Sultan Saifuddin Qutuz: Brief introduction.

Saif Ad-Din Qutuz (Arabic: سيف الدين قطز) or Saifuddin Qutuz was the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. The full name of Sultan Saifuddin Qutuz is Al-Malek-Muzaffar Saif Ad-Din Qutuz. Saifuddin Qutuz was also known as Mahmud bin Mamdud. He was a young Mamluk sultan of Turkish descent. Sultan Saifuddin Qutuz, one of the most influential personalities in history, decorated the Egyptian lion for only one year. Sultan Saifuddin Qutuz has made history with his heroism and bravery. He saved the Islamic world from a catastrophe by wreaking havoc on the irresistible Mongol forces in the wilderness of Ain-Jalut. Along with Ain-Jalut, he is also remembered. 

He created a new episode in the wilderness of Ain-Jalut. According to historians, if he had not existed, the history of the Muslim Ummah would have been written differently today. He ruled for only one year and gave birth to a new history.

 

* Birth and childhood

Sultan Saifuddin Kutuz on November 2, 1221 AD 

Khawarizm was born into the royal family of the empire

The original name of Sultan Saifuddin Qutuz was Mahmud bin Mamdud. He was the nephew of Sultan Jalaluddin Khawarezam Shah of the Khwarezm Empire. He was born and raised in the Khawarizm Empire.

At that time a mighty Mongol nation emerged on earth. They began to subdue the cities of the Muslim East one by one. Their violence goes on the streets. They killed men, took women and children captive, and later sold them to a slave market.

At such a time Genghis Khan's son Joachim and his skilled general Subutai were sent to the Khawarizm Empire. They attacked and captured it. Sultan Jalaluddin could not protect his kingdom, family, or relatives from the Tatars. Many of them died, and many were taken, prisoner. One of those prisoners was Mahmud bin Mamdud. The Tatars named Mahmud 'Qutuz' and sold him to the slave market in Damascus. After changing hands, he reached Qutuz from Damascus to Egypt.

Egypt was then ruled by Sultan Almalikus Salih Nazmuddin Ayub. Izzuddin Aibek was one of his Mamluk (slave) Amirs. Izzuddin Aibek became the new boss of Qutuz. Here Kutuj continues to grow under the supervision of the master. In education and initiation, he continued to become an acceptable personality. Different from everyone else. He has a unique personality. This is where his struggle begins

Forgetting about his family, he concentrates on the mountainous hardships to build his life. At the same time that the Tatars invaded the Khawarizm Empire and captured Qutuz, they attacked the Kipchak area and captured Ruknuddin Bibars from there. They also sold the Beavers as slaves.

Coincidentally, the Beavers also arrived in Egypt after changing hands. Farisuddin Aktai was another Mamluk emir of Sultan Nazmuddin Ayub of Egypt. Akita became the new boss of Beavers. The Mamluks were initiated and trained under the direct supervision of the Sultan. The Sultan built a military base for them on the island of Raoza in the Nile. Here the Mamluks received religious training as well as religious and ideological initiation.

The Mamluks had a very good relationship with each other. Among the classmates was ‘Khushdashiya’ or companion relationship. And there was a student-teacher relationship with the masters. The masters did not treat their Mamluks like slaves; Rather, the teacher used to treat the students in the same way.

Turkish was the language of both Qutuz and Bibars. They were residents of a nearby area. Kutz was the son of the royal family. They studied at the same time and received military training and ideological initiation. Naturally, it can be assumed that there was a special relationship between Khushdashia and their classmates.

* Career and historical law Goliath Desert

Saifuddin Qutuz was the most prominent Muazi Mamluk of Sultan Aibak and in 1253 he became his chief assistant. When Aibak died in 1258, Qutuz served as the assistant sultan of Aibak's son Al-Mansur Ali. Qutuz was led by the Muazzin Mamluks, who removed Al-Mansur Ali as the new sultan of Egypt, replacing Shabaratud-Dur, the widow of Aibak.

In February 1258, the Mongol army invaded Baghdad and brutally massacred its inhabitants, and assassinated the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustasim Billah. After Baghdad, Halaku forces advanced on Syria, which was ruled by King An-Nasir Yusuf of Ayub, who received a threatening letter from Hulagu. A letter from Egypt seeking help from Syria reached Cairo, describing the cries of the Syrian people. In such a situation in Syria, the morale of the emir, vizier, and army of Egypt is almost crushed. So Saifuddin Qutuz, along with his courtiers, proposed removing 15-year-old Sultan al-Mansur Ali from power and proposing a strong and capable sultan who could fight the Mongols in Egypt. Al-Mansur Ali was deposed in 1259. When Qutuz became the new Sultan,

After the fall of Baghdad and the conquest of Syria, Egypt remained the only Islamic power before the Tatars. This Egypt was a big obstacle for the Tatars to conquer the world. So they rushed to Egypt. Sultan Saifuddin Qutuz was then sitting on the throne of Egypt. He felt the horror of the Tatars.

