Islam. 97armies pursued Muhammad and his son Jalal al-Din across
Iran, through Azerbaijan and into Syria, leaving a trail of
death and devastation behind them. In 1231, a new series of
raids began. One great Muslim city after another was demol-
ished. Bukhara was reduced to rubble, Baghdad fell after a
single battle, and took the moribund caliphate with it: corpses
filled the streets, and refugees fled to Syria, Egypt or India.
The Ismailis of Alamut were massacred, and though the new
Seljuk dynasty of Rum submitted to the Mongols at once, it
never fully recovered. The first Muslim ruler who was able to
stop the Mongols in their tracks was Baibars, the sultan of the
new Egyptian state ruled by a Turkish slave corps. The Mam-
luks (slaves) had dominated the army of the Ayyubid Empire
founded by Saladin; in 1250 the Mamluk amirs had led a suc-
cessful coup against the Ayyubid state, and founded their own
empire in the Near East. In 1260 Baibars inflicted a defeat on
the Mongol army at Ain Jalut in northern Palestine. Afier
their sortie into India had been deflected by the new sultanate
based in Delhi, the Mongols settled down to enjoy the fruits
of victory, creating empires in the heartlands of Islamdom
that owed allegiance to Kublai, the Mongol Khan in China.
The Mongols created four large states. The descendants of
Hulegu, who were known as 11-Khans (representatives of the
Supreme Khan), at first refused to accept that their defeat was
final, and destroyed Damascus before they eventually acqui-
esced and retired to their empire in the Tigris-Euphrates
valley and the mountainous regions of Iran. The Chaghatay
Mongols established a state in the Syr-Oxus basin, while the
White Horde was established in the Irtysh region, and the
Golden Horde around the River Volga. It was the greatest
political upheaval in the Middle East since the Arab invasions
of the seventh century, but unlike the Arab Muslims the Mon-
gols brought no spirituality with them. They were, however,
tolerant of all religions, though they tended towards Buddhism.