Throughline - David v Goliath

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

In the year 1258, more than 100,000 soldiers amassed outside the great Islamic city of Baghdad. They were the Mongol Army, led by the grandson of the fearsome Genghis Khan. Within weeks, they'd left the city – which had stood as the center of power and commerce in the Muslim world for nearly 500 years – smoldering in a grotesque heap. And that was just the beginning. The Mongols would continue to push West, conquering Muslim cities until there was just one left in their way: Cairo.In the valley where it is said David once met Goliath, an unlikely group of slave soldiers fought a battle that would decide the fate of the Islamic world. A battle you may never have heard of that's as important to world history as D-Day or Gettysburg. It's a story full of personal and societal rivalries, political scheming, vengeance, and treachery – a real-life Game of Thrones. The Battle of Ayn Jalut.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at AutographCollection.com. Thank you. A soldier stands on the walls of the largest city in the world. Black dotted specks start to appear across the horizon. Columns of people stream into the city, kicking up massive clouds of dust behind them they wear animal fear on their faces the soldier squints

his eyes trying to make out the shadow behind the clouds and then he sees them. A wave of horses topped with black-clad men. An endless stream of steel emerges from the horizon. The noises grow louder. The galloping, drumming the earth alive. The hair on the back of the soldier's neck stands up. His mind goes to his family. He's heard of these people before, about the atrocities they've committed, but never did he think they would actually come.

The myth is now reality. The Mongols have arrived. Baghdad is under siege. In Baghdad, in the 11th century, 12th century, it is no longer the only capital of the Islamic world, but a very, very important city that enjoys prestige. It's a very important area where, you know, great scientists come and they live in. Baghdad was like New York City and Washington, D.C. rolled into one, the capital of one of the largest empires to ever exist.

And that has a huge impact on everywhere in the world. Baghdad was a center of commerce, science, and technology, a cosmopolitan place that people would come to from all over Europe, Asia, and Africa for opportunity. At its most prosperous times, Baghdad's population swelled to nearly 2 million people, making it the largest city in the world. It's a very, very big city with walls, with a big library, one of the best libraries in the world. In other words, the crown city of the Islamic world. Baghdad was ruled by a caliph who was recognized by many of the world's Muslims as the spiritual leader of the faith, kind of like the pope in Catholicism. The caliph was a powerful symbolic figure.

But when the Mongols arrived, the walls of his city trembled. Back to the soldier on the wall looking out at the Mongol army. I mean, maybe you hope that the river will protect you. Maybe you hope the walls of the city will protect you. Maybe you hope that the prestige of the city will protect you. Maybe you hope that the prestige of the city will protect you.

Surely you hope that Allah will protect you. Otherwise, this is the city of the caliph. Surely you have heard from both high and low what has befallen the world and its inhabitants from the time of Genghis Khan up till now. In January 1258, at least 100,000 soldiers of the Mongol army amassed outside the city walls, led by a general named Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan. This is from the letter he sent to the caliph. When I lead my army against Baghdad in fury, whether you hide in the heavens or on earth, I will bring you down from the spinning spheres. I will toss you in the air like a lion.

I will leave no one alive in your realm. I will burn your city and your lands. The caliph refuses to submit. Hulagu responds by sending his massive army. Many people from the surrounding region fleeing the Mongol advance have flooded into the city. Resources run low. Disease is rampant. If you wish to spare yourself and your venerable family. Listen to my advice with the ear of intelligence. If you do not, you will see what God has willed. After a long siege, the Mongol army breached the city walls and entered on February 11, 1258. This is from an eyewitness account of what happened next.

The inhabitants of Baghdad were put under the sword on Monday, February 11, and were subjected to 40 days of continuous killing, pillaging, and enslavement. They tormented the inhabitants using different ways to torture and extort their wealth with severe punishment. I will leave no one alive in your realm. They killed men, women, and children. A great part of the city, including the Khalifa's mosque and its surrounding, were burned. And the city was laid in ruin.

