Central Asia, with its warm climate, abundance of steppe pastures and fertile lands in the river valleys where Khorezm was located, has been the cradle of more than one rich civilization since antiquity. Trade routes linking Western Asia and Europe with China, including the Great Silk Road, passed through it. One of the oldest prosperous cultural regions of Central Asia was Khorezm, an area in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya River, the waters of which were used for irrigation of bread fields and the movement of merchant ships. The territory of Khorezm was inhabited in primitive times by tribes engaged in hunting and fishing. In the I millennium BC it was settled by the Iranian-speaking Khorezmian people. Apparently, they gave this land such a name, meaning, presumably, a brief history of Khorezm «feeding land» or «low land». In the 6th century BC, Khorezm was conquered by the Persian king Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty. After the collapse of the Achaemenid power as a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great (IV century BC), Khorezm became an independent state under its own unified rulers. In the 2nd century BC it was conquered by nomadic Turkic-speaking tribes. During this period, Khorezm witnessed large-scale urban development: the Turkic rulers sought to preserve their power by maximizing their possessions to protect them from external enemies. Powerful fortresses with high walls and towers were erected. Around the 4th century A.D., the Iranian dynasty of the Afrigids again established itself in Khorezm, when the inhabitants of Central Asia became Muslims, whose rulers began to bear the title «Khorezmshah», i.e., «King of Khorezm». In the VIII century Khorezm was conquered by the Arabs, who established Islam as the state religion. Khorezm became part of a huge and powerful state of the Middle Ages — the Arab Caliphate, whose borders stretched from the Iberian Peninsula and North-West Africa to China and India. The famous mathematician of the IX century Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, from whose name the word «algorithm» is derived, was born in Khorezm. In 995 the title of the local rulers of Khorezm, Khorezmshahs, was abolished. By the 11th century. The Caliphate actually began to disintegrate into separate as Khorezm became a separate Muslim state-states; the power of its supreme ruler, the Caliph, became only nominal, and in its different regions the rule was completely transferred to representatives of the local nobility. Sometimes even within the Caliphate «internal empires» were formed, when some provincial ruler subordinated other provinces to his authority, while formally remaining loyal to the Caliph. We have already written about it on history-thema.com in the article devoted to the Abbasid Caliphate. So in 1017. Khorezm became part of the power created by the Turks headed by Mahmud Ghaznavi, but already in 1043 it was ruled by the powerful Seljuk Sultanate — a state whose ruler dictated the will of the Caliph himself, who remained in fact only a figure symbolizing the unity of the Muslim world. The Seljuks, the tribes that made up the noble core of the population of the sultanate, belonged to the ancient Turkic-speaking ethnos of Turkmens. Turkmen rulers also strengthened in Khorezm.
During the reign of Sultan Malik Shah (1072-1092), Anush-Tegin became the governor of Khorezm. He founded the dynasty of local rulers Anushteginids. Those gradually strengthened their influence and pursued a more independent policy from Seljuk sultans. The viceroy Ikinji announced his withdrawal from the allegiance of Sultan Ahmad Sanjar, but was killed, and the Seljuks, having seized Khorezm, in 1097 raised Anush-Tegin’s son Qutbu-d-Din Muhammad I to his throne in the city of Gurgandj (modern Turkmen Köneurgench). The latter remained visibly loyal to the sultan, but who are Khorezmshahi at the same time strengthened his position in power. He restored the ancient title of Khorezmshah and began to be called by him. The son of Kutbu-d-Din Khorezmshah Alau-d-Din Atsyz in 1138 already openly opposed Sultan Sanjar, but his army could not win over the Seljuks, and he had to flee. Sanjar raised his nephew Suleiman to the throne of Khorezm. But Suleiman Shah turned out to be an inauthentic ruler and could not keep order in Khorezm. Sanjar was forced to depose him and in 1141 returned the rebellious Atsyz to the Khorezm throne.
