1260
Battle of Ain Jalut
The setting
Ain Jalut (Spring of Goliath), Jezreel Valley, Galilee (in present-day Israel)
Open valley floor near a spring at the foot of the hills of Galilee, with high ground and broken terrain on the flanks suitable for concealing a reserve.
Reveal the outcome
Recorded sideMamluk Sultanate (Qutuz, with Baybars commanding the vanguard)
Recorded resultdecisive victory
Decisive Mamluk victory; the Mongol commander Kitbuqa was captured and executed.
How the atlas explains it
The Mamluks fought the Mongols with the Mongols' own methods. A feigned retreat by the advance guard drew the aggressive Mongol cavalry into a prepared ambush, where hidden Mamluk wings closed in. Crucially, the Mongol army present was a fraction of its full strength, Hulagu having withdrawn most of it after the Great Khan Mongke's death.
What followed
First major, lasting defeat of a Mongol field army and the effective limit of Mongol westward expansion into the Levant; established the Mamluks as the dominant Near Eastern power.