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Khwarazmian dynasty

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Khwarazmian Empire


Khwarezmid Empire in 1217
Capital Gurganj
Languages Persian[1]
Kipchak Turkic[2]
Religion Sunni Islam
Government Oligarchy
Khwarazm-Shah or Sultan
 -  1077–1096/7 Anushtigin Gharchai
 -  1220–1231 Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu
Historical era Medieval
 -  Established 1077
 -  Disestablished 1231/1256
 -  1218 (est.) 3,600,000 km² (1,389,968 sq mi)
Today part of
Faravahar background
History of Greater Iran
Until the rise of modern nation-states
History of the Turkic peoples
History of the Turkic peoples
Pre-14th century
Turkic Khaganate 552–744
  Western Turkic
  Eastern Turkic
Avar Khaganate 564–804
Khazar Khaganate 618–1048
Xueyantuo 628–646
Great Bulgaria 632–668
  Danube Bulgaria
  Volga Bulgaria
Kangar union 659–750
Turgesh Khaganate 699–766
Uyghur Khaganate 744–840
Karluk Yabgu State 756–940
Kara-Khanid Khanate 840–1212
  Western Kara-Khanid
  Eastern Kara-Khanid
Gansu Uyghur Kingdom 848–1036
Kingdom of Qocho 856–1335
Pecheneg Khanates
Kimek Khanate
Oghuz Yabgu State
Ghaznavid Empire 963–1186
Seljuk Empire 1037–1194
  Seljuk Sultanate of Rum
Khwarazmian Empire 1077–1231
Delhi Sultanate 1206–1526
  Mamluk dynasty
  Khilji dynasty
  Tughlaq dynasty
Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) 1250–1517
  Bahri dynasty

The Khwarazmian dynasty (IPA: [kwəˈrazmēən] or IPA: [kwäˈ-];[6] also known as the Khwarezmid[pronunciation?] dynasty, dynasty of Khwarazm Shahs, and other spelling variants; from Persian خوارزمشاهیان Khwārazmshāhiyān, "Kings of Khwarezmia") was a Persianate[7][8][9] Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turkic mamluk origin.[10][11]

The dynasty ruled large parts of Greater Iran during the High Middle Ages, in the approximate period of 1077 to 1231, first as vassals of the Seljuqs[12] and Kara-Khitan,[13] and later as independent rulers, up until the Mongol invasion of Khwarezmia in the 13th century. The dynasty was founded by Anush Tigin Gharchai, a former Turkish slave of the Seljuq sultans, who was appointed the governor of Khwarezm. His son, Qutb ad-Din Muhammad I, became the first hereditary Shah of Khwarezm.[14]


The date of the founding of the Khwarazmian dynasty remains debatable. During a revolt in 1017, Khwarezmian rebels murdered Abu'l-Abbas Ma'mun and his wife, Hurra-ji, sister of the Ghaznavid sultan Mahmud.[15] In response, Mahmud invaded and occupied the region of Khwarezm, which included Nasa and the ribat of Farawa.[16] As a result, Khwarezm became a province of the Ghaznavid Empire from 1017 to 1034. In 1077 the governorship of the province, which since 1042/1043 belonged to the Seljuqs, fell into the hands of Anush Tigin Gharchai, a former Turkic slave of the Seljuq sultan. In 1141, the Seljuq Sultan Ahmed Sanjar was defeated by the Kara Khitay at the battle of Qatwan, and Anush Tigin's grandson Ala ad-Din Atsiz became a vassal to Yelü Dashi of the Kara Khitan.[17]

Sultan Ahmed Sanjar died in 1156. As the Seljuk state fell into chaos, the Khwarezm-Shahs expanded their territories southward. In 1194, the last Sultan of the Great Seljuq Empire, Toghril III, was defeated and killed by the Khwarezm ruler Ala ad-Din Tekish, who conquered parts of Khorasan and western Iran. In 1200, Tekish died and was succeeded by his son, Ala ad-Din Muhammad, who initiated a conflict with the Ghurids and was defeated by them at Amu Darya (1204).[18] Following the sack of Khwarizm, Muhammad appealed for aid from his suzerain, the Kara Khitai who sent him an army.[19] With this reinforcement, Muhammad won a victory over the Ghorids at Hezarasp (1204) and forced them out of Khwarizm. Muhammad's gratitude towards his suzerain was short-lived. He again initiated a conflict, this time with the aid of the Kara-Khanids, and defeated a Kara-Khitai army at Talas (1210),[20] but allowed Samarkand (1210) to be occupied by the Kara-Khitai.[21] He overthrew the Karakhanids (1212)[22] and Ghurids (1215). In 1212, Muhammad II shifted capital from Gurganj to Samarkand. Thus Muhammad II incorporated nearly the whole of Transoxania[citation needed] and present-day Afghanistan into his empire, which after further conquests in western Persia (by 1217) stretched from the Syr Darya to the Zagros Mountains, and from the Indus Valley to the Caspian Sea.

