Al-Mansur ʿAli (1). When he heard of the Mongol advance he feared that the ranks might break because his master’s son was still but a child (2); so he deposed the boy and summoned the allegiance to himself. In Dhu al-Qaʿdah of the year 657 AH, as noted earlier, he was invested with the bayʿa. He then marched against the Mongols, and Allah decreed through him (3) the victory of Islam at ʿAyn Jalut, as we have already related. He was brave and gallant, abundant in beneficence, and sincerely devoted (4) to Islam and its people; the populace loved him greatly and prayed for him often (5).
It is reported that on the day of the battle at ʿAyn Jalut his horse was killed. At that critical moment none of the wushāqiyya who held the najāʾib were at hand, so he dismounted and remained standing—steadfast—on the ground while the fighting raged, occupying the Sultan’s place at the center (6). When one of the emirs saw him so, he dismounted from his own horse and swore that the Sultan must ride it, but the Sultan refused and said to that emir (7), “I would never deprive the Muslims of your benefit.” He stayed thus until the wushāqiyya arrived with fresh mounts, whereupon he mounted (8).
One of the emirs reproached him, saying, “O khūnd, why did you not ride so-and-so’s horse? Had one of the enemy seen you he would have killed you, and Islam would have perished because of you (9)!” He replied, “As for me, I would have gone to Paradise; as for Islam, it has a Lord who will never abandon it. So-and-so, and so-and-so, and so-and-so were killed”—he named a number of kings—“yet Allah raised up others to guard Islam, and Islam was not lost.” (May Allah have mercy on him).
When he set out from Egypt he was accompanied (10) by a host of senior Bahriyya emirs and others, together with al-Mansur, the ruler of Hama, and a number of princes’ sons. He sent word to the ruler of Hama, saying, “Do not trouble yourself these days with spreading an elaborate banquet (11); let each soldier have a piece of meat to eat (12)—make haste, make haste.” His encounter with the enemy (13) took place, as we have mentioned, in the last ten days of Ramadan on a Friday, and this was a mighty omen, for the Battle of Badr also occurred on a Friday in