Baibars

Baibars (c. 1223/1228-1277) was the fourth Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria, ruling from 1260 to 1277 and regarded as one of the principal founders of the Mamluk Sultanate's military power. Originally a Turkic slave-soldier who rose through the Mamluk military hierarchy, he played a central role in the decisive defeat of a Mongol army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, the first major check on Mongol expansion in the Middle East, shortly after which he seized the sultanate for himself. As sultan he waged sustained campaigns against the remaining Crusader states in the Levant, capturing several major Crusader-held cities and fortresses, while also consolidating Mamluk administrative and military institutions that endured for over two centuries after his death.