Khwarazmian Empire خوارزمشاهیان Khwārazmshāhiyān | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| c. 1077–1231 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 Khwarazmian Empire (Khwarazmian Empire) Territory of the Khwarazmian Empire on the eve of theMongol invasions,c. 1215 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Status | Empire (1170s–1221) Rump state (1225–1231) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Capital | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Largest city | Shahr-e Ray | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Government | Absolute monarchy | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Khwarazmshah | |||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1077–1096/7 | Anushtegin Gharchai | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• 1220–1231 | Jalal al-Din Mangburni | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Medieval | ||||||||||||||||||||||
• Established | c. 1077 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1219–1221 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1230 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1231 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1210 est.[6]or | 2,300,000 km2 (890,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1218 est.[7] | 3,600,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5,000,000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Currency | Dirham | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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TheKhwarazmian Empire[note 2] (English:/kwəˈræzmiən/),[10] or simplyKhwarazm,[note 3] was a culturallyPersianate,Sunni Muslim empire ofTurkicmamluk origin.[11][12] Khwarazmian Empire ruled large parts of present-dayCentral Asia,Afghanistan, andIran from 1077 to 1231; first as vassals of theSeljuk Empire[13] and theQara Khitai (Western Liao dynasty),[14] and from circa 1190 as independent rulers up until theMongol invasion in 1219–1221.
The date of the founding of the state remains debatable. The dynasty that ruled the empire was founded byAnush Tigin (Gharachai), initially a Turkic slave of the rulers ofGharchistan, later a Mamluk in the service of the Seljuks. However, it was underAla ad-Din Atsiz (r. 1127–1156), a descendant of Anush Tigin, that Khwarazm became independent from its neighbors.
The Khwarazmian Empire eventually became the most powerful state in and around Persia, defeating the Seljuk Empire and theGhurid Empire, and even threatening theAbbasid Caliphate.[15] It is estimated that the empire spanned an area of 2.3 to 3.6 million square kilometres.[16][17] The empire, which was modelled on the preceding Seljuk Empire, was defended by a huge cavalry army composed largely ofKipchak Turks.[18]
The Khwarazmian Empire was the last Turco-Persian Empire before theMongol conquest of Central Asia. In 1219, theMongols under their rulerGenghis Khan invaded the Khwarazmian Empire,conquering the whole of it in just two years. The Mongols exploited existing weaknesses and conflicts in the empire, besieging and plundering the richest cities, and putting its citizens to the sword in one of the bloodiest conquests in human history.
The title ofKhwarazmshah was introduced in 305 by the founder of theAfrighids and existed until 995. After a short interval, the title was reinstated. During the uprising inKhwarazm in 1017, rebels killed KhwarazmshahMa'mun II and his wife Khurra-ji, the sister ofGhaznavid sultanMahmud of Ghazni.[19] In response, Mahmud invaded the region to quell the rebellion. He later installed a new ruler and annexed Khwarazm. As a result, it became a province of the Ghaznavid empire and remained so until 1035.[20][21]
In 1077, control of the region, which had previously belonged to theSeljuqs from 1042 to 1043, passed into the hands ofAnushtegin Gharchai, aTurkicMamluk commander of the Seljuqs.[22] In 1097, the Khwarazm governor of Turkic origin,Ekinchi ibn Qochqar declared independence from the Seljuqs and proclaimed himself the Shah of Khwarazm. After a short time, however, he was killed by several Seljuq amirs who had rebelled. He was replaced by Anush Tigin Gharachai's son,Qutb al-Din Muhammad, by the Seljuqs, who had reconquered the region. Qutb al-Din became the first hereditary Khwarazmshah.[23]
Anushtegin Gharachai was aTurkic[note 4]mamluk commander of the Seljuqs[26] and the governor ofKhwarazm from approximately 1077 until 1097. He was the first member of his family to rule Khwarazm and thenamesake for the dynasty that would rule the province in the 12th and early 13th centuries.
