- Khwarezmian Empire
Infobox Former Country
native_name = خوارزمشاهیان
conventional_long_name = Khwarezmian Empire
common_name = Khwarezmian Empire
continent = Asia
region =
country = Iran
era = Medieval
status =
status_text =
empire =
government_type = Monarchy
year_start = 1077
year_end = 1231
event_start =
date_start =
event_end =
date_end =
p1 = Great Seljuq Empire
flag_p1 =
s1 = Mongol Empire
flag_s1 =
flag_type =
image_map_caption = Khwarezmid Empire around 1200
capital = Urgench
common_languages =
religion =Sunni Islam
currency =
leader1 =Anushtigin Gharchai
leader2 =Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu (Sultan)
year_leader1 = 1077-1096/7
year_leader2 = 1220-1231
title_leader = ShahThe Khwarezmian Empire, more commonly known as the empire of the Khwarezm Shahs
Encyclopaedia Britannica , "Khwarezm-Shah-Dynasty", ( [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9045365/Khwarezm-Shah-Dynasty#87942.hook LINK] )] (PerB|خوارزمشاهیان, "Khwārezmšhāḥīān", "Kings ofKhwarezmia ") was a Persianate [Bosworth in "Camb. Hist. of Iran", Vol. V, pp. 66 & 93] [B.G. Gafurov & D. Kaushik, "Central Asia: Pre-Historic to Pre-Modern Times"; Delhi, 2005; ISBN 8175412461] M.A. Amir-Moezzi, "Shahrbanu",Encyclopaedia Iranica , Online Edition, ( [http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/ot_grp7/ot_shahrbanu_20050131.html LINK] ): "... here one might bear in mind that non-Persian dynasties such as the Ghaznavids, Saljuqs and Ilkhanids were rapidly to adopt the Persian language and have their origins traced back to the ancient kings of Persia rather than to Turkish heroes or Muslim saints ..."]Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turkic "mamluk " [C.E. Bosworth "Anuštigin Ĝarčāī",Encyclopaedia Iranica (reference to Turkish scholar Kafesoğlu), v, p. 140, Online Edition, ( [http://www.iranica.com/newsite/search/searchpdf.isc?ReqStrPDFPath=/home1/iranica/articles/v2_articles/anustigin_garcai&OptStrLogFile=/home/iranica/public_html/logs/pdfdownload.html LINK] )] origin which ruledGreater Iran , first asvassals of theSeljuqs and later as independent rulers in the 11th century. The empire survived until theMongol invasion in 1220. The dynasty was founded by Anūsh Tigin Gharchāī, a former slave of the Seljuq sultans, who was appointed the governor ofKhwarezm . His son, Qutb ud-Dīn Muhammad I, became the first hereditaryShah ofKhwarezm .History
The date of the founding of the empire is uncertain. Khwarezm was a province of the
Ghaznavid Empire from 992 to 1041. In 1077 the governorship of the province, which now belonged to theSeljuqs , fell into the hands of Anūsh Tigin Gharchāī, a former Turkic slave of the Seljuq sultan. In 1141, the Seljuq SultanAhmed Sanjar was defeated by theKara Khitay (Kara-Khitan Khanate ) and Anūsh Tigin's grandson Ala ad-Din Aziz was forced to submit as a vassal to the Kara Khitay.Sultan Ahmed Sanjar was killed in 1156: when the Seljuk state fell into chaos, the Khwarezms expanded their territories southward. In 1194, the last Sultan of Great Seljuq state, Toğrül III, was defeated and killed by the Khwarezm ruler Ala ad-Din Tekish who also freed himself of the Kara Khitay. In 1200, Tekish died and was succeeded by his son, Ala ad-Din Muhammad, who by 1205 had conquered all of Great Seljuq and declared himself
Shah (Persian for "king") - he became known as the "Kwarezmshah". In 1212 he defeated the Gur-KhanKutluk and conquered the lands of the Kara Khitay, now ruling a territory from theSyr Darya almost all the way toBaghdad , and from theIndus River to theCaspian Sea .In 1218,
Genghis Khan sent a trade mission to the state, but at town ofOtrar the governor suspected them to be spies and confiscated their goods and had them executed. Genhis Khan then demanded reparations which the Shah refused to pay. Genghis retaliated with a force of 200,000 men, launching a multi-pronged invasion. In February 1220 theMongol ian army crossed theSyr Darya and launched theMongol invasion of Central Asia . The Mongols stormedBukhara ,Samarkand , and the Khwarezmid capital Urgench. The Shah fled and died some weeks later on an island in the Caspian Sea. In "Great Captains Unveiled" of 1927,B.H. Liddell Hart gave details of theMongol campaign against Khwarezm, underscoring his own philosophy of "the indirect approach," and highlighting many of the tactics used by Genghis which were to be subsequently included in the German "Blitzkrieg " tactics, inspired in part by Liddell Hart's writings.The son of Ala ad-Din Muhammad,
Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu became the new Sultan (he rejected the title Shah) but he had to flee toIndia , theMongols caught up with him before he got there, and he was defeated at theBattle of Indus . He escaped and sought asylum in theSultanate of Delhi .Iltumish however denied this to him in deference to the relationship with theAbassid caliphs . Returning toPersia he gathered an army and reestablished a kingdom. He never consolidated his power however, and he spent the rest of his days struggling againstMongols , pretenders to the throne and theSeljuk Turks of Rum. He lost his power over Persia in a battle against theMongols in theAlborz Mountains and fled to theCaucasus and capturedAzerbaijan in 1225, setting up his capital atTabriz . In 1226 he attacked Georgia and sackedTbilisi . Following on through theArmenia n highlands he clashed with theAyyubids , capturing the townAhlat along the western shores of theLake Van , who sought the aid of the SeljukSultanate of Rûm . The SultanKayqubad I engaged him atArzinjan on the UpperEuphrates at the Battle of Yassi Chemen in 1230, from where he escaped toDiyarbakir while the Mongols capturedAzerbaijan in the ensuing confusion. He was murdered in 1231 by anassassin hired by the Seljuks or possibly by Kurdish highwaymen. [http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=90001012&ct=107&rqs=68&rqs=491&rqs=893]Mercenaries
Though the Mongols had destroyed the Khwarezmian Empire in 1220, many Khwarezmians survived by working as mercenaries in northern Iraq. Manguberdi's followers remained loyal to him even after his death in 1231, and raided the Seljuk lands of Jazira and
Syria for the next several years, calling themselves the "Khwarezmiyya"s.Ayyubid SultanSalih Ayyub , in Egypt, later hired their services against his uncleSalih Ismail . The "Khwarezmiyya"s, heading south from Iraq towards Egypt, invaded Christian-heldJerusalem along the way, onJuly 11 ,1244 . The city's citadel, theTower of David , surrendered onAugust 23 . This triggered a call from Europe for theSeventh Crusade , but the Crusaders would never again be successful in retaking Jerusalem. After being conquered by the Khwarezmian forces, the city stayed under Muslim control until 1917, when it was taken from the Ottomans by the British.After taking Jerusalem, the Khwarezmian forces continued south, and on
October 17 fought on the side of the Egyptians at the Battle of Harbiyah, northeast ofGaza , killing the remains of the Christian army there, some 1,200 knights. It was the largest battle since the Battle of the Horns of Hattin in 1187. [Riley-Smith "The Crusades", p. 191]The remains of the Muslim Khwarezmians served in Egypt as
Mamluk mercenaries until they were finally beaten byMansur Ibrahim some years later.Rulers of Khwarezm
Ma'munids
*Abu Ali
Mamun I 992-997
*Abu al-Hasan Ali 997-1009
*Abu al-AbbasMamun II 1009-1017
*Muhammad 1017Altuntashids
*
Altun Tash 1017-1032
*Harun 1032-1034
*Ismail Khandan 1034-1041Non-dynastic
*
Shah Malik 1041-1042Anushtiginids
*
Anush Tigin Gharchai 1077-1097Non-dynastic
*Ekinchi 1097
Anushtiginids
*Qutb ad-Din Muhammad I 1097-1127
*Ala ad-Din Aziz 1127-1156
*Il-Arslan 1156-1172
*Sultan Shah 1172-1193
*Ala ad-Din Tekish 1172-1200
*Ala ad-Din Muhammad II 1200-1220
*Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu 1220-1231ee also
*Full list of Persian Kingdoms
*Khwarezmia Literature
*M. Ismail Marcinkowski, "Persian Historiography and Geography: Bertold Spuler on Major Works Produced in
Iran , theCaucasus ,Central Asia ,India and EarlyOttoman Turkey , with a foreword by Professor Clifford Edmund Bosworth", member of theBritish Academy , Singapore: Pustaka Nasional, 2003, ISBN 9971-77-488-7.Notes and references
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