I will burn your city and your lands. The dead lay in mounds in the streets and the markets. Rain fell on them. Horses trampled down on them. Their faces were disfigured and they became an example to anyone who saw them. According to one account, when the Caliph was captured by Mongol forces, he was locked up in a room where all his gold was stored. Hula Gokhan starved him, sending him gold to eat instead of food. Eventually, they took the caliph out of his room, rolled him up inside a carpet, and then stomped him to death with their horses. The destruction of Baghdad was a horrific psychological blow. It had stood at the

center of power and commerce in the Muslim world for nearly 500 years. Yet there it was, smoldering in a grotesque heap. And the Mongol army was not going to stop until there was no one left to conquer. For many, this must have felt like it was the end of Islamic civilization as they knew it. The Mongols would continue to push west, conquering Muslim cities until there was one left in its way, Cairo. And it would all lead to a battle where an unlikely group of slave soldiers would take on the unstoppable Mongol army in a valley where it's said David once met Goliath. It was a battle that would

decide the fate of the Islamic world. In fact, the world would probably not look like it does today without it. It was a battle you may have never heard of that's as important to world history as D-Day or Gettysburg. I'm Randa Adel-Fattah. And I'm Ramtin Arablui. On this episode of ThruLine from NPR, the story of the people who fought that battle, the Battle of Ain Jalut. Hi, this is Jessica Lawson in Los Angeles, California,

and you are listening to ThruLine on NPR. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. This message comes from NPR sponsor, the NPR Wine Club, a place to explore the exciting world of wine, including wines inspired by popular NPR shows like Weekend Edition Cabernet. Whether

buying a few bottles or joining the club, all purchases help support NPR programming and fund quality reporting developed to connect people to their communities and the world they live in. More at nprwineclub.org slash podcast. Must be 21 or older to purchase. Part One The Horse Lords One of the most moving parts of being in Mongolia, being deep in the countryside, is just to sit on the step and just listen.

You'll inevitably hear the sound of the wind blowing on the grass. As well as just when you move closer to an actual camp, you're going to hear lots and lots of sounds. You know, the sounds of animals, the sounds of people calling, shouting at their animals, kids playing, and songs, people singing songs. This is Peter K. Marsh. He's a music professor at California State University, East Bay. He spent 30 years going to Mongolia to study its music, its people, and its history.

I like to tell Americans, have you been to Montana, you know, or Wyoming? The landscape is very similar. These are vast stretches of grasslands, bounded by forests, bounded by deserts. The geography and the climate is best suited for a herding of livestock. If you were flying above this and looking down, what would you see? So you're going to see a lot of planes, a lot of animals, and people moving with their animals.

They're traditionally nomadic, so you would see these herds, and then you would see little white dots. Those are the gares, the homes, the tents that the Mongolians would live in. You look on the map, you can see this strip of steppe lands that exists all the way from the east to the west, or the west to the east, and that's the pathway that the Mongol armies travelled in in their journeys long ago. The life of nomadic people living in the Mongolian steppe remains largely the same as it did during medieval times.

Back then, the people who lived on this land, sandwiched between China and Russia, were some of the most mobile on earth. They were tough and hard-nosed people who were trained from childhood to fight. It's said that Mongol children learned to ride horses and shoot bows as soon as they could walk. Wars among tribes happened frequently in this militaristic society. And the disunity it caused prevented them from ever really threatening their neighboring civilizations. But that would change. They begin their rise in the 12th century.

This is Zvi Bandor Benite. He's a professor of history at NYU. There is an intensification of wars between various tribes in Mongolia. The tribe is an economic unit. It's a social unit. It's also a military unit. So they need to fight. No one knows for sure why the wars between the Mongolian tribes intensified.

But some historians now believe it happened because of climate change. We have a series of droughts that basically make the Mongols, who are highly dependent on water and on grass to feed their animals, fight more intensely for water and territory. It's a war about resources. The wars raged on. Chiefs led their people into apocalyptic battles. The burning embers of extinguished tribes dotted the countryside.

