The Battle of ʿAyn Jalut

The Muslims under Sultan Qutuz and Baybars shattered the legend of the "unbeatable" Mongols at ʿAyn Jalut in Palestine, saving Egypt and the Muslim world and beginning the expulsion of the Mongols from all of Syria.

After the fall of Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus, Hulagu sent envoys to Egypt with a fearsome letter of threat. Qutuz gathered the emirs, resolved on confrontation and had the envoys killed, and spoke his words: "I will meet the Tatars myself," and went out with the army from Egypt despite the smallness of its numbers and equipment.

The two hosts met at ʿAyn Jalut near Baysan on Friday 25 Ramadan 658 AH (September 1260). Baybars lured Kitbugha's army with the vanguard into an ambush, and when the pressure grew, Qutuz cast off his helmet and cried his ringing cry: O Islam! and charged himself.

Kitbugha was killed and the Mongol army annihilated — the first confirmed great defeat of the Mongols since Genghis Khan — and Syria was liberated within weeks. By this battle Allah preserved Egypt, the two Holy Sanctuaries and the Maghrib beyond them, so it was counted among the most decisive battles in human history.