Saif ad-Din Qutuz, the Third Turkic Mamluk (slave) sultan of Egypt

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On October 24, 1260 AD, Saif ad-Din Qutuz, the Third Turkic Mamluk (slave) sultan of Egypt, while returning from Syria after his decisive victory over the combined forces of the Mongols, Armenians, and Christian crusaders, was assassinated at as-Salihiyya by some of his own emirs. His bravery, along with that of his able general and successor as sultan, Baibars al-Bunduqdari, shattered the Mongol myth of invincibility at the crucial battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine in which Hulagu Khan's famous Christian Turkic general, Kitbuqa Noyan, was killed, thereby ending the threat to Egypt and North Africa, a few years after the Mongol sack of Baghdad and the subjugation of Syria, which included the turning of the Omayyad Mosque of Damascus into a cathedral.
Although the reign of Qutuz was short, he remains one of the most heroic sultans of Egypt for saving the Muslim World, at a time when the eastern Islamic lands including Iran had been ravaged by the bloodthirsty Mongol hordes. His early life is obscure. Captured by the Mongols in Central Asia and sold as a slave, he was brought to Syria where he was resold to an Egyptian merchant who in turn sold him in Cairo to Ezz od-Din Aybak, the first Mamluk sultan of Egypt.
According to some sources, Qutuz claimed that his original name was Mahmoud ibn Mamdoud and he was descended from Ala od-Din Mohammad II, the Khwarezm Shahi ruler. He became deputy sultan to Aybak, after whose murder he served his son, al-Mansur Ali, for two years, before deposing him on November 12, 1259, and becoming sultan himself on the promise that the emirs could install any other sultan after he defeated the Mongols.
At the Battle of Ain Jalut, his personal bravery interspersed with shouts of "O Islam! O God! Grant your servant Qutuz a victory against the Mongols", brought the ultimate victory and drove back the Mongols.