Bloodlines were ended. Many were enslaved. And finally, in the early 1200s, there was one leader who rose above the rest, a man whose name continues to haunt the imaginations of people around the world. A man whose bravery and cunning has only been overshadowed by his appetite for cruelty. Genghis Khan, or as he council of all the tribes in 1206, names him the Great Khan. Or Supreme Leader. When you defeat another tribe, you incorporate that tribe pretty much to your tribe and you form a bigger army. And this is what Genghis Khan does.

This is pretty much an unprecedented moment in the history of the Mongols, but also in the history of Asia. This is a very serious leader who was able to create this massive army. Genghis Khan was an unlikely leader. He raised an army basically from nothing and conquered all of his rivals one by one. Several years after being named Great Khan, he conquered many of the other people of the steppe and united them under the Mongol flag,

creating one of the most powerful militaries in the world. Now, if you united everybody, who are they going to fight now? The Mongol army has been estimated by some historians to have been 100,000 strong. And the Mongols had a fierce reputation. They never lost battles and pretty much brutally destroyed every army they faced. Why? Because their military was unlike anything the world had seen. The Mongols are great with horses. Mongol warrior went to war with more than one horse, probably five. Because what they do is they fight very, very quickly with very little armor.

The Mongol army was made up almost entirely of soldiers on horseback or cavalry. And these soldiers were all expert archers. This allowed them to move fast and hit their enemies from up close and long distances. The Mongol warrior was very good at shooting arrows while being on the set. And, you know, this has a very, very strong impact. The attack, the enemy, who is usually standing in one single mass formation, they use different units, they send smaller units. They would send in small waves of attackers who would harass opposing forces.

The Mongols would then pretend to retreat, baiting the enemy into traps. The enemy is getting tired, nervous, you know, thirsty. The horses, you know, can't really move and can't really chase the Mongols. After wearing their enemies down for hours, Genghis Khan would order his soldiers to move in with a volley of arrows. A volley of arrows. Just imagine a volley of arrows falling on you from the sky. It's really, really scary. Terror was part of their arsenal. The Mongols ran over every army they faced. Cities that resisted were looted and destroyed. In one city in northeastern Iran, Neshapur,

it's said that the Mongol forces slaughtered nearly every man, woman, and child in the city. They didn't even spare household pets. They created massive piles out of the skulls of the dead that could be seen from miles away. Word of their atrocities and cruelty began to spread. The Mongols are very good at using fear. They come in, they make a lot of propaganda, sometimes they boast about their victory, sometimes they boast about their victory, sometimes they boast about what they did in the nearby city that they just sacked several months before.

And the whole idea is, you're going to surrender. You have to choose either being massacred like the other city or surrender. I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you. Genghis Khan The more Genghis Khan rises, the more he himself begins to believe that, you know,

basically the sky god, or Tengri, gave him the rule of the land. He did something incredibly unprecedented. So it must be aided by some sort of a divine plan or some divinity that is helping him. Genghis Khan died in 1227 AD. During his life, he conquered an area that spanned from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea, a landmass twice as big as the Roman Empire at its peak. In the process, he was responsible for the deaths of about 40 million people, around 10% of the world's population at that time. So when he died, he made it clear he wanted his successors to continue his divine quest to bring the entire earth under Mongol control.

And they did just that. 30 years after his death, the Mongols had expanded their empire further into Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. By 1258, one major city stood in their way, Cairo. But behind the gates of that city, there was a leader willing to challenge the Mongol army. A leader who had a personal vendetta and a spiritual mission to make the Islamic world's last stand. Coming up, the story of Egypt's slave army and its leader, the Lion of Ain Jalut, Kutuz. My name is Ben Amriahi from Seattle, Washington, and you're listening to ThruLine. We just want to take a moment to shout out our ThruLine Plus subscribers. Thank you so much for your support.

If you don't already know, subscribing to ThruLine Plus means you get to listen to our show without any sponsor breaks. And you also get access to special bonus episodes where we take you behind the scenes, introduce you to our amazing producers, and tell you about how we make the show. To get these awesome benefits and support our work here at NPR, head over to plus.npr.org slash ThruLine. Part 2. The Slave Kings In the early 1200s, a Turkic boy named Kutuz is living with his family in Central Asia. Like millions of other nomads who had lived there for centuries, they herded their animals and moved with the seasons. But Kutuz has no idea that his life is about to change.

