight Ancient Capitals of China, having been the capital eight times in history, and is best known for having been the Chinese capital during the No ...
in 1233, effectively dooming the
Jin Dynasty.
According to Arabic military treatises of the 13th and 14th centuries,
hand cannon
The hand cannon ( Chinese: 手 銃 ''shŏuchòng'', or 火 銃 ''huŏchòng''), also known as the gonne or handgonne, is the first true firearm and the successor of the fire lance. It is the oldest type of small arms as well as the most mech ...
was used by the Mamluk side in the Battle of Ain Jalut to frighten the Mongol armies, making it the earliest known battle for hand cannon being used. The compositions of the gunpowder used in the cannon were also given in those manuals.
Part 4
an
Part 5
A recent study claims that the Mongol defeat was in part caused by a short term climate anomaly following the
eruption of Samalas volcano a few years earlier, stating that "a return to warmer and dryer conditions in the summer of 1260 CE,
..likely reduced the regional carrying capacity and may therefore have forced a mass withdrawal of the Mongols from the region that contributed to the Mamluks’ victory."
[Nicola Di Cosmo, Sebastian Wagner, Ulf Büntgen, Climate and environmental context of the Mongol invasion of Syria and defeat at ‘Ayn Jālūt (1258–1260 CE).2021 Erdkunde, 75, 2, doi=10.3112/erdkunde.2021.02.02 , url=https://www.erdkunde.uni-bonn.de/archive/2021/climate-and-environmental-context-of-the-mongol-invasion-of-syria-and-defeat-at-2018ayn-jalut-125820131260-ce]
In fiction
Robert Shea
Robert Joseph Shea (February 14, 1933 – March 10, 1994) was an American novelist and former journalist best known as co-author with Robert Anton Wilson of the science fantasy trilogy '' Illuminatus!'' It became a cult success and was later turne ...
's historical novel ''
The Saracen
''The Saracen'' is a two-part novel written by Robert Shea. The continuous tale has two separate portions: ''The Land of the Infidel'' and ''The Holy War''.
Basically ignored during its publication and then out of print although still enjoying st ...
'' deals thoroughly with the Battle of Ain Jalut and the subsequent assassination of Sultan Qutuz.
Notes
References
*
Al-Maqrizi
Al-Maqrīzī or Maḳrīzī (Arabic: ), whose full name was Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī (Arabic: ) (1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian Arab historian during the Mamluk era, kn ...
, Al Selouk Leme'refatt Dewall al-Melouk, Dar al-kotob, 1997.
* Bohn, Henry G. (1848) ''The Road to Knowledge of the Return of Kings, Chronicles of the Crusades'', AMS Press, New York, 1969 edition, a translation of ''Chronicles of the Crusades : being contemporary narratives of the crusade of Richard Coeur de Lion by Richard of Devizes and Geoffrey de Vinsauf and of the crusade of St. Louis, by Lord John de Joinville''.
*
*
*
*
*
* Grousset, René (1991), ''Histoire des Croisades'', III, Editions Perrin, .
* Hildinger, Erik. (1997). ''Warriors of the Steppe.'' Sarpedon Publishing.
* Holt, P. M.; Lambton, Ann; Lewis, Bernard (1977) ''The Cambridge History of Islam, Vol. 1A: The Central Islamic Lands from Pre-Islamic Times to the First World War'', Cambridge University Press, .
*
* Morgan, David (1990) ''The Mongols''. Oxford: Blackwell.
* Nicolle, David, (1998). ''The Mongol Warlords'' Brockhampton Press.
* Perry, Glenn E. (2004) ''The History of Egypt'', Greenwood Publishing Group, .
* Reagan, Geoffry, (1992). ''The Guinness Book of Decisive Battles ''. Canopy Books, NY.
*
* Saunders, J. J. (1971) ''The History of the Mongol Conquests'', Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
* Sicker, Martin (2000) ''The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab Conquests to the Siege of Vienna'', Praeger Publishers.
* Soucek, Svatopluk (2000) ''A History of Inner Asia'', Cambridge University Press.
* 4
* Blair, S. (1995). ''A compendium of chronicles: Rashid al-Din's illustrated history of the world''. Nour Foundation.
* John Masson Smith Jr. (1984) ''MONGOL ARMIES AND INDIAN CAMPAIGNS'', University of California, Berkeley
* Smith, John Masson. “Ayn Jālūt: Mamlūk Success or Mongol Failure?” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol. 44, no. 2, 1984, pp. 307–345. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2719035
* Waterson, James (2007) ''The Knights of Islam: The Wars of the Mamluks''. Greenhill Books, London.
{{Authority control
Ain Jalut 1260
Medieval Israel
Medieval Palestine
Ain Jalut 1260
Ain Jalut
Ma'ayan Harod ( he, מעיין חרוד, lit=the Spring of Harod) or Ayn Jalut ( ar, عين جالوت ', lit. "the Spring of Goliath", formerly also and in Hebrew) is a Spring (hydrology), spring on the southern border of the Jezreel Valley, ...
Ain Jalut
Ma'ayan Harod ( he, מעיין חרוד, lit=the Spring of Harod) or Ayn Jalut ( ar, عين جالوت ', lit. "the Spring of Goliath", formerly also and in Hebrew) is a Spring (hydrology), spring on the southern border of the Jezreel Valley, ...
Ain Jalut
Ma'ayan Harod ( he, מעיין חרוד, lit=the Spring of Harod) or Ayn Jalut ( ar, عين جالوت ', lit. "the Spring of Goliath", formerly also and in Hebrew) is a Spring (hydrology), spring on the southern border of the Jezreel Valley, ...
Egypt–Mongolia relations
13th century in the Mamluk Sultanate
1260 in Asia
1260 in Europe
13th century in the Kingdom of Georgia
1260 in the Mongol Empire
Hulagu Khan
Ain Jalut
Ma'ayan Harod ( he, מעיין חרוד, lit=the Spring of Harod) or Ayn Jalut ( ar, عين جالوت ', lit. "the Spring of Goliath", formerly also and in Hebrew) is a Spring (hydrology), spring on the southern border of the Jezreel Valley, ...
Galilee