Anushtegin was put in command together with his masterAl-Taj Gümüshtegin in 1073 by the Seljuq sultanMalik-Shah I to retake territory in northernGreater Khorasan that theGhaznavids had seized.[27] He was subsequently made the sultan'stasht-dar (Persian: "keeper of the royal vessels"), and, as the revenues from Khwarazm were used to pay for the expenses incurred by this position, he was made governor of the province. The details of his tenure as governor are unclear. He died by 1097 and the post was briefly given toEkinchi bin Qochqar before being transferred to his son,Qutb al-Din Muhammad.
Atsiz gained his position following his father Qutb al-Din's death in 1127. During the early part of his reign, he focused on securing Khwarazm against nomad attacks. In 1138, he rebelled against his suzerain, the Seljuq sultanAhmad Sanjar, but was defeated inHazarasp and forced to flee. Sanjar installed his nephew Suleiman Shah as ruler of Khwarazm and returned toMerv. Atsiz returned, however, and Suleiman Shah was unable to hold on to the province. Atsiz then attacked Bukhara, but by 1141 he again submitted to Sanjar, who pardoned him and formally returned control of Khwarazm over to him. The same year that Sanjar pardoned Atsiz, theKara Khitai underYelü Dashi defeated the Seljuqs in theBattle of Qatwan (1141), nearSamarqand. Atsiz took advantage of the defeat to invadeKhorasan, occupying Merv andNishapur. Yelü Dashi, however, sent a force to plunder Khwarazm, forcing Atsiz to pay an annual tribute.[28] In 1142, Atsiz was expelled from Khorasan by Sanjar, who invaded Khwarazm in the following year and forced Atsiz back into vassalage, although he continued to pay tribute to the Kara Khitai until his death. Sanjar undertook another expedition against Atsïz in 1147 when the latter became rebellious again.[29]
Atsiz was a flexible politician and ruler, and was able to maneuver between the powerful Seljuk Sultan Sanjar and the equally powerful Kara Khitai ruler Yelü Dashi. He continued the land-gathering policy initiated by his predecessors, annexing Jand andMangyshlak to Khwarazm. Many nomadic tribes were dependent on the Khwarazmshah. Towards the end of his life, Atsiz subordinated the entire northwestern part of Central Asia, and in fact, achieved its independence from its neighbors.[30]
Il-Arslan was the Shah of Khwarazm from 1156 until 1172. He was the son ofAtsïz. Initially, Il-Arslan was made governor ofJand, an outpost on theSyr Darya which had recently been reconquered, by his father. In 1156, Atsiz died and Il-Arslan succeeded him as Khwarazmshah. Like his father, he decided to pay tribute to both theSeljuk sultanSanjar and theQara Khitai gurkhan.
Sanjar died only a few months after Il-Arslan's ascension, causing Seljuq Khurasan to descend into chaos. This allowed Il-Arslan to effectively break off Seljuk suzerainty, although he remained on friendly terms with Sanjar's successor, Mas'ud. Like his father, Il-Arslan sought to expand his influence in Khurasan.
In 1158, Il-Arslan became involved in the affairs of another Qara Khitai vassal state, theKarakhanids ofSamarqand. The Karakhanid Chaghri Khan had been persecuting theQarluks in his realm, and several Qarluk leaders fled to Khwarazm and sought Il-Arslan's help. He responded by invading the Karakhanid dominions, takingBukhara and besieging Samarqand, where Chaghri Khan had taken refuge. The latter appealed to both the Turks of theSyr Darya and the Qara Khitai, and the gurkhan sent an army, but its commander hesitated to enter into conflict with the Khwarazmians.
In 1172, the Qara Khitai launched apunitive expedition against Il-Arslan, who had not paid the required annual tribute. The Khwarazmian army was defeated, and Il-Arslan died shortly after. Following his death the state briefly became embroiled in turmoil, as the succession was disputed between his sonsTekish andSultan Shah. Tekish emerged victorious and subsequently ruled the empire from 1172 to 1200.