They are in the pathway of the Great Khan's army. And soon, that army will bring the apocalypse. The Mongol attack is probably swift and brutal. The men of the tribe are killed. The women and children are tied together and taken prisoner. Qutuz is sold by the Mongols to a slave trader in Damascus, Syria. More than a thousand miles away from his homeland, he finds himself surrounded by people who look different and don't speak his language.

But he's not alone. And the slave markets were full of young Turks. This is Reuven Amatai. And they could be bought cheaply. He's a professor of medieval Islamic history at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. And the merchants brought them to Egypt. Qutuz was bought by an Egyptian slave merchant and brought to Cairo where he would join a centuries-old tradition in the Muslim world.

Since the 9th century in the Islamic world, we have a phenomenon of military slaves. And these are brought as young people and converted to Islam, given military training, perhaps giving the rudiments of Arabic. In Egypt, these slave soldiers were called Mamluks, a word that basically means slave in medieval Arabic. They come to Egypt, they have no connection with anybody else. They've been torn away from their old family, plucked out of their traditional environment, and they have a new father.

The father is the sultan, or a king. And the idea is that since these mamluks, or slave soldiers, had no family or tribal ties in Egypt, they would only be loyal to the sultan. Very much in the kind of the style of the slave army that was used in Game of Thrones. This is Mustafa Bannister. I am an assistant professor of Middle East history at Utah State University. Mustafa specializes in the history of the Mamluks in Egypt. He says that these child soldiers weren't just loyal to their sultan,

but also to each other. Stripped of all family ties, they bonded deeply. They came up together. They went through, in many cases, the same kind of traumatic experiences together. They're coming in as boys. They're coming in as adolescents. And they become brothers. When Coutuz was brought to Cairo, it was a thriving city.

If you time-traveled back to it and walked around its streets, you'd be amazed by the bustling markets, opulent palaces, huge mosques from which you'd hear the call to prayer. It was a real metropolis with hundreds of thousands of people living in it. And that's where Qutuz and other Mamluks began their training. They've got these skills in horseback riding. They've got skills in archery. they have all the makings of a really good soldier or a cavalryman. They've been riding horses since they've been little children. Just like Mongol children. They've been using bows and arrows since they've been little children, so they're ready to be better trained, but they're already halfway there.

They're trained to do things like going on a charge on a horse at full gallop and fire three arrows every second and a half. Really amazing and outstanding things from a martial or military perspective, to do them very quickly and to do them very rapidly, and to become basically military fighting machines. Mamluk training was dangerous and intense. Those who made it through became tough, hardened soldiers. Qutuz was different though, because while undergoing the ordeal of training, he already had his eye on a bigger prize, power. When he's still young, Qutuz, he makes a lot of claims and predictions and prophecies that one day he's going to come to power.

There's actually a great story that one of Kutuz's comrades narrated that came down to us about, you know, how when they were both young men in the barracks, so they're doing their training, being in the barracks is kind of a rough situation, so they're just sitting there removing lice from each other. They're delousing each other. And they're playing a little game with each other that every time they find a lice in the other guy's hair, he says, okay, I'll either give you a coin or I'll give you a slap.

The friend mentions the kutas. He says, you know, boy, I'd really just like to one day be a military man in charge of a 50 someday. And Qutuz says, don't worry. I had a dream where I saw the Prophet Muhammad, and he told me that I'm going to be the ruler of Egypt, and I'm going to defeat the Mongols. And then he gives Qutuz a really hard slap.

And he says, oh, you lice-infested maniac. What kind of crazy stuff are you saying? By the time the Mongol army destroyed Baghdad in 1258, the Mamluks had overthrown their masters and taken over as rulers of Egypt. That's right, the enslaved child soldiers had grown up to kill their masters and become kings. A year later, Qutuz's prophecy would come true. After years of rising up the ranks in the Mamluk army, he'd managed to claw his way into power, effectively becoming sultan in 1259. He was still a young man, and he immediately had to face an existential threat.

