Khwarazmian Empire: A Visual History

The Khwarazmian dynasty began as Seljuk governors of Khwarazm (the Amu Darya delta) in 1077 and became independent under Atsiz. Ala al-Din Tekish killed the last Seljuk sultan in 1194 and his son Muhammad II conquered Transoxiana, Persia and Afghanistan by 1215, ruling from Samarkand and Gurganj. In 1218 his governor of Otrar massacred a Mongol caravan and Muhammad had Genghis Khan's envoys killed; the resulting invasion of 1219-1221 destroyed the empire and its cities. Muhammad died a fugitive; his son Jalal al-Din fought on until 1231.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Khwarazmian Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Khwarazmian territory

Timeline of the Khwarazmian Empire

1. 1077
   Anushtegin governor of Khwarazm
2. 1141
   Atsiz submits to the Qara Khitai
3. 1194
   Tekish kills the last Seljuk sultan
4. 1215
   Muhammad II at his peak
5. 1218
   Otrar massacre
6. 1220
   Bukhara and Samarkand fallMuhammad dies in exile.
7. 1221
   Battle of the IndusJalal al-Din escapes.
8. 1231
   Jalal al-Din killed

From governors to shahs

Anushtegin, a Turkish slave of the Seljuks, was made governor of Khwarazm in 1077 and his descendants held the office. Atsiz asserted independence in the 1140s, balancing between the Seljuks and the Qara Khitai to whom he paid tribute. Tekish took Khorasan and, in 1194, killed Sultan Tughril III, taking western Persia.

Muhammad II

Muhammad threw off Qara Khitai overlordship, destroyed the Ghurids' power in Afghanistan and by 1215 ruled from the Aral Sea to the Persian Gulf. He quarrelled with the caliph in Baghdad and planned to march on it. His empire was a hastily assembled collection of garrisons, and his mother Terken Khatun ran a rival power centre through her Qipchaq kinsmen.

The Mongol catastrophe

In 1218 Inalchuq, governor of Otrar, seized a 450-strong Mongol trading caravan and executed its members; Muhammad then had Genghis's envoy killed. Genghis attacked in 1219 with about 100,000 to 150,000 men. Otrar, Bukhara, Samarkand, Gurganj, Merv, Nishapur and Herat were taken and their populations largely killed; Muhammad fled to an island in the Caspian and died in 1220. Jalal al-Din beat a Mongol force at Parwan, escaped across the Indus in 1221, and led a roving army in Persia and the Caucasus until murdered by a Kurdish peasant in 1231.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Great Seljuk Empire (1037 to 1194)
• Qara Khitai (Western Liao) (1124 to 1218)
• Ghurid dynasty (1148 to 1215)
• Mongol Empire (1206 to 1368)
• Abbasid Caliphate (750 to 1258)
• Delhi Sultanate (1206 to 1526)
• Chagatai Khanate (1226 to 1347)

Wars of the same era and region

• Mongol invasions and conquests (1206 to 1368)

8 surprising things about the Khwarazmian Empire

1. Genghis Khan reportedly told the people of Bukhara from the pulpit that he was 'the punishment of God' for their sins.
2. The Mongols are said to have killed over a million people at Merv alone; the figure is disputed but the city never recovered.
3. The Mongols pursued Muhammad II so relentlessly that he died of pleurisy on a Caspian island, reportedly without a shroud.
4. Genghis Khan admired Jalal al-Din's leap into the Indus and reportedly told his sons to take him as a model.
5. The Mongols diverted the Amu Darya to flood Gurganj after taking it.
6. The Otrar governor Inalchuq was executed by having molten silver poured into his eyes and ears, according to one chronicler.
7. The Khwarazmian remnants later served the Ayyubids and sacked Jerusalem in 1244, ending Christian rule there permanently.
8. The empire's rise and fall spanned barely 25 years at full size.

Sources

• Khwarezm-Shah dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Khwarazmian Empire Wikipedia
• Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire Wikipedia
• Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (2004) Crown

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