Battle of Ain Jalut | Summary

Battle of Ain Jalut (1258)

The Battle of Ain Jalut is from the time when Baghdad had been destroyed, and it was for the first time in history that no Muslim caliphate existed. Since Baghdad was in ashes, the Abbasid caliphate, which had led Muslims for 500 years, had also ended. In such a situation, all the cities of the Muslims were becoming part of the Mongol Empire, and now the next destination of Hulagu Khan, who had erected towers of skulls, was Syria.

In 1260, an army of Mongols, Christian Armenians, Georgian, and Crusader Prince attacked Mulke Sham (Syria) with a full force led by Halaku Khan. During this time Sham was part of the Ayyubi Sultanate which was spread over a large part of Arabia, Egypt, and the Levant and was famous as a powerful empire. But on the one hand Mongol army and on the other side a bitter attack from the Christians,

It was very difficult to break it. As a result, which Mongol army first occupied the city of Aleppo then on 12 March 1260, they took control of Damascus city. Many articles in history describe that three Christian rulers Hethum, Bohemond, and Kitbuqa together entered the city to celebrate their win. With this victory, Ayyubi Sultanate got destroyed and Hulagu Khan killed its last ruler An-Nasir Yousuf with his own very hand. After the weakening of Syria and Baghdad to ashes, now the center of Islamic rule was Mamluk Sultan’s capital, Cairo.

Sultan Ruknuddin Baybers vs Mongols

Halaku sent a threatening letter to Sultan Al- Muzaffar Saifuddin Qutuz “We have ruined your land, orphaned children and have captured the honor of women and their warlords imprisoned. Do you think that you can escape from us? In some time you will know what’s coming towards you”. Sultan Saifuddin reacted to this strongly and after killing the Mongolian messenger hanged them at the city center. During all these a sad news was delivered to Hulagu Khan that while the battle with Song Dynasty Mangu Khan has died. Due to this entire Mongolian empire was stroked and on a large scale, campaigns were paused. Empire was on the way to Civil War and Hulagu left the Levant for Mongolia.

He left 1 part of the army out of 3 behind while the other was with him. Now the Mongols tried to have peace with the Mamluks but their representative was killed. After this Mongol General Kitbuqa(Kitboga) tried to shake hands with Crusader states but he failed in this too and Mamluk Sultan Saifuddin Kudaj after gathering his army marched for war towards Palestine. When this news reached General Kiboga then he also promptly gathered an army of around 25k. In this Mongolian army, along with Syrian warriors, a large number of Armenians and Georgians were there.

In Sept. 1260 General crossed the Jordan river and reached a place in Ain Jalut. (Let me tell you Ain Jalut in the same place where Prophet David/Daud (AS) had killed Goliath/Jalut in one attack only.) Anyways, both Mamluk and Mongol forces were almost the same in numbers but the Mamluks had a great advantage since their Commander Baybars was well of the area. And he who had made the strategies for the war and used one of the greatest keys of Mongols “Willingly Stepping Back”. At the place of Ain Jalut, Mamluks hid most of the part of their army and under the leadership of General Baybar, they sent a very small fleet to fight.

This army fleet was repeatedly going back and forth to provoke and entangle Tatars for a long time. Which troubled Kitboga greatly! Accordingly, he got into their trap and ordered his soldiers to forward and attack. As the Mongol and Christian forces moved forward, the Mamluk soldiers sitting ambushed came forward and started attacking them from all sides.

The arrows were being bombarded the Mongols but still, then they kept fighting with full force and managed to break the left flank of the Egyptian army. The Mamluk Sultan tried for hours to regain control of the left flank, but continued to falter so the Sultan got fed up and sent the military squad of right-wing to the left, then somehow the Mongols could be pushed back somehow. It is said that when Mongols were conquering Mamluks, Sultan Saifuddin Qutuz climbed the hill, threw off his iron skull, and shouted “Wa Islam Wa Islam”.

He encouraged his army to fight for Islam. After this, the Muslims ripped off the Mongols and in a moment & the Tatars who were out to conquer the world, started running away from the battle. While General Kitbuqa(Kitboga) was arrested and got eliminated in Mishra by cutting him to pieces. But this Tatar general was such that he got into pieces but not even did an off and he kept saying, “Did the Tatar women have stopped giving birth to children, that no one will not take my revenge? My avengers will surely come.