The Mongol army. In late 1259, Huleagu sends envoys to Cairo telling them that the Mongols have this mandate from heaven and that they're supposed to rule the world and that anyone that opposes this is a rebel that's going to be destroyed. The emissary delivers a letter written in Arabic from Hulagu directly addressed to Kutuz. Our swords are thunderbolts, and our hearts are like mountains.

Our numbers are like the sands, so the fortresses are futile against us. A beautiful letter to Cthulhu. A beautiful, terrifying letter. Consider all the lands that we have conquered as testimony, and our determination as reprimand. Basically, what it says, it says, look, look at what we did in Asia. You know, we conquered this one, we destroyed this one,

we destroyed all the great kingdoms. So if you obey our conditions and command, then what is ours is yours, and what is upon us is upon you. We, of course, destroyed the city of Baghdad. A lot of people were killed. Make your choice. Those who have warned have indeed warned. Coutuz faced a deadly choice. Surrender or fight. He didn't waste any time. What he does, he kills the messengers. He has Hulegu's envoys cut in half and he nails their heads to the walls in Cairo, which almost

certainly ensures that there's going to be more Mongols that are going to be on the way soon. I think he does this to kind of double down and to make sure that there's no other choice. You know, I think it's really kind of to throw down the gauntlet. Clearly, it's a message to the Mongols. It's also a message to the people in the city itself, to the people of Egypt itself. It's like, OK, we are now locked into war. Kutuz is ready to risk everything and fight the Mongols instead of submitting to them. You can say that each Mamluk's personal biography,

certainly the leaders' is basically looking at why they were taken away from their families, why they were sold to slavery. It's so that it's part of a great divine plan, divine plan by Allah to defend this, to emerge as a defender of Islam. That's why they were placed on the stage of history, to be the new warriors and new defenders of the world of Islam.

Coming up, Kutuz and the Mamluks make Islamic civilizations last stand in a valley where it's said that David once fought Goliath. Hi, this is Mary Ann from Flushing, Michigan, and together we're listening to ThruLine at NPR. Part 3. Goliath's Grave. Allah is the greatest. By the summer of 1260, war between the Mamluks and Mongols had become inevitable. Here's where things stood. The Mongols were in control of Syria and wanted to take Cairo next. The Mamluk leader, Qutuz, had killed Hulagu Khan's envoys and the Mongols were very angry. They were preparing their army to brutally punish Cairo like they'd punished other cities that refused to submit.

We should imagine a map of the Mongol armies coming all the way from Syria. They move south. Thousands of soldiers in armor, horses, and herding animals. And they settle in an area that is a very, very good choice to have a battle. Today, this place is called Ein Jalut. Ein Jalut, it just means literally the spring of Goliath. The spring of Goliath. Where David killed Goliath, which is noteworthy when you consider David as also an underdog,

just in the way that the Mamluks were sort of also up against very difficult odds like David. The Egyptians were not very eager to fight, you know, they were afraid of the Mongols. And then Qutuz comes in and says that we need to fight. Qutuz has a crucial decision to make. Should he wait and try to repel the Mongol invasion from behind the walls of Cairo or take his army out and meet them in open battle. He decides they're going to go out and fight. All you guys who are thinking that maybe we should surrender or just wait around and hope for the best, that's not going to happen.

We're going to grab the bull by the horns and we're going to confront the Mongols on earth in Syria. He makes this speech to the people of Cairo, pushing them to war, saying, we will win this. We have to fight because we have no choice. And clearly, I made it so we have no choice. Kudus says, on a horse by himself, you know, you guys don't want to come. That's fine. I'm going to Syria. I'm going to go fight the Mongols. This could not have been an easy decision. The Mongols were terrifying, and many of Qutuz's advisors were afraid.