At that time, the rich cities of Central Asia were attacked by the armies of nomads related to the Mongols, with whom the Khorezmshahs fought the Karakitai (Kara-Kidan), who had settled in the Talas and Chu valleys in present-day Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan shortly before. They were led by commander Yelui Dashi, who united the Karakitai tribes into a single state union Western Liao. The Muslim state of the Karakhanids, whose lands stretched over a vast territory between the Aral Sea, Lake Balkhash and the mountains of Pamir, Tien Shan and Tibet, mainly suffered from the Karakitai invasion. The Karakhanid ruler Mahmud, a relative of Sultan Sanjar, requested help from him. However, the Karakitai completely defeated the Seljuk army at the ancient city of Samarkand. Rejoiced Atsyz again opposed the Seljuk sultan and began to ravage the provinces neighboring Khorezm. The year 1141 was not over yet, when Atsyz’s troops sacked the city of Merv, and in the next year Khorezm Shah with his warriors approached Nishapur in Iran. However, it turned out that Khorezm’s forces were still insufficient to fight such a powerful state as the Seljuk Sultanate, albeit one that had lost the battle to the Karakitai. Having recovered from his defeat at Samarkand, Sanjar quickly brought Atsyz back to submission. In addition, Atsyz had to pay tribute to the Karakitai, who threatened to invade his possessions as well. At the same time, he continued to try to subdue weaker neighbors, including nomadic tribes living close to Khorezm. By the end of Atsyz’s reign, Khorezm had subjugated the entire northwest of Central Asia with the Caspian Sea coast. After that, the rulers of more powerful powers could no longer dictate their terms to him and limited themselves to levying tribute from Khorezm.
Atsyz died in 1156, and his son Taju-d-Din Il-Arslan became the new Khorezm Shah. The following year Sultan Sanjar died, after which the Seljuk sultanate disintegrated. Il-Arslan began to pursue an active policy of further expansion of the limits of his state. In the 60s of the XII century he annexed the city of Dehistan with its surroundings, and then — several cities of the Khorasan region in the east of Iran. In 1172 the Karakites, who feared such strengthening of Il-Arslan’s state, made a campaign against Khorezm, but were repulsed. The power of Khorezm Shahs finally became an independent powerful state. However, in the same year Il-Arslan died. The throne was first occupied by his younger son Jalalu-d-Din Sultan Shah. Il-Arslan’s eldest son Alau-d-Din Tekesh was dissatisfied with this, as in most monarchical states the power always passed by seniority. However, the mother of the Shah’s heirs supported the youngest of the children, and her word had a decisive influence on the Khorezm nobility — the main support of the Shah. Then Tekesh turned for help to the enemies of Khorezm the Karakitai. In exchange for their support in the struggle for the throne, he promised to resume payment of tribute to them. Relying on the help of the Karakitai, Tekesh deposed his brother, who had to go into hiding, ordered to kill his mother and became the new Khorezm Shah. Sultan Shah repeatedly tried to restore himself to the throne, but without success. In 1183, Sultan Shah died, and Tekesh began to further expand the boundaries of his state. By the end of the 12th century, he had conquered a number of territories in eastern Central Asia, again breaking tribute relations with the Karakitai, the north and east of Iran, and then Iraq. Under him the state of Khorezmshahs turned into one of the most powerful, rich and influential powers of the East.
In 1200. Tekesh died and his younger son Alau-d-Din Muhammad II ascended the throne. The new Khorezmshah had to wage heavy wars with another powerful state — the Sultanate of Gurid, whose borders covered the territories of modern Eastern Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Northern India up to the Bay of Bengal. The Gurid army broke through to Khorezm itself, captured the brother of Muhammad II and took him to the city of Herat. Khorezmshah managed to make a retaliatory campaign into the possessions of the Gurid sultan Giyasu-d-Din and, having besieged Herat, to secure his brother’s release and payment of a large ransom. However, then a large army led by Giyasu-d-Din’s brother Shihabu-d-Din came against Muhammad II. The Khorezmians were defeated, and the Gurid army besieged Gurganj. While Muhammad was gathering new troops from vassals and allies, the defense of the capital of Khorezm was led by his brave mother, Tekesh’s widow Terken-khatun. To fight against the Gurids, Muhammad made an alliance with the Karakitai. By joint efforts Khorezmians and Karakitai forced the Gurid army out of Khorezmshah’s possessions. However, the Sultanate of Gurid did not give up attempts to take revenge until the death of Shihabu-d-Din. After that the vast state, consisting of provinces divided by high mountain ranges and inhabited by peoples of different culture and language, fell apart. Here Muhammad II launched a new offensive and conquered many of the former territories of the sultanate and annexed them to his power, forcing the local rulers to swear allegiance to him. After that he began to fight again with his yesterday’s allies — Karakitai, relying on the Muslims who rebelled against them — subjects of the Karakitai Khanate (Western Liao). However, the Karakitai managed to bribe the rulers of Samarkand and Khorasan, who opposed Khorezm Shah at the decisive moment. The first battle was lost by Khorezmshah. Khorezmshah began to strengthen his state. In 1210 Muhammad II’s army defeated the Karakitai on the Ilamish Plain near the Syr Darya River.