Tekish stayed with theexpansionist policies of his father Il-Arslan. Despite gaining his throne with the help of the Qara Khitai, he later shook off their suzerainty and repulsed the subsequent Qara Khitai invasion of Khwarazm. Tekish maintained close relations with theOghuz Turkmens and TurkicQipchak tribes from the vicinity of theAral Sea, and recruited them at times for his conquest ofIran. A great number of theseTurkmens were stillpagan, and they were known in Iran for their barbarism and intense ferocity.[31]
In 1194, Tekish defeated the Seljuq sultan ofHamadan,Toghrul III, in an alliance with CaliphAl-Nasir, and conquered his territories. After the war, he broke with the Caliphate and was on the brink of a war with it until the Caliph accepted him as the sultan of Iran, Khorasan, and Turkestan in 1198. Tekish died of aperitonsillar abscess in 1200.[32] and was succeeded by his son,Ala ad-Din Muhammad. His death triggered spontaneous revolts and widespread massacre of the hated Khwarazmian Turkic soldiers stationed in Iran.[33]
After his fatherTekish died, Muhammad succeeded him. Muhammad led the maximum expansion of the Khwarazmian Empire, extinguishing theWestern Kara-Khanid Khanate in 1213, and sweeping aside theGhurids in 1215 whom they vassalized after the assassination ofMuhammad Ghuri. The coins of Muhammad were minted in the Kara-Khanid capitals ofUzgen andSamarkand from 1213.[34]
In 1218, a small contingent of Mongols crossed borders in pursuit of anescaped enemy general. Upon successfully retrieving him,Genghis Khan made contact with the Shah. Genghis was looking to open trade relations, but having heard exaggerated reports of the Mongols, the Shah believed this gesture was only a ploy to invade Khwarazm.
Genghis sent emissaries to Khwarazm to emphasize his hope for a trade road. Muhammad II, in turn, had one of his governors (Inalchuq, his uncle) openly accuse the party of spying, seizing their rich goods and arresting the party.[35]
Trying to maintain diplomacy, Genghis sent an envoy of three men to the shah, to give him a chance to disclaim all knowledge of the governor's actions and hand him over to the Mongols for punishment. The shah executed the envoy (again, some sources claim one man was executed, some claim all three were), and then immediately had the Mongol merchant party (Muslim and Mongol alike) put to death and their goods seized.[36] These events led Genghis toretaliate with a force of 100,000 to 150,000 men that crossed theJaxartes in 1219 and sacked the cities ofSamarqand,Bukhara,Otrar, and others. Muhammad's capital city,Gurganj, followed soon after. The ShahMuhammad II of Khwarazm fled and died some weeks later on an island in theCaspian Sea.
On the eve of the Mongol invasion, adiarchy developed in the Khwarazmian Empire. Khwarazmshah Muhammad II was considered theabsolute ruler, but the influence of his motherTurkan Khatun (Terken Khatun) was also great. Turkan Khatun even had thelaqab: "the Ruler of the World" (Khudavand-e Jahaan), and another one for her decrees: "Protector of peace and faith, Turkan the Great, the ruler of women of both worlds." Turkan Khatun had a separateDiwan, separate palace and the orders of the Sultan were not considered to be effective without her signature. This fact, coupled with her conflicts with Muhammad II might have contributed to the impotence of the Khwarazmian Empire in the face of theMongol onslaught.
In 1221, she was captured by the troops ofGenghis Khan and died in poverty inMongolia.