Yet, he tells them they're going to go out and fight a Mongol army that had basically never lost. You know, we have the thing, you fight the terrorists abroad so you don't have to fight them at home. Same kind of thing. He didn't want them to come to Egypt. Also because he knew that if they came to Egypt, it would have caused panic. This move also had another useful purpose. In his rise to power, Qutuz had stepped on and over many of his fellow Mamluks. He'd made enemies and rivals. And by making this bold move, he forced those rivals to join him and implicitly recognize his authority. In the context of the Mongol threat, they say, OK, well, we need to come together and this is something that unites all of us. This is an existential thing. We need to, if we don't solve this, nobody's going to be alive to be on the top. A united, motivated Egyptian army under the leadership of Qutuz was on its way to confront

the Mongols. But what they may not have known at that time is that they had already caught a big break. The supreme leader of the Mongol Empire died. As a result, a kurultai, or election, needed to be held to choose a new great Khan. This meant that Hulagu, the man who'd sacked Baghdad and sent the threatening letter to Qutuz, had to go back towards Mongolia to be a part of that election. And he took most of his army with him, leaving only about 10,000 soldiers behind. The Mamluks had the numerical advantage. They'd faced a smaller, less organized version of the Mongol army. But this did not mean it was going to be easy. They were taking on an undefeated enemy who had done, you know, all the stories were out there of all the horrible and unspeakable things, you know, the psychological terror.

Qutuz was really, you know, while he's giving these very passionate speeches, they're really telling them, you know, it's do or die. Like, if we don't survive this, there's no act two. So he really, he successfully instilled in his troops this do or die, now or never kind of attitude. Kutuz sends a scout team to find where the Mongols are positioned, and they find them camped at Ain Jalut. Soon, Kutuz arrives there with the rest of the army. It actually turns out to be the 25th of Ramadan, or September 3rd of 1260.

This battle is taking place in kind of the last 10 days of Ramadan, which is a big deal, especially if you've got a lot of Muslims in the army that they're interpreting this as a very time with very high spiritual significance. They're probably fasting. They're probably doing a lot of prayers asking for God's help against the Mongols. According to the Arabic sources, the night before the battle, Qutuz gives his officers a pep talk. There are three things that are mentioned. One is that we're fighting for Islam.

We know what the Mongols have done to the Islamic world and to the Muslims, but we've got to stop it. Defending Islam is something that is very important to Qutb and to the Mamluks and their kind of self-image, their reputation, if you like. Two, we're fighting for our families. And three, basically, we're fighting for all the goodies we enjoy. The fact that we have a good life. You know, we control Egypt. So, like, this is it.

Like, we live or die tomorrow. Fight or die. Let's do or die. Do or die. Definitely. And what about the Mongols? What was their attitude towards it? The Mongols were kind of like, not sure, you know,

another battle, another day, another battle. You know, what could possibly go wrong? Picture this. It's the middle of the night. The Mamluks encounter the Mongols on a plane near Ain Jalut. The lines stretch across miles. We're talking tens of thousands of soldiers, thousands more horses, swords, arrows, armor. The noise of drums coming from both sides. With every passing minute, the armies come closer to battle.

And then the two armies face off just after dawn. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr The Mongols initiated, charging at the Mamluk side. It went back and forth, charging and retreating, charging and retreating. It's a very, very fierce battle. A lot of horses freaking out, basically, and screaming. The dust, it's summer, so there's probably a lot of dust. And then there is the clash of metal. You can imagine the drums and screaming and shouting. Arrows, just imagine the arrows in the air.

The peasants are on the hillside making noise. Then there is, of course, fire. There's a lot of fire going on. In the beginning, neither side could gain an advantage, but it wouldn't take long for the Mongol general to pull an aggressive move by taking thousands of his soldiers and ordering them to attack the left side of the Mamluk line. There is an indication that the Mamluk left wing began to weaken with even collapsing under the onslaught of the Mongols. The Mongol move works. Many Mamluk soldiers begin to fall into disarray,

but their general, Qutuz, sees this. He throws off his helmet. He rides his horse into the middle of the fighting and screams at his soldiers to regroup and not give up. He probably shakes his head and his long hair probably comes out of his locks. Qutuz looks out onto the chaos of battle and yells, Wa Islamah, you know, like for the power of Islam. And then he says, God, help your servant defeat your enemies. Qutuz is able to get the Mamluk left flank reorganized and his soldiers back in line. But...

