In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
A summary of the book:
Ramadan: Events and Lessons.
The Battle of 'Ayn Jalut.
The Time:
On the twenty-fifth of Ramadan,
In the year 658 AH.
Allah the Almighty has decreed that this Ummah and its upright religion shall remain until the end of time,
No matter how much its enemies conspire against it,
Or how much afflictions tear at its body,
Or how many plots are woven against it,
Or how many crises surround it.
It is an Ummah that, even if it sleeps, it will never die,
And even if it is defeated, it will never be annihilated.
However, it passes through stages according to the Sunnah of Allah in life,
Which dictates the rotation of power,
And the exchange of roles of sovereignty on earth.
It does not take long for it to return to wakefulness after its slumber,
To its glory after its humiliation,
And to its expansion after its contraction,
Returning to the seat of leadership
After having languished in the depths of subservience.
There is no doubt that it is the most deserving of leading the world,
Because its religion is the best of religions,
And it is promised to prevail over all other religions,
Because it is the best of nations.
Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ It is He who sent His Messenger ﴿
﴾ with guidance and the religion of truth ﴿
﴾ to manifest it over all religion, ﴿
﴾ even if the polytheists dislike it. ﴿
And Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ You are the best nation ﴿
﴾ produced [as an example] for mankind. ﴿
﴾ You enjoin what is right ﴿
﴾ and forbid what is wrong ﴿
﴾ and believe in Allah. ﴿
Yet, that entitlement
Is conditional upon holding fast to this religion.
Whoever adheres to it attains it,
And whoever neglects it loses that lofty honor.
When the early generations of this Ummah fulfilled
That condition, they prevailed and were honored.
But when there crept into the souls of the Ummah
The abandonment of the religion,
The Ummah was struck by such humiliation and disgrace
As it was.
Centuries ago,
The Islamic world was swept by
The Tatar flood.
This was because they saw the Muslims
Living in a state of fragmentation
And infighting for control
Over certain geographical regions.
So they launched their attack from Kabul,
Until they reached the gates of Egypt.
After they finished with the lands of the East,
They turned toward Baghdad,
And entered it in Safar,
In the year 656 AH,
And wrought great corruption therein.
With that, the Abbasid Caliphate ended.
But the Tatar ambitions did not end
At the outskirts of Baghdad;
Rather, their eyes extended toward the Levant
And beyond.
Indeed, the waves of the Mongols turned
Toward the Levant,
And its cities fell, one by one,
Led by Aleppo,
Then concluding with the fall of Damascus.
In the aftermath of that,
The Tatars were determined to invade Egypt,
Because it was the last stronghold that had resisted them,
And because it was the gateway to the lands of the Maghreb.
By controlling it,
The authority of the Tatar Empire would extend
From the farthest East to the farthest West.
Such was what Hulagu,
The grandson of Genghis Khan,
And those with him dreamed of.
These rapid, painful events
Created in the Muslims a profound state
Of terror and awe.
It became fixed in people's minds
That these demons,
Coming from beyond the seas,
Could not be stopped by anything.
In the meantime, while
The Levant was still bleeding from its wounds
And groaning under the weight of the Tatars,
Arrangements were being made in the land of Egypt
That would overturn the scales of the conflict,
Dispel the terror of the Tatar ogre,
And provide people with a balm
To heal their previous wounds.
On the eve of the Battle of 'Ayn Jalut:
At a time of the weakness of the Ayyubid state,
The power of the Mamluk state in Egypt
Was strengthening and its foundation was firming up.
After that terrifying invasion befell the Levant,
Sayf al-Din Qutuz
Was making preparations
And taking the necessary measures
In readiness to confront the Tatars
In a decisive battle.
He undertook various actions
Before the battle, including:
First, deposing the young Sultan
Who was over Egypt,
Who was at that time fifteen years of age,
Or slightly more,
Because his age did not qualify him
For such a major task.
Second, Sayf al-Din Qutuz taking his place,
Removing the emirs and commanders whose treachery he feared,
And appointing those he trusted.
Third, calling upon the people
To prepare to go out for this battle.
To those in Egypt were added
Muslims who had fled the Levant from the might of the Tatars.
Fourth, Qutuz consulted the scholars
Regarding collecting taxes from the people to equip the army.
'Izz Ibn 'Abd al-Salam forbade him from that,
And advised him to sell everything owned
By the Mamluks, including jewelry and precious items.
Qutuz yielded to this advice,
Starting with himself, and sold everything he owned.
The Mamluk emirs and their commanders followed suit in this deed.
From the proceeds of those sales, there was collected
600,000 dinars,
With which he equipped the army.
Fifth, communicating with some emirs
Who had made truces with the Tatars,
To join him in fighting the Tatars.
Only the Emir of Hama responded to him,
While the rest sided with the enemies.
Sixth, making a truce with the Crusader forces that were near Palestine,
So that he might be secure from their side,
As they were deeply resentful of the Tatars,
So he obtained what he wanted from them.
The reason was that his army would move along the coast, which they controlled.
