Khwarazmian dynasty

For other uses, see Khwarezmian (disambiguation).

Khwarazmian Empire
خوارزمشاهیان
Khwārazmshāhiyān
1077–1231
Khwarezmid Empire in 1217
Capital Gurganj
(1077–1212)
Samarkand
(1212–1220)
Ghazna
(1220–1221)
Tabriz
(1225–1231)
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
  Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia 1218-1221
  Battle of Yassıçemen 1230
   Disestablished 1231
Area
   1218 (est.)[3] 3,600,000 km² (1,389,968 sq mi)
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Great Seljuq Empire
Ghurid Dynasty
Mongol Empire
Today part of
History of the Turkic peoples
Pre-14th century
Turkic Khaganate 552–744
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Golden Horde | [4][5][6] 1240s–1502
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History of Greater Iran


The Khwarazmian dynasty (IPA: [kwəˈræzmiːən];[7] also known as the Khwarezmid dynasty, the Anushtegin dynasty, the dynasty of Khwarazm Shahs, and other spelling variants; from (Persian: خوارزمشاهیان, translit. Khwārazmshāhiyān "Kings of Khwarezmia") was a Persianate[8][9][10] Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turkic mamluk origin.[11][12] The dynasty ruled large parts of Central Asia and Iran during the High Middle Ages, in the approximate period of 1077 to 1231, first as vassals of the Seljuqs[13] and Qara-Khitan,[14] and later as independent rulers, up until the Mongol invasion of Khwarezmia in the 13th century.

The dynasty was founded by commander Anush Tigin Gharchai, a former Turkish slave of the Seljuq sultans, who was appointed as governor of Khwarezm. His son, Qutb ad-Din Muhammad I, became the first hereditary Shah of Khwarezm.[15]

History

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.[16] In response, Mahmud invaded and occupied the region of Khwarezm, which included Nasa and the ribat of Farawa.[17] 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 Qara Khitai at the battle of Qatwan, and Anush Tigin's grandson Ala ad-Din Atsiz became a vassal to Yelü Dashi of the Qara Khitan.[18]

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).[19] Following the sack of Khwarizm, Muhammad appealed for aid from his suzerain, the Qara Khitai who sent him an army.[20] With this reinforcement, Muhammad won a victory over the Ghorids at Hezarasp (1204) and forced them out of Khwarizm.

Ala ad-Din Muhammad's alliance with his suzerain was short-lived. He again initiated a conflict, this time with the aid of the Kara-Khanids, and defeated a Qara-Khitai army at Talas (1210),[21] but allowed Samarkand (1210) to be occupied by the Qara-Khitai.[22] He overthrew the Karakhanids (1212)[23] and Ghurids (1215). In 1212, he shifted his capital from Gurganj to Samarkand. Thus incorporating nearly the whole of Transoxania 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 northern parts of the Hindu Kush to the Caspian Sea. By 1218, the empire had a population of 5 million people.[24]

Mongol invasion 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. 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.

The son of Ala ad-Din Muhammad, Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu became the new Sultan (he rejected the title Shah). He attempted to flee to India, but the Mongols caught up with him before he got there, and he was defeated at the Battle of Indus. He escaped and sought asylum in the Sultanate of Delhi. Iltumish however denied this to him in deference to the relationship with the Abbasid caliphs. Returning to Persia, 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, the Seljuks of Rum, and pretenders to his own throne. He lost his power over Persia in a battle against the Mongols in the Alborz Mountains. Escaping to the Caucasus, he captured Azerbaijan in 1225, setting up his capital at Tabriz. In 1226 he attacked Georgia and sacked Tbilisi. Following on through the Armenian highlands he clashed with the Ayyubids, capturing the town Ahlat along the western shores of the Lake Van, who sought the aid of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm. Sultan Kayqubad I defeated him at Arzinjan on the Upper Euphrates at the Battle of Yassıçemen in 1230. He escaped to Diyarbakir, while the Mongols conquered Azerbaijan in the ensuing confusion. He was murdered in 1231 by Kurdish highwaymen.[25]

Mercenaries

Eurasia c. 1200, on the eve of the Mongol invasions.

Though the Mongols had destroyed the Khwarezmian Empire in 1220, many Khwarezmians survived by working as mercenaries in northern Iraq. Sultan Jalal ad-Din'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. Ayyubid Sultan as-Salih Ayyub, in Egypt, later hired their services against his uncle as-Salih Ismail. The Khwarezmiyya, heading south from Iraq towards Egypt, invaded Crusader Christian-held Jerusalem along the way, on July 11, 1244. The city's citadel, the Tower of David, surrendered on August 23, the Crusader Christian population of the city was expelled. This triggered a call from Europe for the Seventh 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 Ayyubids at the Battle of Harbiyah, northeast of Gaza, killing the remains of the Crusader Christian army there, some 1,200 knights. It was the largest battle involving the crusaders since the Battle of the Horns of Hattin in 1187.[26]

The remains of the Muslim Khwarezmians served in Egypt as Mamluk mercenaries until they were finally beaten by al-Mansur Ibrahim some years later.

Khwarizmi war captives assimilated into the Mongols, forming the modern Mongolian clan Sartuul.

Rulers of Khwarezm

Mamunid Governors of Khwarezm

Titular Name Personal Name Reign
Amir
امیر
Abu'l-Ali Ma'mun ibn Muhammad
ابو علی المأمون ابن محمد
995–997 C.E.
Amir
امیر
Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn Ma'mun
ابو الحسن علی ابن المأمون
997–1008/9 C.E.
Amir
امیر
Abu'l-Abbas Ma'mun ibn Ma'mun
ابو العباس مأمون ابن المأمون
1008/9–1017 C.E.
Amir
امیر
Abu'l-Harith Muhammad ibn Ali
ابو الحارث محمد ابن علی
1017 C.E.
Absorbed into the Ghaznavid Empire by Mahmud ibn Sebuktigin;he made Altun Tash its governor.

