Battle of Ain Jalut

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Battle of Ain Jalut
	Part of the Mongol invasions of the Levant
	; Map showing movements of both forces, meeting eventually at Ain Jalut
Date	3 September 1260 (26 Ramadan 658 H)
Location	Near Ma'ayan Harod (Hebrew) or Ayn Jalut (Arabic), Jezreel Valley, Israel
Result	Mamluk victory
Territorial; changes	Territories captured by the Mongols are returned to the Mamluks.
Belligerents
Mamluk Sultanate; Ayyubid emirs of Kerak and Hamah	Ilkhanate Cilician Armenia; Kingdom of Georgia;
Commanders and leaders
Qutuz; Baybars; Al-Mansur of Hamah;	Kitbuqa †;
Units involved
Light cavalry and horse archers, heavy cavalry, infantry	Mongol lancers and horse archers
Strength
15,000–20,000	10,000–20,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown	High

The Battle of Ain Jalut (Arabic: معركة عين جالوت, romanized: Ma'rakat ‘Ayn Jālūt), also spelled Ayn Jalut, was fought between the Bahri Mamluks of Egypt and the Mongol Empire on 3 September 1260 (25 Ramadan 658 AH) near the spring of Ain Jalut in southeastern Galilee in the Jezreel Valley.

Continuing the westward expansion of the Mongol Empire, the armies of Hulagu Khan captured and sacked Baghdad in 1258, along with the Ayyubid capital of Damascus sometime later.^[10] Hulagu sent envoys to Cairo demanding Qutuz surrender Egypt, to which Qutuz responded by killing the envoys and displaying their heads on the Bab Zuweila gate of Cairo.^[10] Shortly after this, Möngke Khan was slain in battle against the Southern Song. Hulagu returned to Mongolia with the bulk of his army to attend the kurultai in accordance with Mongol customs, leaving approximately 10,000 troops west of the Euphrates under the command of Kitbuqa.

Learning of these developments, Qutuz quickly advanced his army from Cairo towards Palestine.^[11] Kitbuqa sacked Sidon, before turning his army south towards the Spring of Harod to meet Qutuz' forces. Using hit-and-run tactics and a feigned retreat by Mamluk general Baibars, combined with a final flanking maneuver by Qutuz, the Mongol army was forced to retreat toward Bisan, after which the Mamluks led a final counterattack, which resulted in the deaths of many Mongols, including Kitbuqa himself.

The battle has been cited as the first time the Mongols were permanently prevented from expanding their influence;^[12] It also marked the first of two defeats the Mongols would face in their attempts to invade Egypt and the Levant, the other being the Battle of Marj al-Saffar in 1303.

^ "Battle of Ayn Jalut | Summary | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 27 August 2023.
^ Cite error: The named reference crusade was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ D. Nicolle, The Mongol Warlords: Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Hülägü, Tamerlane. Plates by R. Hook, Firebird books: Pole 1990, p. 116.
^ Waterson, p. 75
^ Fisher, William Bayne; Boyle, J. A.; Boyle, John Andrew; Frye, Richard Nelson (1968). — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968. — Vol. 5: The Saljuq and Mongol Periods. — P. 351. — 778 p. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521069366. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
^ Cowley, 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.
^ Smith Jr, J. M. (1984). Ayn Jālūt: Mamlūk Success or Mongol Failure?. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, p.310.
^ John Masson Smith, Jr. (1984) Mongol Armies And Indian Campaigns, University of California, Berkeley.
^ Amitai-Preiss, p. 43
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference man was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference Tschanz was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[britannica-1] "Battle of Ayn Jalut | Summary | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 27 August 2023.

[crusade-2] Cite error: The named reference crusade was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[3] D. Nicolle, The Mongol Warlords: Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Hülägü, Tamerlane. Plates by R. Hook, Firebird books: Pole 1990, p. 116.

[4] Waterson, p. 75

[5] Fisher, William Bayne; Boyle, J. A.; Boyle, John Andrew; Frye, Richard Nelson (1968). — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968. — Vol. 5: The Saljuq and Mongol Periods. — P. 351. — 778 p. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521069366. Retrieved October 17, 2020.

[strength-6] Cowley, 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.

[7] Smith Jr, J. M. (1984). Ayn Jālūt: Mamlūk Success or Mongol Failure?. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, p.310.

[8] John Masson Smith, Jr. (1984) Mongol Armies And Indian Campaigns, University of California, Berkeley.

[9] Amitai-Preiss, p. 43

[man-10] Cite error: The named reference man was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[:0-11] Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Tschanz-12] Cite error: The named reference Tschanz was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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