Baybars: Ain Jalut commander who built the Mamluk state

In the middle of the 13th century, the Mongol storm had engulfed western Asia. In 1258 the Mongols conquered Baghdad and ended the Abbasid caliphate. In 1260 Aleppo and Damascus also fell to them. Egypt was now their next target. At this moment, in September 1260, the Mamluk army of Egypt defeated the Mongols at Ain Jalut, near Beisan. Among the prominent commanders of that battle was a slave soldier who, a few weeks later, became Sultan of Egypt and ruled for 17 years. His name was Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari (Baybars), who became known by the title al-Malik al-Zahir.

From slavery to the army

Baybars was born in the 1220s, in the land of the Kipchak Turks between the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains. According to the historian Stanley Lane-Poole, he was tall and blue-eyed, and fetched a low price in the slave market because of a defect in one eye. William Muir writes that he was first sold in Damascus but returned because of the defect in his eye.

He first belonged to an emir, Aydakin al-Bunduqdar, and was called “al-Bunduqdari” after him. Later he entered the service of the Ayyubid sultan al-Salih Ayyub and joined his trained Mamluk regiments, known as the “Bahri Mamluks”.

In 1250 the Battle of Mansura took place during the Seventh Crusade, led by King Louis IX of France. According to Lane-Poole, when the ordinary units of the Egyptian army had scattered, a Mamluk charge led by Baybars turned the tide of the battle. In the same year Ayyubid rule in Egypt ended and the Mamluk emirs took over. The next few years were spent in infighting among the emirs, during which Baybars was also out of Egypt for some time.

Ain Jalut

In 1260 the Mongol ruler Hulagu Khan sent a threatening letter to the Sultan of Egypt, Sayf al-Din Qutuz, demanding submission. According to Lane-Poole, Qutuz had the Mongol envoys killed and decided on war. Baybars commanded the vanguard and drove a Mongol detachment out of Gaza. The Egyptian army then advanced north along the coast.

On 3 September 1260 the two armies clashed at Ain Jalut, near Beisan. Lane-Poole writes that the first fierce Mongol charge scattered part of the Egyptian army, but the Mongol ranks broke up in pursuit and the Mamluks held firm and counter-attacked. The Mongol commander Kitbuqa was killed and the Mongol army fell back. According to Muir, the victory was the result of the bravery of both Baybars and Qutuz. According to the World History Encyclopedia, the Mamluks then pushed the Mongols back to the Euphrates.

On the return journey the question of power arose. According to historians, Qutuz did not keep his promise to give Baybars the governorship of Aleppo. Baybars then plotted with other emirs and Qutuz was killed during a hunt. The emirs chose Baybars as sultan, and in October 1260 he entered Cairo.

Running the sultanate

Lane-Poole calls Baybars the “real founder” of the Mamluk sultanate. According to him, Baybars organised the Mamluk army, rebuilt the fleet, distributed fiefs among emirs and soldiers, had bridges and canals built in Egypt and strengthened the forts of Syria. According to Muir, he reduced taxes, restored mosques and established religious endowments.

One of his notable achievements was the postal system. According to Lane-Poole, posts were set up to link every part of the sultanate with the capital, with fresh horses kept ready, and the sultan reviewed and replied to reports from across the realm twice a week. A regular system of pigeon post also existed. Muir writes that mail travelled from Damascus to Cairo in 60 hours. A large mosque was built in his name in Cairo between 1267 and 1269.

In 1261 Baybars summoned to Cairo a member of the Abbasid family who had escaped the destruction of Baghdad and installed him as caliph, and the caliph granted him the investiture of the sultanate. According to Muir, this gave the sultan’s rule legal legitimacy. When this caliph was killed while trying to return to Baghdad, another Abbasid was made caliph in 1262, but according to historians the office remained largely ceremonial in the Mamluk era.

Wars with the Crusader states and the Mongols

To face the Mongols, Baybars allied with Berke Khan, ruler of the Golden Horde, a branch of the Mongols themselves. According to the World History Encyclopedia, the alliance came when war had already broken out between Berke and Hulagu.

Baybars carried out several campaigns against the Crusader states remaining in coastal Syria. Caesarea and Arsuf fell to him in 1265, Safed in 1266 and Antioch in 1268. According to Muir, the defenders at Safed were killed despite being promised safety, and at Antioch too large numbers were killed or enslaved; Muir sharply criticised these events. In 1271 the famous Syrian fortress of Krak des Chevaliers fell after a long siege. According to the World History Encyclopedia, Baybars had the fortress repaired and made it his military base in Syria.

His last major campaign was in 1277, towards Anatolia, where he defeated a Mongol army near Elbistan.

Final days and legacy

On the return from this campaign, Baybars stayed in Damascus and died there in late June or early July 1277. According to Muir, one account says he fell ill with fever after drinking fermented mare’s milk (qumiss), while another mentions poison. He was buried in Damascus and news of his death was kept secret for about a month, after which his son al-Said took the throne.

Historians have described different sides of Baybars’s character. Lane-Poole quotes his contemporary William of Tripoli as saying that Baybars was “no less than Julius Caesar as a soldier and than Nero in wickedness”, but the same author also calls him just to his own people. Muir criticises his harshness, but also writes that, because of his energy, public works and endowments, his name was still counted among Egypt’s greatest sultans in the coffee houses of Cairo until the late 19th century.

The Mamluk state whose foundations Baybars strengthened ruled Egypt and Syria until the Ottoman conquest in 1517.