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Khwarazmian Empire

Middle East & Central AsiaHeartland today: Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan

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Turkic dynasty from Khwarazm that began as Seljuk governors in 1077 and by 1218 ruled from the Syr Darya to the Zagros Mountains. Its shah, Ala ad-Din Muhammad, lost the realm to Genghis Khan's armies in 1219-1221.

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Key events

  1. The Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah I makes Anushtegin Gharchai governor of Khwarazm

    The year is approximate (c. 1077).

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  2. Qara Khitai defeats the Seljuk sultan at Qatwan, and Khwarazm becomes a Qara Khitai vassal

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  3. Tekish defeats and kills the last Great Seljuk sultan, Toghrul III, at Rayy

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  4. The governor of Otrar seizes a Mongol merchant caravan and has its members killed, and Muhammad II executes an envoy sent by Genghis KhanDisputed

    Accounts of the incident differ on details such as how many died, who approved the killings and what happened to the envoys.

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  5. – Genghis Khan's armies invade Khwarazm, and most of the empire falls to them by 1221

    The medieval chronicler Juvayni gave 1.2 million dead at Gurganj alone; modern historians treat such figures as greatly inflated, so none is given here.

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  6. The Mongols take Samarkand, the shah's capital, in March 1220Disputed

    Wikipedia's article on the siege has it lasting about a month; its article on the invasion says the city fell after a five-day siege.

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  7. Jalal ad-Din, the last Khwarazm-Shah, is killed by Kurdish peasants after years of flight from the Mongols

    EBSCO says the circumstances are unclear: the peasants acted either to avenge a past wrong or for gain.

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