Battle of Ain Jalut

Infobox Military Conflict


caption=
conflict=Battle of Ain Jalut
partof=the Mongol raids in Palestine
date=3 September 1260
place=Ain Jalut, Palestine
result= Decisive Egyptian Mamluk victory
combatant1=Egyptian Mamluks
combatant2=Mongols
Georgians
Cilician Armenians
commander1=Saif ad-Din Qutuz, Baibars
commander2=Kitbuqa
strength1=~20,000 menCowley, p.44, states that both sides were evenly matched at 20,000 men. Cline says that "In short, the . . . armies that were to meet at 'Ayn Jalut were probably of approximately the same size, with between ten thousand and twenty thousand men in each.", p. 145. Fage & Oliver, however, state that "the Mongol force at Ayn Jalut was nothing but a detachment, which was vastly outnumbered by the Mamluk army", p. 43.]
strength2=~20,000 men
casualties1=heavy
casualties2=heavyThe Battle of Ain Jalut (or Ayn Jalut, in Arabic: _ar. عين جالوت, the "Eye of Goliath" or the "Spring of Goliath") took place on 3 September 1260 between the Egyptian Mamluks and the Mongols in Palestine, in the Jezreel Valley in Galilee, just north of Biblical Samaria.

This battle is considered by many historians to be of great macro-historical importance, as it marked the highwater of Mongol conquests, and the first time they had ever been decisively defeated. After previous defeats, the Mongols had always returned and avenged the loss, but after the Battle of Ain Jalut they were unable to do so. The Mongol Ilkhanate leader Hulagu Khan was not able to advance into Egypt, and the Khanate he established in Persia was only able to defeat the Mamluks once in subsequent expeditions, briefly reoccupying Syria and parts of Palestine for a few months in 1300.

Preceding events

When Mongke Khan became Great Khan in 1251, he immediately set out to implement his grandfather Genghis Khan's plan for world empire. To lead the task of subduing the nations of the West, he selected his brother, another of Genghis Khan's grandsons, Hulagu Khan.

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, Hulagu proceeded south. Mongke Khan had ordered good treatment for those who yielded without resistance, and destruction for those who did not. In this 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. By the time that the Mongols reached Baghdad, their army included Cilician Armenians, and even some Frankish forces from the submitted Principality of Antioch. The Hashshashin in Persia fell, the 500-year-old Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad was destroyed (see Battle of Baghdad (1258)), and so too fell the Ayyubid dynasty in Damascus. Hulagu's plan was to then proceed southwards through Palestine towards Egypt, to confront the last major Islamic power, the Mamluk Sultanate.

Mongol envoys to Egypt

In 1260, Hulagu sent envoys to Qutuz in Cairo, demanding his surrender:

Qutuz responded, however, by killing the envoys and displaying their heads on Bab Zuweila, one of the gates of Cairo.

The campaign

The power dynamic then changed due to the death of the Great Khan Mongke, requiring Hulagu and other senior Mongols to return home to decide upon his successor. A potential Great Khan, Hulagu took the majority of his army with him, and left a much smaller force, only around one or two tumens (10,000-20,000 men) under his best general, the Nestorian Christian Turk [Encyclopædia Britannica Online - [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9011508/Battle-of-Ayn-Jalut "Battle of 'Ayn Jalut"] ] Kitbuqa Noyan. ["Histoire des Croisades II, Rene Grousset, p593]

In late August, Kitbuqa's forces proceeded south from their base at Baalbek, passing to the east of Lake Tiberias through Palestine.

The Mamluk Sultan Qutuz at that time allied with a fellow Mamluk, Baibars, who wanted to defend Islam after the Mongols captured Damascus and most of Sham.

The Mongols, for their part, attempted to form a Franco-Mongol alliance with (or at least, demand the submission of) the remnant of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, now centered on Acre, but Pope Alexander IV had forbidden this. Tensions between Franks and Mongols had also increased when Julian of Sidon caused an incident which resulted in the death of one of Kitbuqa's grandsons. Angered, Kitbuqa had sacked Sidon. The Barons of Acre, contacted by the Mongols, had also been approached by the Mamluks, seeking military assistance against the Mongols.

Though the Mamluks were the traditional enemies of the Franks, the Barons of Acre recognized the Mongols as the more immediate menace, and so the Crusaders opted for a position of cautious neutrality between the two forces. [Morgan, p. 137.] In an unusual move, they agreed that the Egyptian Mamluks could march north through the Crusader territories unmolested, and even camp to resupply near Acre. When news arrived that the Mongols had crossed the Jordan River, Sultan Qutuz and his forces then proceeded southeast toward the spring at Ain Jalut in the Jezreel Valley.Bartlett, p. 253]

The battle

The bulk of the Mamluks were a force specifically prepared to deal with Mongol tactics. Many of them were Turkic or Circassian tribesmen purchased in Constantinople by the Sultan of Egypt and trained at the Mamluk headquarters on an island in the Nile. They were not only great horsemen themselves, but were familiar with steppe warfare and with Mongol tactics and weapons.

