Kutlugh Shah, leading an Ilkhanid invasion of Syria with 50,000 men, including contingents of Georgians and Cilician Armenians, was defeated by the Mamluks under Sultan an-Nasir Mohammed, whose forces included Bedouins on the right flank and probably Turcomans on the left.
On the first day Kutlugh himself led an attack with 10,000 men against the Mamluk right in which 6-8 amirs and 1,000 mamluks were killed. When the Mamluks reinforced their right from the centre and left the main Mongol attack shifted to the consequently weakened centre, from which the Burjiya regiment nevertheless repulsed them. The right flank had meanwhile broken under continuing Mongol pressure from Kutlugh and most of its units had fled. However, Kutlugh himself only became aware that the Mamluk centre and left were still virtually intact when he withdrew to high ground to reform, and the other Mongol units now similarly pulled back, hostilities being brought to a close by nightfall. One of Kutlugh’s tumans slipped away under cover of darkness, while some of the Mamluk fugitives rallied and returned to the battlefield.
Battle resumed the next day, and although the Mamluks lost many horses the Mongols were again obliged to fall back at noon, being overcome largely through thirst. The Mamluks, however, had a stream to their rear so had no shortage of water themselves, and when the Mongols attacked again on the morning of the third day their objective was now the capture of this stream. Advised of this, the Mamluks fell back and allowed the Mongols access to the stream, falling on them as they rushed for the water and ‘harvesting their heads as men harvest barley with a sickle’. Kutlugh’s army was scattered in rout, suffering up to 90% casualties, killed or captured, in the ensuing pursuit. One source refers to 10,000 prisoners being taken and another says 2,600 Mongols were killed in the battle. The Cilician Armenians too lost a great number of men, so many in fact that the Ilkhan Ghazan subsequently loaned them 1,000 Mongol cavalry plus the money to maintain 1,000 mercenary horsemen.
World History