Jalal al-Din was the last of Khwarazmshahs, who ruled the remnants of the Khwarazmian Empire and northwesternIndia from 1220 to 1231. He was reportedly the eldest son of Ala ad-Din Muhammad II, while his mother was aTurkmen concubine named Ay Chichek.[37] Due to the low status of Jalal al-Din's mother, his powerful grandmother andQipchaq princessTerken Khatun refused to support him as heir to the throne, and instead favored his half-brother Uzlagh-Shah, whose mother was also a Qipchaq. Jalal al-Din first appears in historical records in 1215, when Muhammad II divided his empire amongst his sons, giving the southwestern part (part of the formerGhurid Empire) to Jalal al-Din.[38]
He attempted to flee toIndia, but the Mongols 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 theAbbasid caliphs. Returning toPersia, he gathered an army and re-established a kingdom. He never consolidated his power, however, spending the rest of his days struggling against the Mongols, theSeljuks of Rum, and pretenders to his own throne. He lost his power over Persia in a battle against the Mongols in theAlborz Mountains. Escaping to theCaucasus, he capturedAzerbaijan in 1225, setting up his capital atTabriz. In 1226 he attackedGeorgia and sackedTbilisi. Following on through theArmenian highlands he clashed with theAyyubids, capturing the townAhlat along the western shores ofLake Van, which sought the aid of the SeljuqSultanate of Rûm. SultanKayqubad I defeated him atArzinjan on the UpperEuphrates at theBattle of Yassıçemen in 1230. He escaped toDiyarbakir, while the Mongols conquered Azerbaijan in the ensuing confusion. He was murdered in 1231 byKurdish highwaymen.[39]
The head of the central state apparatus (al-Majlis al-Ali al-Fahri at-Taji) of Kharazmshahs was avizier, the first adviser to the head of state. He was the head of thediwan officials (askhab ad-dawawin), who appointed them and established salaries, pensions (arzak), controlling tax administration and the treasury.[40] The most prominent vizier of the Khwarazmian Empire was Al-Harawi, who built a mosque for theShafi'is inMerv, a huge madrassah, a mosque and a repository of manuscripts in Gurganj. He died at the hands of theShia Ismailis.[41]
An important position in the state apparatus of the Khwarazmshahs was also held by the senior or greathajib, who most of the time, was a representative of the Turkic nobility. The hajib reported to the Khwarazmshah on issues related to the shah and his family. The Khwarazmshah could have several hajibs, who carried out the "personal" instructions of the sultan.[42]
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The population of the Kwarazmian Empire consisted mainly of sedentaryIranian and half-nomadicTurkic peoples.[45] The urban population of the empire was concentrated in a relatively small number of (by medieval standards) very large cities as opposed to a huge number of smaller towns. The population of the empire is estimated at 5 million people on the eve of the Mongol invasion in 1220, making it sparse for the large area it covered.[8][note 1] Historical demographersTertius Chandler and Gerald Fox give the following estimations for the populations of the empire's major cities at the beginning of the 13th century, which adds up to at least 520,000 and at most 850,000 people.[47][48]
Initially, the main city of the Khwarazmian Empire wasUrganch or Gurganj. A prominentMiddle Eastern biographer and geographer,Yaqut al-Hamawi, who visited Gurganj in 1219, wrote, "I have not seen a city greater, richer and more beautiful than Gurganj."Al-Qazvini, a Persian physician, astronomer, geographer and writer of Arab ancestry, states:
Gurganj is a very beautiful city, surrounded by the attention of angels who represent the city in paradise just like a bride in a groom's house. The inhabitants of the capital were skillful artisans, especially the blacksmiths, carpenters and others. Carvers were famous for their products made of ivory and ebony. Workshops for the production of natural silk operated in the city.[49]
The cities ofSamarqand,Ghazna andTabriz also served as the capital of the later Khwarazmian Empire.
Although the Khwarazmshahs had a Turkic origin, just as theirSeljuq predecessors, they adoptedPersian culture, adhered to theSunni branch ofIslam and had their richest and most populous cities in Khorasan. Thus, the Khwarazmshah era had a dual character, reflecting both its Turkic origin and Persian culture.
During the Khwarazmshah era,Central Asian society was fragmented, unified under one banner only recently. The Khwarazmian military mostly consisted of Turks, while the civilian and administrative element was almost exclusively Persian. The spoken language of the Turkic population of Khwarazm wasKipchak Turkic andOghuz, the latter being the legacy of the previous masters of the area,Seljuq Turkomans.[50]
However, the dominant language of the era and the one spoken by the majority in the important Khwarazmian cities wasPersian. The language of the sedentarydiwan was also Persian, and its members had to be well versed in Persian culture, regardless of their ethnic origin. Persian became the official state language of the Khwarazmshahs and served as the language of administration, history, fiction and poetry. The Turkic language was the mother tongue and "home language" of the Anushteginid family, while Arabic served primarily as the language of science, philosophy, and theology.
The finely decoratedMina'i ceramics were mainly produced inKashan, in the decades leading up to theMongol invasion of Persia in 1219, at a time when the Khwarazmian Empire ruled the area, initially under the suzerainty of theSeljuk Empire, and independently from 1190.[51] Some of the "most iconic" productions of stonepaste vessels can be attributed to the Khwarazmian rulers, after the end of Seljuk domination (the Seljuk Empire itself ended in 1194).[52] In general, it is considered that Mina'i ware was manufactured from the late 12th century and the early 13th century, and dated Mina’i wares range from 1186 to 1224.[53] Extensivelusterware also belongs to this period.