Everyone in the Muslim world at that time had a fixed idea that the Tatars were invincible, it was not possible to defeat them. It was even said that if someone came to you and told you about the defeat of the Tatars, do not believe him! Because it is impossible to defeat the Tatars!

The lives of the people were on the lips for fear of the Tatars, and the army was demoralized. The number of troops is also comparatively less. Because the mighty Bahria Mamluk forces of Salih Ayub's time are not in Egypt, they fled for their lives. In this situation, it is impossible to deal with the Tatars only through miracles without the Bahriyas. In such a situation Sultan Qutuz took some steps without which it would have been almost impossible to deal with the Tatars. One of those steps was to bring back the Bahria Mamluks at any cost.

The Bahria Mamluks were not in a very good position at this time. They were persecuted by the ruler of Kirk. In this situation, they had no choice but to return to Egypt. So Sultan Qutuz summoned the Beavers through an envoy and the Beavers went to Egypt in droves. Sultan Qutuz received the Boibers with honor and conferred on him a high military rank.

The messengers of the Tatars came to the court of the Sultan with a letter! They were six in number in one letter. The letter was full of threats. This intimidating letter was part of the psychological struggle of the Tatars. Thus everyone was afraid of the Tatars. Now after hearing the words of this letter, everyone's chest is like dry wood.

A military meeting was called on behalf of the Sultan. The country's top ulama-fuqaha, Shaikhul Islam, the Chief Justice, including all high-ranking military officers and emirs were invited. The Sultan sought their advice on the difficult situation.

The big emirs suggested surrender. In fact, neither the emir nor the military officers were in favor of a war with the Tatars. But the Sultan was in favor of war. He saw that the cities which had surrendered to the Tatars were not secure, and could not escape the destructive attacks of the Tatars. So whenever I have to die, I will die by jihad. And if we deal with the Tatars by fulfilling all the conditions and principles of jihad, surely Allah will help us. This was the Sultan's view.

Another emir agreed with the sultan. He is Ruknuddin Bibers. The Beavers also fought like war and were advised to kill the Tatar envoys as a declaration of war! Although assassination is forbidden in Islam, the Tatar envoys were killed on the advice of the Beavers, and their severed heads were hung at the Juaila Gate to boost the morale of the people and the army.

After the two main leaders voted in favor of the war, the others no longer agreed. Although some tried to object by raising various issues. In the end, the verdict was in favor of the war. The beginning is the preparation for war.

At that time Sheikh Izzuddin Abdus Salam was the greatest Islamic scholar in Egypt. In his speech, he explicitly supported the decision of Sultan Qutuz and called on the people to join Qutuz's forces in groups. Meanwhile, on the way, Halaku got the news that his brother Great Khan Monke Khan had died. So he returned to Mongolia with about five and a half million of the six million soldiers to attend the funeral of the Great Khan. The rest is about 1 lakh

Left to invade Egypt under his faithful and efficient general Kitbukar. The main strength of the mighty Mongol forces was their agility and speed horses. They also could shoot arrows from a horse that the armies of Europe and Asia did not have. The Mongol bows were light but impossibly strong. The bows could be used on horseback as they were light but wide.

Another strategy of the Mongols was to attack side by side as much as possible without having to line up in a row so that the enemy forces could be surrounded from all sides. Sultan Qutuz realized that facing the Mongols in the wide desert meant covering up the meeting. He did not want to give the Mongols a chance to choose the battlefield first, but went ahead with his troops to confront them and chose the lawless desert of Tabaria in Palestine.

Kutz did not attack with all his troops at the beginning but first sent a small group and persuaded the Mongols to attack first. Not only that, he knew that his Syrian soldiers had fled to the Mongols once before, so if they were in danger, they would flee again. He put them in front of everyone so that they could not escape. In the beginning, the situation of the Qutuz army was turbulent in the face of the onslaught of the Mongols. Then the Sultan himself took off his helmet and stood up from a high place, shouting and giving courage to the soldiers and he jumped to set an example among the common soldiers. Since the desert was narrow, the Mongols could not use their old tactics. In addition, after infiltrating the Qutuz tactics by piercing the Syrian troops, they were confronted by the elite forces of Qutuz. Meanwhile, they could not retreat from the Syrian troops on the front line. Simultaneously the real arrow rained down on the Mongols from both sides. At the stage, their general Kitbuka died. Then the Mongol army dispersed. The scattered Mongols started fleeing. Kutuz's troops drove about 600 kilometers and killed the last invader. This is how the arrogant, barbaric, and cruel Halaku forces were defeated by the Mamluk soldiers. Their skyrocketing pride was shattered in an instant. The historic wilderness of Ainjalut came to an end with the defeat of the Mongols. 

* The afterlife 

After the victory of Ain Jalut, Qutuz was killed by some emirs. Then Ruknuddin Bibars came to power as the new Sultan.

★ References:

1. Wikipedia 

2. Sanjak-i-Usman

3. Sultan Saifuddin Kutuz The Battalion: Dr. Ali Muhammad As-Syllabi