In 1212. Muhammad II captured the Western Karakhanid Khanate, deposed its ruler and moved his capital to Samarkand. He continued to bear the title of Khorezmshah, but the capital of his state was now outside Khorezm. By 1215, the Khorezmshah state had reached its greatest power and greatest expansion of its borders. In 1217. Muhammad II even attempted to march on the caliph’s main city, Baghdad, to assert his control over the face that symbolized the spiritual unity of the Muslims. The caliphs at that time regained real political power, but only within their domains in Iraq. However, a heavy snowfall on a mountain road forced Khwarizmshah to turn his troops back.
The ruins of the ancient settlement of Afrasiab, an ancient part of Samarkand
Surprisingly enough, it was at the peak of its wealth and power that the state of Khorezmshah was destined to disappear from the historical arena forever. A new formidable power of the East was gaining strength in the north-east of it, which suddenly emerged in the arid Central Asian steppes, where the rivers of Eastern Siberia originate — the Mongol Empire. The Mongol leader Temujin, who went down in history as Genghis Khan, managed to unite the scattered Mongol tribes nomadic there and began the conquest of Northern China with its famous cultural and technical achievements. The limits of the new power expanded rapidly, in a matter of years.
The state of Khorezmshahs was always characterized by the strong influence of noble families to which the ruler himself was related. During the reign of Muhammad II, the key positions in the state were in the hands of the Kangla family, to which Khorezmshah’s mother Terken-Khatun belonged. After his brilliant victories Muhammad II more and more gravitated towards full autocratic rule, less and less consulted with his influential mother, and in the end he repeated the situation similar to that in which his father Tekesh had once found himself: his mother began to turn military commanders and dignitaries against him. As a result, Muhammad II began to trust his army less and less and feared mutinies. To prevent the commanders from uniting and overthrowing him, Khorezmshah divided his army into separate garrisons, which he sent to different fortresses on the territory of his state. At this time Genghis Khan sent him an embassy in which he proposed an alliance to fight geopolitical adversaries and trade. Influenced by the words of his maternal uncle, the vassal ruler of the city of Otrar, Kayir Khan, Muhammad II suspected the Mongol embassy of espionage. Although the meeting with the first embassy was quite peaceful, the second embassy from Genghis Khan was subjected to inspection by order of Khorezmshah. This resulted in a skirmish in which one of the ambassadors was killed personally by Kaiyr Khan and several others were executed by his servants. The rescued Mongols from the embassy reached the Mongol possessions and told their tribesmen what had happened in the country of Khorezm Shah. Genghis Khan in ultimatum form demanded from Muhammad II to extradite Kayir Khan and other people involved in the murder of his ambassadors. Khwarizmshah did not respond, and soon Mongol armies invaded Central Asia. For this purpose Genghis Khan even withdrew some of his forces fighting in not fully conquered China. First, the Mongols captured the state of longtime enemies and allies of Khorezmshahs — the Karakitai. The last ruler of that Khan Kuchluk was captured and executed. Then Mongolian armies attacked the lands belonging to Khorezmshah. Muhammad II, who feared military mutinies, never decided to gather his army into a single fist, and continued to keep large garrisons in various fortified cities of the country, believing that the steppe nomads will not be able to master the high city walls and, when they ran out of provisions and forage, will go away. He underestimated the perfect for those times combat tactics of the Mongols and their fanatical desire to conquer world domination at any cost, as well as the equipment of the Mongol army with formidable siege weapons, obtained in the conquered lands of China.
Genghis Khan with the army, three times inferior in number to the troops of Khorezmshah, advanced through the lands why Khorezmshah lost to the Mongols the power of Muhammad II and captured one city after another. In the fall of 1219 he took Otrar after a long, persistent siege. Genghis Khan asked the captured uncle of Khorezmshah Kayir Khan whether he had killed his ambassadors. In response, the fearless Kayir-khan began to insult Genghis Khan, accusing him of bloodthirstiness and unleashing war. Enraged, Genghis Khan ordered to pour molten silver down Kaiyr Khan’s throat and face. In the end, the Mongols single-handedly defeated all the garrisons of Khorezm Shah’s army scattered in Central Asian cities, and these cities themselves, according to their tradition, were subjected to brutal plunder and violence. The total number of victims was estimated in the millions. Huge crowds of captives were carried off into Mongol slavery. In just one year, the political and cultural «core» of the blossoming, mighty power was left only a desolate and ash-strewn ruin. Muhammad II fled to his Iranian possessions, and then hid from the Mongols, who sooner or later had to catch up with him, on the island of Abeskun in the Caspian Sea. The Mongols, indeed, did not discover his hiding-place, but took the palace in which he had been before, and captured the women of his harem. The news of this finally broke the spirit of Khorezm Shah, who was already suffering from severe pneumonia at that time, and, presumably, in December 1220 he died at Abeskun surrounded by a small retinue. The Mongol corps that pursued him under the command of the commanders Jebe and Subede went on a reconnaissance campaign to the north through Transcaucasia, devastated the entire east of the latter, defeated the army of the Alanian kingdom in the North Caucasus, made a campaign to the Crimea, and then defeated the allied armies of the Russians and nomadic Turks-Kipchaks on the Kalka River in present-day Ukraine. After that almost completely were broken by attack of soldiers of the Muslim state of Volga Bulgaria located in the Volga region.
