64
1000–1500
Ain Jalut
1260
◼
GALILEE
◼
MAMLUK SULTANATE VS. MONGOL EMPIRE
MONGOL INVASION OF SYRIA
1
MONGOLS IN BATTLE
This illustration from a 14th-century
chronicle shows Mongols and Turks ghting during the Mongol
invasion of the Seljuk sultanate in Turkey in 1256, just before
the attack on Baghdad. The discipline and agility of the Mongol
warriors on horseback (right) played a key role in their victories,
but the ghting style of the Seljuks (left) was similar and almost
as eective, as demonstrated at Ain Jalut.
4
ARMORED WARRIORS
This Mamluk
armor from the 16th century shows the
high-grade chain and plate that oered
protection against the Mongols’ light arrows.
Mamluk bows outranged those of the
Mongols, and could deliver heavy, armor-
piercing arrows at close range.
In 1258, the Mongol chieftain
Hülegü launched an attack on
Persia and the Middle East, reaching
as far as Baghdad in Iraq. The city fell
after a short siege; amid scenes of
appalling slaughter, the last Abbasid
caliph, Mutasim, was wrapped in
a carpet and trampled to death. The Mongols went on to
capture Aleppo, and Damascus surrendered without a ght.
The Mongols sent envoys to Qutuz, the Mamluk sultan of
Egypt, demanding his submission; he refused and executed
the envoys. At the time, Hülegü was preoccupied by a
succession crisis in Mongolia and retreated toward Azerbaijan
with the bulk of his army, closer to the Mongol homeland. His
lieutenant, Kitbuga, stayed behind in command of 20,000
horsemen. Qutuz took advantage of this weakened Mongol
force to cross from Egypt into Palestine. On September 3,
at Ain Jalut in Galilee, Qutuz’s army encountered the Mongol
In context
4
BAGHDAD UNDER SIEGE
This 14th-century Persian manuscript shows
the Mongols besieging Baghdad prior to Ain Jalut. By 1258, the Mongols had
acquired sophisticated equipment from China. Accounts of the siege record
1,000 Chinese catapult operators in the Mongol army, together with siege
towers, crossbows, and devices for throwing combustible missiles.
horde. His general, Baybars, used the Mongols’ own tactics
against them: concealing the greater part of his army, he
retreated with a smaller force to draw Kitbuga forward.
The Mongols fell for the ruse, but, despite being showered
with Mamluk arrows, they managed to buckle the Egyptians’
left wing. The Mamluks held, and when Kitubga’s Syrian allies
defected, the course of the battle turned in their favor. The
Mongol army ed, pursued by the Mamluks—a devastating
blow to their reputation for being invincible. Although the
Mongols returned to Syria in 1262, and advanced toward
Egypt several more times in the next 50 years, Ain Jalut
marked the limit of their expansion in the Middle East.
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