Mongols · a Light

The Mongol advance west stopped at a spring in Galilee

On 3 September 1260 a Mamluk army from Egypt under Qutuz and Baybars met a Mongol force under Kitbuqa at Ayn Jalut, the Spring of Goliath, in Galilee. The Mongols had taken Baghdad two years earlier and Aleppo and Damascus that spring, and had not been defeated in a pitched battle in the region. They were beaten at Ayn Jalut and their commander was killed. The Mamluks drew them in with a feigned retreat of the kind the Mongols themselves favoured. Historians debate how decisive one battle can be, since Hulagu had already withdrawn most of his army eastward, but the westward advance never resumed.

Ayn Jalut, Galilee · 3 September 1260