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As man is built of four foundations: namely bone, flesh, blood and arteries, so is the compound bow in as much as wood to bone, horn to flesh, sinews to arteries and glue to blood …
From an archery manual of the Mamluk Sultanate.
Baybars and Qutuz decided the Mamluk strategy. They would come far enough north along the Palestinian coast so that they would be able to then move inland sharply to cut the Mongol lines of communication if Kit Buqa should decide to try to strike south towards Egypt. Qutuz sent an embassy to the Franks of Acre to ensure safe passage for his forces through Crusader lands. Only the Master of the Teutonic Order warned against it, and perhaps it is surprising that the Crusaders chose the Mamluks over the Mongols, but if the Mamluks were unwelcome guests, were the Mongols any better? Despite Crusader appeasement Kit Buqa had raided Sidon and destroyed fortified centres in Syria and the Transjordan. Syria was clearly, to the Mongols, just another colony to be pacified without reference to any of its inhabitants. The Gestes de Chiprois also tells us that the Franks were offered the horses of the Mongols should the Mamluks defeat them. Perhaps this swung them in favour of the Egyptians; after all, business is business.
Kit Buqa crossed the Jordan and entered Galilee, encamping at Ayn Jalut, the Spring of Goliath, at the foot of Mount Gilboa. The Mamluks marched through Nazareth and arrived at Ayn Jalut shortly after the Mongols. The battle proper began on 3 September. The Mongols took up position on the plain near the spring and the Mamluks rode forward to meet them. The Mongol line ran north to south across the valley and was anchored on its left by Mount Gilboa; their Ayyubid ‘allies’ were positioned on its extreme left wing ready to form the second assault rather than the first. The Mongol right very quickly defeated the Mamluk left under Baybars, perhaps too quickly, as the Mongols then found themselves under heavy assault by the troopers of Qutuz’s bodyguard, sending the Mongol right into disorder. The Qipchaq Turks knew just as well as the Mongols how to use provocation to draw the enemy on. Kit Buqa, however, was far from beaten and he reorganised his forces so quickly that he was nearly able, within only a short time, to turn the battle. Qutuz threw off his helmet so that his troops could see him clearly and led a frontal charge as he called out the battle cry, ‘Oh Islam! Allah! Help your servant Qutuz!’ This threw the Mongols into disarray, and then the Ayyubids deserted them.
The bloody battle lasted from dawn till midday and changed from combat to annihilation. A detachment of Mongols fled the battle but were pursued by Baybars and slaughtered at the top of a hill just clear of the main battlefield. The Mamluks set fire to reed beds near the small river that runs through the valley to flush out Mongols who were either hiding in them or trying to escape across the river. Local villagers killed many of them as they fled. The debacle was completed by either the death or capture of Kit Buqa. It seems most likely that he was killed during Qutuz’s final charge but the chroniclers have him being beheaded by Qutuz after prophesising Qutuz’s murder by his own comrades.