The Armenian-Mongol alliance, however, was a reality of some importance in the great Mongol offensive. Baghdad had fallen to Mongols in 1258, Aleppo in 1260 and entered undefended city of Damascus the same year. Of the old heartlands of Islam, only Egypt and Arabia remained .inviolate

A Mongol ambassador went to Cairo to demand the submission of the Sultan Qutuz, who had succeeded to sultanate in 1259. Sultan refused the demand and defiantly put the ambassador to death. Kitbuga Noyon, with his Mongol troops and his Armenian and Georgian auxiliaries, had crossed the Jordan into Galilee. The Mamluk army, camping in the neighbourhood of Acre in August, moved South-East to meet the Mongols. The two armies clashed at a place called ' Ayn Jalut ', ' the Spring of Goliath ', a village between Baysan and Nabulus. In this famous battle, the Mamluks lured the enemy into a trap. They destroyed the Mongol army, captured its commander and put him to death. This was the first time that Mongol army suffered defeat in a pitched battle--the unconquerable had been conquered on Friday, 3 September, 1260. ۔