Upper Egypt was crushed and the army "slew mercilessly every Bedouin in the land and carried off their women captive". The army was led by the Emirs Salar and Baibars. The Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar News reached Cairo that Ghazan of the Ilkhanate was preparing to attack the Levant with a big army and about 30 Crusade ships arrived in Beirut. The emirs decided to send forces from Egypt to Syria. While the crusader ships were destroyed by a storm before the crusaders could get ashore, Ghazan, after arriving in Baghdad had to change his plan after one of his commanders named Solamish Ben Afal fled to Egypt and asked for help to fight him. In 1299 an-Nasir led the Egyptian Army to Syria to take on the army of Ghazan. While the Sultan was on his way to Syria, some Oirats conspired with a mamluk of the Sultan to kill Baibars al-Jashnakir and Salar in order to bring Kitbugha who was in Hama back to power. The sultan's mamluk attacked Baibars and tried to kill him but he was himself killed. The Oirats attacked the Dihliz of the Sultan but they were stopped in a way that made Salar and Baibars think the Sultan was involved in the conspiracy. The Oirats were arrested and punished and the mamluks who were involved were sent to Al Kark. The army of an-Nasir (about 20,000 soldiers) clashed with Ghazan's army (about 12,000 soldiers) in a battle that became known as the Battle of Wadi al-Khazandar. An-Nasir's army was defeated with relatively low casualties (200 to 1000 men) after inflicting major casualties on Ghazan's army (about 2500 casualties). An-Nasir's forces retreated to Homs followed by the army of Ghazan. An-Nasir left for Egypt and Ghazan took Homs. Much of the population of Damascus fled towards Egypt. The leaders of Damascus appealed to Ghazan not to kill the remaining population of the city. Ghazan arrived at the outskirts of Damascus and his soldiers looted the city. Damascus, with the exception of its citadel, submitted to the Mongol commander Qubjuq and Ghazan's name was mentioned during the Friday prayer at the main mosque of Damascus as: ("The Greatest Sultan, the Sultan of Islam and of Muslims, the victorious in life and in faith, Mahmud Ghazan). The Mongols kept looting Syrian villages, towns and Damascus itself. In Egypt, the defeated soldiers of an-Nasir kept arriving in