Category: This entry was posted in Crusades, Mongol by MSW. Bookmark the permalink.

The Battle of Ayn Jalut (1260) set the tone for almost all assessments of the Ilkhan-Mamluk War, particularly regarding its implications for the Crusader States. Mongol leader Hulegu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, originally invaded Syria with a force that might have numbered as many as 120,000. The Ayyubids of Syria were incapable of offering […]

Hulegu’s original proposal offered the West good terms. The Ilkhans had established their bona fides through their amazing victories against the center of the Islamic world. Of particular interest to Hulegu was Latin sea power, which, combined with a Mongol land offensive, could break the back of the Mamluk Sultanate. After victory, Hulegu planned to […]

1250–1260 With Tturanshah’s bloody heart at Louis’s feet and his body dumped in the Nile, life was draining out of the Ayyubid dynasty. It was the Mamluk regiment created by al-Salih that had massacred the Christians at Mansurah and saved Egypt. This professional military corps had become the power behind the throne, and during the […]