War and collapse

In 1218, Genghis Khan sent a trade mission to the state, but at the town of Otrar the governor, suspecting the Khan's ambassadors to be spies, confiscated their goods and executed them. Genghis Khan 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 the Mongolian army crossed the Syr Darya, beginning the Mongol invasion of Central Asia. The Mongols stormed Bukhara, Gurganj and the Khwarezmid capital Samarkand. 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 the Mongol 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 Blitzkrieg tactics employed less than two decades later by Nazi Germany.[23]








Rulers of Khwarezm

Governors of Khwarezm, the Mamunid dynasty

Titular Name Personal Name Reign
Abu'l-Ali Ma'mun ibn Muhammad
ابو علی المأمون ابن محمد
995–997 C.E.
Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn Ma'mun
ابو الحسن علی ابن المأمون
997–1008/9 C.E.
Abu'l-Abbas Ma'mun ibn Ma'mun
ابو العباس مأمون ابن المأمون
1008/9–1017 C.E.
Abu'l-Harith Muhammad ibn Ali
ابو الحارث محمد ابن علی
1017 C.E.

Altun-Tashid Governors of Khwarezm

Titular Name Personal Name Reign
Abu Sa'id Altun-Tash
ابو سعید التون طاش
1017–1032 C.E.
Harun ibn Altun-Tash
ہارون ابن التون طاش
1032–1034 C.E.
Ismail Khandan ibn Altun-Tash
اسماعیل خاندان ابن التون طاش
1034–1041 C.E.


Titular Name Personal Name Reign
أبو الفوارس
Shah-Malik ibn Ali
شاہ ملک ابن علی
1041–1042 C.E.


Title Personal Name Reign
Anush Tigin Gharchai
أنوش طگین غارچائی
1077–1097 C.E.


Title Personal Name Reign
Ekinchi ibn Qochqar
ایکینچی بن قوچار
1097 C.E.


Titular Name Personal Name Reign
Qutb ad-Din Abul-Fath
قطب الدین ابو الفتح
Arslan Tigin Muhammad ibn Anush Tigin
ارسلان طگین محمد ابن أنوش طگین
1097–1127/28 C.E.
Ala al-Dunya wa al-Din Abul-Muzaffar
علاء الدنیا و الدین، ابو المظفر
Qizil Arslan Atsiz ibn Muhammad
قزل ارسلان أتسز بن محمد
1127 - 1156 C.E.
Taj al-Dunya wa al-Din Abul-Fath
تاج الدنیا و الدین، ابو الفتح
Il-Arslan ibn Qizil Arslan Atsiz

ایل ارسلان بن قزل ارسلان أتسز

1156–1172 C.E.
Ala al-Dunya wa al-Din Abul-Muzaffar
علاء الدنیا و الدین، ابو المظفر
Tekish ibn Il-Arslan

تکش بن ایل ارسلان

1172–1200 C.E.
Jalal al-Dunya wa al-Din Abul-Qasim
جلال الدنیا و الدین، ابو القاسم
Mahmud Sultan Shah ibn Il-Arslan
محمود سلطان شاہ ابن ایل ارسلان
1172–1193 C.E.
Ala al-Dunya wa al-Din Abul-Fath
علاء الدنیا و الدین، ابو الفتح
Muhammad ibn Tekish
محمد بن تکش
1200–1220 C.E.
Genghis Khan
چنگیز خان
Jalal al-Dunya wa al-Din Abul-Muzaffar
جلال الدنیا و الدین، ابو المظفر
Mingburnu ibn Muhammad
مِنکُبِرنی ابن محمد
1220–1231 C.E.
Establishment of Mongol Ilkhanate

Family tree of Anushtiginid Dynasty

See also


Notes and references

  6. ^ "Khwarazmian: definition". Merriam Webster. n.d. Retrieved 21 October 2010. 
  13. ^ Biran, Michel, The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian history, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 44.
  14. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Khwarezm-Shah-Dynasty", (LINK)
  16. ^ C.E. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids:994-1040, 237.
  18. ^ Rene, Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes:A History of Central Asia, (Rutgers University Press, 1991), 168.
  19. ^ Rene, Grousset, 168.
  20. ^ Rene, Grousset, 169.
  21. ^ Rene, Grousset, 234.
  22. ^ Rene, Grousset, 237.
  23. ^ Patrick Porter, Military orientalism: Eastern war through Western eyes, (Columbia University Press, 2009), 137.
  24. ^
  25. ^ Riley-Smith The Crusades, p. 191