The opposing forces met at Ain Jalut on September 3, 1260, both sides numbering about 20,000 men. The first to advance were the Mongols, whose force also included troops from the Kingdom of Georgia and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, both of which kingdoms had submitted to Mongol authority. The Mamluks had the advantage of knowledge of the terrain, and Qutuz capitalized on this by hiding the bulk of his force in the hills, and then baiting the Mongols with a smaller force under Baibars. When the Mongols attacked, Baibars and his men feigned a retreat, drawing the Mongols into the hills to be ambushed by the rest of the Mamluk forces, who fired arrows and attacked with their cavalry. The Mongols fought aggressively, requiring all the Mamluks to join the fray, even Qutuz. The Mamluks had the numerical advantage though, and eventually some of the Mongols were forced to retreat. Kitbuqa did not, choosing instead to continue to fight, and he was eventually captured and executed, perhaps beheaded personally by Qutuz. The Mamluk heavy cavalrymen had accomplished what had never been done before, beating the Mongols in close combat.

The Battle of Ain Jalut is notable for being the earliest known battle where explosive hand cannons ("midfa" in Arabic) were used. These explosives were employed by the Mamluk Egyptians in order to frighten the Mongol horses and cavalry and cause disorder in their ranks. The explosive gunpowder compositions of these cannons were later described in Arabic chemical and military manuals in the early 14th century. [Ahmad Y Hassan, [http://www.history-science-technology.com/Articles/articles%202.htm Gunpowder Composition for Rockets and Cannon in Arabic Military Treatises In Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries] ]

Aftermath

On the way back to Cairo after the victory at Ain Jalut, Qutuz was assassinated by several emirs in a conspiracy led by Baibars. [Although medieval historians give conflicting accounts, modern historians assign responsibility for Qutuz's assassination to Baibars. See Perry (p. 150), Amitai-Preiss (p. 47, "a conspiracy of amirs, which included Baybars and was probably under his leadership"), Holt et al. (Baibars "came to power with [the] regicide [of Qutuz] on his conscience"), and Tschanz. For further discussion, see article on "Qutuz."] Baibars became the new Sultan. His successors would go on to capture the last of the Crusader states in Palestine by 1291. The Mongols were again beaten at the First Battle of Homs less than a year later, and completely expelled from Syria.

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 Kipchak Khanate in Russia, had converted to Islam, and watched with horror as his cousin destroyed the Abbasid Caliph, the spiritual head of Islam. Muslim historian Rashid al-Din quoted Berke as sending the following message to Mongke Khan, protesting the attack on Baghdad (not knowing Mongke had died in China): "he has sacked all the cities of the Muslims, and has brought about the death of the Caliph. With the help of God I will call him to account for so much innocent blood." ["The Mongol Warlords" quotes Rashid al Din's record of Berke Khan's pronouncement; this quote is also found in Amitai-Preiss's "The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War".] The Mamluks, learning through spies that Berke was both a Muslim and not fond of his cousin, were careful to nourish their ties to him and his Khanate.

After the Mongol succession was finally settled, with Kublai 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 which lured Hulagu north away from the Levant to meet him. Hulagu suffered severe defeat in an attempted invasion north of the Caucasus in 1263. This was the first open war between Mongols, and signaled the end of the unified empire.

Hulagu was only able to send a small army of two tumens in his only attempt to attack the Mamluks after Ain Jalut, and it was repulsed. Hulagu Khan died in 1265 and was succeeded by his son Abaqa.

Notes

References

* Al-Maqrizi, 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".
*cite book|author=Amitai-Preiss, Reuven|title=Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260-1281|date=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge|isbn=978-0521462266
*
*cite book|author=Eric H. Cline|title=The Battles of Armageddon|publisher=University of Michigan Press|year=2002|isbn=0472067397
*cite book|author=Robert Cowley|coauthors=Geoffrey Parker|title=The Reader's Companion to Military History|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|year=2001|isbn=978-0618127429| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=qOEu4ALwR-IC&pg=PA44&dq=%22Ayn+Jalut,+Battle+of%22&hl=en&sig=x-RU3-JbU6AYVFwH_zaLbLcQBuM|pages=p. 44|accessdate=2008-03-26
*cite book|author=J. D. Fage|coauthors=Roland Anthony Oliver|title=The Cambridge History of Africa|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1975|isbn=0521209811
*Grousset, René (1991), "Histoire des Croisades", III, Editions Perrin, ISBN 226202569X.
*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, ISBN 978-0521291354.
*Morgan, David (1990) "The Mongols". Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-17563-6
*Nicolle, David, (1998). "The Mongol Warlords" Brockhampton Press.
*Perry, Glenn E. (2004) "The History of Egypt", Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0313322648.
*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. ISBN 0-8122-1766-7
*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.
*

External links

* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4841369880154338649&q=The+Lion+of+Ain+Jaloot The Lion of Ain Jaloot] ---Google Video
* [http://www.angelfire.com/space2/writing.com.my/ainjalut.htm History Decided At The 'Spring Of Goliath': The Battle Of Ain Jalut]
* [http://www.lbdb.com/TMDisplayBattle.cfm?BID=337 Leaders and Battles database: Ain Jalut, the Mongol Wars]