# Battle of Ain Jalut (3 September 1260)

URL: https://allhistories.com/mongolia/timeline/1260-battle-of-ain-jalut
Location: Ain Jalut, Galilee, Israel
Themes: main-event

The Battle of Ain Jalut took place on 3 September 1260 near the Ain Jalut spring in the Jezreel Valley, Wikipedia says. Mamluk forces under Qutuz and Baibars faced a Mongol-led army under Kitbuqa, who died in the battle. Both sides numbered roughly 10,000 to 20,000. The Mamluks won and the Mongols withdrew from the Levant and ceded occupied territories. Möngke had died during the campaign in China, and Hulagu returned home with most of his army for the succession, leaving about 10,000 under Kitbuqa. Historians long linked this to the Mongol withdrawal, but a 1980s letter from Hulagu cites logistics and depleted fodder instead. The battle marked the first major Mongol defeat by an organised army in the Islamic heartland and secured Egypt and Syria for the Mamluks. It also helped to deepen the rift between Hulagu and the Golden Horde, which allied with the Mamluks. It left the Euphrates region as the effective frontier between the two powers for decades. At this point in the timeline (1260), Kublai Khan (1260 – 1294) was acclaimed Great Khan in 1260 and proclaimed the Yuan dynasty in 1271; the Yuan is regarded in some traditions as a Mongol khanate and in others as a Chinese dynasty; Hulagu Khan (1256 – 1265) founded and ruled the Ilkhanate in Persia; Ariq Böke (1260 – 1264) contested the title of Great Khan from the Mongolian homeland.

## Why it matters
Ain Jalut halted Mongol expansion into the Mediterranean and secured Mamluk Egypt.

Ruler at the Time: [Kublai Khan (Shizu)](https://allhistories.com/mongolia/rulers/kublai-khan-shizu)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Battle of Ain Jalut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ain_Jalut)
- [Wikipedia — Hulagu Khan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulagu_Khan)
- [Wikipedia — Mongol Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_Empire)