The battle of Homs was fought on 29 October 1281, between Homs (mod. Hims, Syria) and Rastan, when Mamluk forces led by the sultan Qalawun halted the invasion of Syria by the Mongol armies of the Ilkhan Abaqa, ruler of the Mongol state in Persia. As a result, the immediate Mongol threat to Mamluk territories was removed, and Qalawun turned his attention to the elimination of the Frankish states of Outremer.
Mamluk intelligence had learned of an imminent Mongol invasion, and on 6 September Qalawun learned details from a captive Mongol officer. He proceeded to assemble his forces, and began deliberations over where to meet the enemy. Sources suggest he favored Damascus, but his emirs wished to advance to Homs, and when they simply announced they would go there with or without the sultan, he followed.
From a deserter, the Mamluks learned that the Mongols’ strength was concentrated at their center, with which they hoped to break the Mamluk center. The Mongol right was also strong, and contained the Armenian and Georgian contingents led by their kings. Qalawun decided to strengthen his left, where he placed Turcoman troops and the forces of some leaders who had rebelled against him, as well as other emirs.
During the battle, the Mongol right crushed the Mamluk left, and pursued the enemy as far as the Lake of Homs, where they paused to wait for the rest of their army. However, the other Mongol forces had not fared so well, and were routed. The Mongol left was crushed, and the center gave way when the commander, Mengu Temur, fell wounded. Abaqa died a few months later.
-Brian Ulrich
Bibliography
Amitai-Preiss, Reuven, Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260-1281 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Holt, Peter M., The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the Eleventh Century to 1517 (London: Longman, 1986).
World History