![Lustreware plate painted by Abu Zayd al-Kashani in December 1210 (dated AH Jumada II 607).[57][58]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aPlate_by_Shamsuddin_al-Hasani_Abu_Zayd%2c_Iran%2c_December_1210_AD_(dated_AH_Jumada_II_607)%2c_composite_body_painted_over_glaze_with_luster_-_Freer_Gallery_of_Art_-_DSC04647.jpg)
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It is estimated that the Khwarazmian army, prior to the Mongol invasion, consisted of about 40,000 cavalry, mostly ofTurkic origin. Militias existed in Khwarazm's major cities but were of poor quality. With collective populations of around 700,000, the major cities probably had 105,000 to 140,000 healthy males of fighting age in total (15–20% of the population), but only a fraction of these would be part of a formal militia with any notable measure of training and equipment.[59]
After the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire, many Khwarazmians survived by employing themselves as mercenaries in northernIraq. Sultan Jalal ad-Din's followers remained loyal to him even after his death in 1231, and raided the Seljuq lands ofJazira andSyria for the next several years, calling themselves theKhwarazmiyya.Ayyubid Sultanas-Salih Ayyub, in Egypt, later hired them against his uncleas-Salih Ismail. TheKhwarazmiyya, heading south from Iraq towards Egypt, invadedCrusader-heldJerusalem along the way, on 11 July 1244 (Siege of Jerusalem (1244)). The city's citadel, theTower of David, surrendered on 23 August, and the Christian population of the city was expelled. 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 Khwarazmian forces, the city stayed under Muslim control until 1917,when it was taken from theOttomans by theBritish.
After taking Jerusalem, the Khwarazmian forces continued south, and on 17 October 1244 fought on the side of the Ayyubids at theBattle of La Forbie, as the Crusaders used to callHarbiyah, a village northeast ofGaza, destroying the remains of the Crusader army there, with some 1,200 knights killed. It was the largest battle involving the Crusaders since theBattle of the Horns of Hattin in 1187.[64]
| History of the Turkic peoplespre–14th century | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mahm ̄ud and Masc ̄ud I of Ghazna had appointed Turkish slave commanders from their own army, Altuntash and his sons, as governors there with the ancient title of Khwarazm Shah." (...) "In order to secure these important regions, Malik Sh ̄ah had appointed the keeper of the royal washing bowls (tast-d ̄ar), his slave commander An ̄ush-tegin Gharcha' ̄ı, as titular governor at least in Khwarazm. During Berkyaruk's reign, the sultan appointed in 1097 another Turkishghul ̄am, Ekinchi b. Kochkar, with the historic title of KhwarazmShah. When, in that same year, Ekinchi was killed, Berkyaruk nominated in his stead An ̄ushtegin's son Qutb al-D ̄ın Muhammad as governor, and Muhammad's tenure of power there (1097–1127) inaugurates the fourth and most brilliant line of hereditary KhwarazmShahs
This dynasty eventually built up, as the Seljuq empire in the east tottered to its close, the most powerful and aggressively expansionist empire in the Persian lands, in the end defeating their rivals for control of Khurasan, the Ghurids of Afghanistan, threatening western Persia and Iraq and the Abbasid caliphate itself, and only disintegrating under the overwhelming military might of the Mongol invaders in the opening decades of the thirteenth century.
Similarly, the most distant ancestor of SultanMuhammad Khwarazmshah wasNushtekin Gharcha, who was a descendant of the Begdili tribe of the Oghuz family.
In Uzgend , the capital of the largest principality of the Karakhanids and in Samarkand , the capital of the Karakhanid state were minted coins in 1213 with the name of Mohammad, Khwarezm Shah . This confirmed the complete annihilation of the dynasty of the Kharakanids
It has recently been proposed that the dish represents an attack on an Assassin stronghold in eastern Azerbaijan by Jalal al-Din Khwarazmshah in about 1225.
Media related toKhwarazmian Empire at Wikimedia Commons