The war in Western Asia, however, continued: the resistance to the Mongols was led by Jalalu-d-Din Menguberdi, the eldest son of Muhammad II, who was proclaimed the new Khorezmshah. He managed to unite the remnants of the Khorezm army scattered by Mongol troops and to gain a foothold in the city of Ghazni on the territory of modern Afghanistan. In 1221, the army who is Jalal ad Din MenguberdiJalalu-d-Din, a talented and skillful commander, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Mongols in a narrow stone gorge near the city of Parwan. But Genghis Khan, having pulled up his numerous reserves, began a systematic attack on the territory controlled by Jalalu-d-Din and pushed Khorezmshah over the mountains to the Indus River. On the Indus, most of Jalalu-d-Din’s army was defeated, and he himself barely escaped. With the remnants of the army Khorezmshah went to India, where he tried to «finish» considered the Khorezmshahs, who were shattered by the battle with the Mongols, an easy prey for the local ruler. However, the Central Asian warriors, inspired by the bravery of their leader, attacked the Indians with such desperation that they fled, and their ruler was slain by Jalalu-d-Din himself. Having established himself in India, Jalalu-d-Din began to conquer new lands to replace the lost Central Asia. By 1225 he had conquered vast territories in Iran and Iraq, and then captured the city of Tabriz in northwestern Iran, which he made his capital. From there he and his army invaded the Caucasus, where he conquered part of modern Azerbaijan, part of Georgia and Armenia. In 1226 Jalalu-d-Din’s troops captured and plundered the capital of the Georgian kingdom, the large and rich city of Tbilisi. As a result of Jalalu-d-Din’s conquests, the state of Ildegizids, which was located on the territory of Azerbaijan, collapsed.
Expanding the limits of his state, Jalalu-d-Din continued to fight with the Mongols, who did not abandon their attempts to seize all of Western Asia. In 1227 Jalalu-d-Din’s troops defeated the Mongols near the Iranian city of Rey. But at the same time the Georgian kingdom, which included significant territories inhabited by Armenians, continued its war with him, seeking to expel his army from its borders. The Georgian-Armenian army remained a serious opponent. And in 1228 the rulers of Asia Minor, Egypt and Cilician Armenia united forces against such an expansive Khorezmshah. In the following years Jalalu-d-Din suffered a number of heavy defeats. At the same time, the rear of his power was shaken by uprisings of the population against taxes and arbitrariness of his viceroys. Talented as a military commander he turned out to be a bad ruler. In 1231, when the Mongols crushed the state of Khorezm Shahs, the Mongol viceroy of Iran, Jurmagun, led a 30,000-strong army in a decisive offensive against him. The Mongols quickly seized Northern Iran, forcing Jalalu-d-Din to retreat to the Azeri Ganja. Then, under the continuing Mongol onslaught, which his weakened army could no longer withstand, Khorezmshah retreated to the mountains near the town where Jalalu d-Din Menguberdi Mayafarikin (modern Silvan in Turkey) died, where he was killed by an unknown Kurd, possibly hired by the ruler of the Asia Minor Seljuks. Thus the state of Khorezmshahs — eastern rulers who called themselves by the name of the ancient Central Asian region of Khorezm — finally ceased to exist, although this region was lost to them at the end of their time. The Mongols in the following decades mastered the remaining territories of Iran and Transcaucasia, where they crushed the Georgian kingdom that dominated the region, Iraq, where they sank Baghdad in blood and killed the last Arab caliph, Mutasim, and Syria. Further Mongol expansion to the Asian west was stopped in Palestine in the valley near the source of Ain Jalut, where on September 3, 1260 the troops of Jelalu-d-Din’s nephew Kutuz, who reigned in Egypt, defeated the Mongol army and killed its commander Kitbuku, after which they conquered Syria from the Mongols.