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1250-1260 CEReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

The Mamluks Seize Egypt and Stop the Mongols at Ain Jalut

Slave soldiers overthrow their masters, then win the battle that halts the Mongol advance

On the timeline · around 1250-1260 CE · Islamic EgyptIslamic EgyptThe Mamluks Seize Egypt and Stop the Mongols at Ain Jalut105011001150120012501300135014001450

Quick facts

Mamluk seizure of power
1250, after the death of al-Salih Ayyub
Origin of the mamluks
Slave soldiers trained as an elite cavalry
Battle of Ain Jalut
3 September 1260, under Qutuz and Baybars
Outcome
Mongol westward advance halted

What happened

The Ayyubid sultans had built their armies around mamluks, slave soldiers bought young, converted to Islam, and trained as an elite cavalry force. In 1250, after the death of the Ayyubid sultan al-Salih Ayyub, his mamluk regiments in Egypt seized power for themselves, briefly raising the sultan's widow Shajar al-Durr to the throne before consolidating rule under the commander Aybak and founding the Mamluk Sultanate. Ten years later the new regime faced the Mongols, who had already sacked Baghdad in 1258 and sent envoys to Cairo demanding submission. Sultan Qutuz had the envoys executed and marched out to meet the Mongol army. At the Battle of Ain Jalut on 3 September 1260, the Mamluks under Qutuz and his general Baybars defeated the Mongols in the Jezreel Valley, halting their westward expansion into Egypt and the wider Islamic world.

Why it matters

Ain Jalut was one of the most significant battles in world history: the Mamluks not only stopped the Mongols' westward advance but shattered the reputation of Mongol invincibility that had terrified the Islamic world since Genghis Khan. The victory secured Egypt as the surviving heart of Islamic civilization after Baghdad's destruction, and the Mamluk Sultanate the battle helped establish would rule Egypt for more than two and a half centuries, until the Ottoman conquest of 1517.

How we know

The Mamluk seizure of power in 1250 and the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 are documented in the World History Encyclopedia's account of the Mamluk Sultanate, and the battle's world-historical significance is set out in detail by Aramco World, the journal of the former Arabian American Oil Company that has published historical scholarship for decades.

Sources

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