Qutuz

Saif ad-Din Qutuz (Arabic المظفر سيف الدين قطز, DMG al - Muzaffar Sayf al - Dīn Qutuz, † October 24, 1260 ) was a Turkish-born Mameluke, who ascended in 1259 to the Sultan of Egypt. His throne name was al -Malik al - Muzaffar.

Qutuz was bought by Sultan al -Mu'izz Aybak (1250-1257) and was appointed Emir of Mu'izzi Regiment of the Mamelukes, which presented the bodyguard of the Sultan. The Mu'izzi - Mamluk should pay most attention to a counterweight to the influential Bahri regiment, which opposed the authority of the Sultan. In January 1254 Qutuz murdered for his Sultan Emir of Bahri, Faris ad-Din Aktay. In the following years he rose to become de facto deputy of the sultan. An office which he held after his assassination in 1257 under the formal rule of al - Mansur Ali.

During his reign, the threat of Syria and Egypt by the Mongols took too much after they had conquered in 1258 under the Caliph Hülagü seat Baghdad and Iraq. This took Qutuz as an excuse to murder in November 1259 Ali and to raise himself to the Sultan. He called the battle-hardened Rukn al-Din Baybars from exile back to the court in Cairo return, although this belonged to the hated Bahri regiment. When the Mongols were advancing in the spring of 1260 to Syria, joined Qutuz with the Crusaders in Palestine a truce. He also participated with the Ayyubid Sultan of Damascus, al-Nasir Yusuf, contact to close a common alliance against the Mongols.

After the Mongols had conquered Damascus to Qutuz at the head of the united Mamelukenheers and moved toward them to Syria. In the Battle of Ain ​​Jalut ( September 3, 1260 ) he could beat them decisively and destroy their Unbesiegbarkeitsmythos. The Mamluks were able to conquer it in Syria, so that in the aftermath of the Euphrates, the border river between the Mongol Empire of the Il- Khans and the Mamluks in Egypt and Syria. Egypt was thus the only Arab country that could fend off the Mongol invasion. Five days after the battle drew Qutuz in Damascus, Syria which was largely brought under the Mameluke rule.

However, it was Qutuz (Turkish Kut - uz = the kultvoll-/heilig - Enlightened ) this significant success not exploit, as he was soon murdered on his return to Cairo by Baibars on a hunt ( October 24, 1260 ). Baibars now rose to the Sultan (1260-1277) and became the real founder of the Mamlukenherrschaft in Egypt and Syria.