could arrive. He resolved to meet the Mongols before they reached
Egypt, while their numbers were at a minimum.x A wild card was the Crusader kingdoms. Although Jerusalem had
been lost a half century earlier, the remnants of the kingdoms
collectively constituted an appreciable force. They were the
enemies of the Mamluks; accordingly, some Crusaders aligned
themselves with the Mongols. But the majority were so alarmed
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informing their old foes that they would be allowed to march
through Crusader territory without opposition and even agreeing to
help supply the Mamluk army.
x Qutuz augmented his forces through uneasy alliance with
one of his former rivals, Baybars, who had gained a good
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commander and an ambitious man; thus, for Qutuz, this alliance
brought considerable risks. Yet together, the two men commanded
a force roughly equivalent to, or even slightly greater than,
Kitbuqa’s Mongols. The two armies met at the springs of Ain
Jalut in modern Israel, only about 15 miles southwest of where the
Battle of Hattin had taken place.
x Baybars went ahead with an advance force and skirmished with
the Mongols, sending word back to Qutuz to bring up the army.
The battle took place on September 3, 1260. It appears that
Baybars employed some of the deceptive tactics that the Mongols
themselves typically used in battle. Over the course of the morning,
the Mongols pressed aggressively forward, perhaps lured by
feigned retreats.
x The Mongol assaults seem to have been especially heavy on the
Mamluk left, and this section of Qutuz’s army began to fall back
for real and lose cohesion. They were temporarily rallied by a
counterattack, but then the Mongols drove forward again and
seemed on the verge of breaking through.