Battle of Ain Jalut (1260)

Also known as Ayn Jalut, Spring of Goliath

On 3 September 1260, the Mamluk sultan Qutuz and his commander Baybars met the Mongol army of Kitbuqa at the Spring of Goliath (Ayn Jalut) in the Jezreel Valley, a few hours' march from Crusader Acre. The Crusader barons in Acre had declared a calculated neutrality and granted the Mamluks safe passage and a market through their territory — a tacit acknowledgement that the Mongol threat outweighed the Muslim one. Baybars led the Mamluk vanguard in a feigned retreat that drew the Mongols into an ambush; in the brutal hand-to-hand fighting that followed Kitbuqa was killed and the Mongol army of Syria was destroyed as a fighting force. The victory permanently halted the westward expansion of the Mongol empire and made the Mamluk sultanate the uncontested hegemon of the Near East. For the Crusader states it was a death sentence: with no Mongol counterweight, Baybars and his successors would systematically reduce the remaining Frankish fortresses over the next thirty years.

Coordinates: 32.5460°, 35.3450°

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