Mamluks defeat Mongols at Ain Jalut

September 3, 1260

At the Spring of Goliath in Galilee, the Mamluk sultan Qutuz and his general Baibars ambushed a Mongol detachment under Kitbuqa and broke it. It was the first major field defeat the Mongols had suffered. The myth of invincibility cracked on Palestinian ground. The victory preserved Egypt and the western Islamic world from Mongol conquest and established the Mamluks as the dominant military power of the region.