Lecture 12: 1260 Ain Jalut—Can the Mongols Be Stopped?
subjugation of Persia, to eliminate the Assassins, and to obtain the
submission of the main Islamic caliphates or, if they would not
yield, to conquer them.x +XOHJX VHW RXW ZLWK SUR¿FLHQF\ DQG HQWKXVLDVP DFFHSWLQJ WKH
surrender of various minor principalities, some of which supplied
troops to augment his army. He besieged and captured dozens of
the mountain fortresses of the Assassins, thought to be invulnerable
because of their location.x Hulegu then turned to the subjugation of the Islamic caliphates.
The oldest and most prestigious of these was the Abbasid, based in
Baghdad, whose current caliph believed that his religious authority
would be enough to deter the invaders. In 1258, after a brief siege,
the Mongols used their catapults to destroy one of the city’s towers
and poured into the breach.x In 1259, Aleppo was taken by storm. Damascus capitulated soon
after, and for all practical purposes, the Ayyubid caliphate toppled.
Now the sole remaining major independent Muslim power in the
region was the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt.The Battle
x Just as Hulegu was preparing to take his army south and crush the
Mamluk sultanate as he had crushed the Abbasids and Ayyubids,
Mongke Khan died. Hulegu determined to return and participate in
the selection of the next Great Khan, as was Mongol custom. He
also decided to take the majority of his army with him. Mindful of
his mission, however, he left behind a force of about 20,000 men
under the control of his most trusted general, Kitbuqa, to mop up
the remaining resistance in the area.x Meanwhile, in Egypt, Qutuz, the Mamluk warlord, had been
preparing his forces to confront the Mongols as soon as it
became apparent that they were intent on invading. Now, with
the withdrawal of the majority of the Mongol army, Qutuz saw an
opportunity to attack the smaller contingent before reinforcements