Coutuz's horse is shot from under him. Coutuz laid there, silent, not moving. Many of the soldiers probably saw this. If he stayed down, the battle was lost. He doesn't lose his presence of mind. Coutuz drags himself onto his feet and mounts another horse. He organizes a ferocious counterattack. His soldiers were inspired by his words, and they not only stabilize their left flank, but start pushing back the Mongols. Now they managed to encircle the Mongols, push them away. The Mongols were beginning to fall apart.

Their general kept organizing counterattacks, but in the middle of all this chaos... Kichbuka, the Mongol general, is killed. Usually when a commander is killed, that's the end of the battle. The Mongol forces, that's the moment where they now begin to completely disintegrate and collapse. And that's when the real killing starts. As the Mongol army retreats out of the valley, the Mamluks chase them, inflicting countless

casualties. There's a group of them who are holed up on a hill and they're killed, and another group hides up on a hill and they're killed. And another group hides in the reeds and they're burnt out. They are chased all the way out of Syria. The Mamluks take back Damascus and Aleppo. And basically, that's the end of it. Qutuz receives a hero's welcome when he enters Damascus.

Right away, he takes up residence in the citadel. And he's basically now effectively the lord of Syria who gets to decide, gets to call all the shots. He gets to decide who is appointed to which administrative post. Many of Coutouse's Mamluk generals expected to receive these posts. And now it's time for all these guys to collect on the promises that Coutouse had made. But Coutouse doesn't fulfill all those promises. And many of his Mamluk comrades grow angry with him. All of these old beefs and hostilities that were put aside for Angelou start coming up. Tensions between Qutuz and his fellow Mamluks grow even as they return

to Cairo. And so ultimately what happens is while he's on the way back to Egypt, he stops in Gaza and he is essentially murdered by a bunch of Mamluk emirs. It was one of his top generals who did it. One of the stories is that he takes Qutuz's hand to kiss it, and while Qutuz's hand is momentarily off his sword, they slash his throat. Qutuz, the hero of Ain Jalud, would be assassinated only a few months after his victory. The impact of the Battle of Ain Jalou was immediately felt everywhere. It reverberates all over the world. This is the moment where we begin to start talking about someone stopped the Mongols. We know it severely damages the myth of Mongol

invincibility and brings home the message that they could indeed be stopped. For decades, the Mongol armies ran over everyone they met. They destroyed cities, brought down societies, and struck fear in the hearts of millions around the world, especially in the Middle East. To a person living at that time, it would have seemed like the Mongols threatened Islamic civilization itself. But after Ain Jalut, the Mamluks had shown the world the Mongols could be beaten.

That was a symbolic victory that is greater than the battle itself, because what followed later is that you see the curbing of the Mongols advance towards these areas. The Mongols would never take Cairo. They'd never advance into North Africa. They'd never invade southern Europe. The Battle of Ain Jalut probably saved a large portion of the Muslim world. It creates a lot of legitimacy and a lot of prestige for the Sultanate of Cairo early on as protectors of Islam and Muslims. The Mongol Empire never expanded

beyond Syria and would fracture into rival factions in the years after Ain Jalut, Genghis Khan's vision of a world under Mongol control never came to fruition. And that's it for this week's show. I'm Randab Del Fattah. I'm Ramteen Arablui. And you've been listening to ThruLine from NPR. This episode was produced by me. And me and... Lawrence me. And me. And.

Lawrence Wu. Julie Kay. Anya Steinberg. Casey Miner. Christina Kim. Devin Katayama. Peter Balanon Rosen. Akshara Ravishankar.

Irene Noguchi. Fact-checking for this episode was done by Kevin Vocal. It was mixed by Josh Newell. Music for this episode was composed by Ramtin and his band, Drop Electric, which includes Anya Mizani, Naveed Marvi, Sho Fujiwara. Thank you to Amir Marshi,

Johannes Dergi, and Anja Grunman. Thanks to Mohamed El Bardisi and the amazing Jose Rufino for their voiceover work. And as always, if you have an idea or like something you heard on the show, please write us at ThruLine at NPR.org. Thanks for listening. you