First off AJAX IS javascript. I'll spare you the wikipedia'esque definitions you could find around.
AJAX is the set of javascript methods revolving around XMLHttpRequest that allow to fetch and display pages without the need to "refresh" the page itself like you'd need to with simple GET and POST http requests.
Hence the acronym that stands for: Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.
There are helper libraries like jQuery that try to overcome the specific technicalities of different rendering engines (gecko, webkit, presto, etc) but they're nothing more than APIs that still invoke XMLHttpRequest and all the other NATIVE js objects.
HTH