Seventh, Hulagu sent to Sayf al-Din Qutuz
A letter with a harsh tone,
Full of terror and threats,
Boasting of the strength of his soldiers and their severity toward those who did not submit to them.
Qutuz read it to the emirs,
And they grew weak and wanted to make peace with Hulagu and offer him their submission.
But Sayf al-Din Qutuz refused that,
And told them that if they abandoned him,
He would fight the battle alone.
When the emirs saw the strength of Qutuz's resolve,
They agreed to what he wanted.
The Road to the Battle:
Through the wise management of Qutuz,
He was the one who chose the place and time of the battle.
He did not fortify himself in Egypt
And wait for the enemy to come to him to defend from his position,
Because he had analyzed the reality of the surrounding provinces that had fallen to the Tatars,
And saw that some had fortified themselves,
But this method did not benefit them.
Therefore, the Muslim army of 'Ayn Jalut moved out.
It was part of Qutuz's wise plan
To send a vanguard to fight the Tatar garrison in Gaza
Before the start of the battle.
He sent Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari
Toward Palestine,
And he marched until he reached Gaza
In Sha'ban in the year 658 AH.
Rukn al-Din Baybars was able
To achieve a crushing victory over that garrison,
Clearing Gaza of the Tatars.
That crushing victory had a great effect in raising the morale of the Muslims,
Because it was the first victory achieved against the Tatars.
It also had a negative effect on the souls of the Tatars,
Who believed they were the army that could not be defeated.
The Bloody Encounter at 'Ayn Jalut:
After Gaza,
Qutuz sent ahead of him
The commander Baybars,
Who met the vanguard of the Tatar army,
Engaged with them,
And continued to skirmish with them
Until Sultan Qutuz joined him
With the main army
At 'Ayn Jalut
On the twenty-fifth of Ramadan,
In the year 658 AH.
There, the two hosts met,
And the two parties drew up in battle lines.
The commander of the Tatar army
Was Kitbuqa.
It was part of Qutuz's plan
Not to commit his entire army to the open battlefield,
But rather he hid groups of them behind the hills.
When the Tatars entered the valley,
He surrounded their army from all sides,
And a fierce battle ensued,
During this, the left flank of the Muslim army began to falter.
So, Sultan al-Muzaffar personally led a charge,
accompanied by a select group of his soldiers.
He reinforced the left flank,
until he had shored up its weakness.
Then, he plunged into the thick of the fighting,
and on that day, he displayed immense valor.
He was encouraging his companions,
urging them toward martyrdom in the cause of Allah,
and leading them in charge after charge.
He cast his helmet from his head onto the ground,
and cried out at the top of his voice,
"O Islam!"
He charged with his own person and those with him in a sincere, determined assault,
and Allah supported him with His victory.
Not many hours had passed,
before the tide turned in favor of the Muslims on the battlefield.
The elite of the infidel forces were routed,
and the army pursued the Tatars as far as Baysan.
The Tatars then returned,
and engaged the Muslims in a second encounter, even greater than the first.
Allah defeated them,
and many of their leaders and a large number of their men were killed.
The Muslims had been shaken by a severe tremor of fear,
so the Sultan let out a mighty cry,
heard by most of the army, as he said:
"O Islam!"
Three times.
When the Tatars were broken for the second time,
the Sultan dismounted from his horse,
pressed his face to the ground,
and prayed two rak'ahs to Allah the Exalted.
Then he remounted.
The army returned with their hands full of spoils.
Rukn al-Din Baybars continued to pursue the remnants of the Mongols,
and found that they had gathered together,
and reformed their ranks for a third time in preparation for a confrontation.
He attacked them with great courage,
and dealt them a crushing defeat.
He seized from them vast wealth and many horses.
The Results of the Battle
The results of this battle were a great blessing for the people of Islam,
and a great calamity for the Tatars and their allies.
Among those results:
First:
The Muslims achieved a resounding victory over the Tatars,
a victory the likes of which the Muslims had never before attained,
against those tyrants who spread corruption in the land.
Second:
It brought immense joy to the entire Islamic world,
which had been seething with resentment against the Tatars,
because of the killing, violation, and destruction they had inflicted upon the Muslims.
Third:
A large number of Tatars were killed,
led by their commander, Kitbuqa,
whose death was a severe blow to all the Tatars,
and a source of great anguish for Hulagu himself.
For this commander was a great figure among the Tatars;
they relied upon his judgment, his courage, and his strategic planning.
He was a brave and daring hero,
expert in warfare, the storming of fortresses, and the conquest of kingdoms.
He was the one who had conquered most of the lands of the Persians and Iraq.
Hulagu, the king of the Tatars,
trusted him, never opposed his counsel, and sought blessing in his opinions.
Many wonders were recounted about his exploits in war.
Thus, the Muslims were relieved of his evil,
and all praise is due to Allah for his destruction.
Fourth:
The acquisition of much booty that had been in the hands of the Tatars.
Fifth:
Retribution against those in Damascus who had allied themselves with the Tatars, whether Christians or others.
Sixth:
The cleansing of the lands of the Levant from the filth of the Tatars.
Ramadan: Events and Lessons