Altun-Tashid Governors of Khwarezm

Titular Name Personal Name Reign
Amir
امیر
Abu Sa'id Altun-Tash
ابو سعید التون طاش
1017–1032 C.E.
Amir
امیر
Harun ibn Altun-Tash
ہارون ابن التون طاش
1032–1034 C.E.
Amir
امیر
Ismail Khandan ibn Altun-Tash
اسماعیل خاندان ابن التون طاش
1034–1041 C.E.
Re-conquest by Ghaznavid Empire under Mas'ud ibn Mahmud ibn Sebuktigin who sent his general Shah Malik, the Oghuz Turk

Non-dynastic Governor

Titular Name Personal Name Reign
Amir
امیر
Abul-Fawaris
أبو الفوارس
Shah-Malik ibn Ali
شاہ ملک ابن علی
1041–1042 C.E.
Conquest of Khwarezm by Tughril Beg and Chaghri Beg of the Seljuq Empire.

Governor Anushtigin

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

Non-dynastic Governor

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

Anushtiginid Shahs

Titular Name Personal Name Reign
Shah
شاہ
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.
Shah
شاہ
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.
Shah
شاہ
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.
Shah
شاہ
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.
Shah
شاہ
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
Initially under regency of Turkan Khatun, his mother. He was a younger half-brother and rival of Tekish in Upper Khurasan
1172–1193 C.E.
Shah
شاہ
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
Genghis Khan invades Khwarezmia forcing Muhammad ibn Tekish to flee along with his son to an island in the Caspian Sea where he would die of pleurisy.
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

  1. Kathryn Babayan, Mystics, monarchs, and messiahs: cultural landscapes of early modern Iran, (Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2003), 14.
  2. Bobodzhan Gafurovich Gafurov, Central Asia:Pre-Historic to Pre-Modern Times, Vol.2, (Shipra Publications, 1989), 359.
  3. Rein Taagepera (September 1997). "Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia". International Studies Quarterly. 41 (3): 497. doi:10.1111/0020-8833.00053. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  4. Marshall Cavendish Corporation (2006). Peoples of Western Asia. p. 364.
  5. Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (2007). Historic Cities of the Islamic World. p. 280.
  6. Borrero, Mauricio (2009). Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present. p. 162.
  7. "Khwarazmian: definition". Merriam Webster. n.d. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
  8. C. E. Bosworth: KHWARAZMSHAHS i. Descendants of the line of Anuštigin. In Encyclopaedia Iranica, online ed., 2009: "Little specific is known about the internal functioning of the Khwarazmian state, but its bureaucracy, directed as it was by Persian officials, must have followed the Saljuq model. This is the impression gained from the various Khwarazmian chancery and financial documents preserved in the collections of enšāʾdocuments and epistles from this period. The authors of at least three of these collections—Rašid-al-Din Vaṭvāṭ (d. 1182-83 or 1187-88), with his two collections of rasāʾel, and Bahāʾ-al-Din Baḡdādi, compiler of the important Ketāb al-tawaṣṣol elā al-tarassol—were heads of the Khwarazmian chancery. The Khwarazmshahs had viziers as their chief executives, on the traditional pattern, and only as the dynasty approached its end did ʿAlāʾ-al-Din Moḥammad in ca. 615/1218 divide up the office amongst six commissioners (wakildārs; see Kafesoğlu, pp. 5-8, 17; Horst, pp. 10-12, 25, and passim). Nor is much specifically known of court life in Gorgānj under the Khwarazmshahs, but they had, like other rulers of their age, their court eulogists, and as well as being a noted stylist, Rašid-al-Din Vaṭvāṭ also had a considerable reputation as a poet in Persian."
  9. Homa Katouzian, "Iranian history and politics", Published by Routledge, 2003. pg 128: "Indeed, since the formation of the Ghaznavids state in the tenth century until the fall of Qajars at the beginning of the twentieth century, most parts of the Iranian cultural regions were ruled by Turkic-speaking dynasties most of the time. At the same time, the official language was Persian, the court literature was in Persian, and most of the chancellors, ministers, and mandarins were Persian speakers of the highest learning and ability"
  10. "Persian Prose Literature." World Eras. 2002. HighBeam Research. (September 3, 2012);"Princes, although they were often tutored in Arabic and religious subjects, frequently did not feel as comfortable with the Arabic language and preferred literature in Persian, which was either their mother tongue—as in the case of dynasties such as the Saffarids (861–1003), Samanids (873–1005), and Buyids (945–1055)—or was a preferred lingua franca for them—as with the later Turkish dynasties such as the Ghaznawids (977–1187) and Saljuks (1037–1194)".
  11. 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 81-7541-246-1
  12. C. E. Bosworth, "CHORASMIA ii. In Islamic times" in: Encyclopaedia Iranica (reference to Turkish scholar Kafesoğlu), v, p. 140, Online Edition: "The governors were often Turkish slave commanders of the Saljuqs; one of them was Anūštigin Ḡaṛčaʾī, whose son Qoṭb-al-Dīn Moḥammad began in 490/1097 what became in effect a hereditary and largely independent line of ḵǰᵛārazmšāhs." (LINK)
  13. Rene Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes:A History of Central Asia, Transl. Naomi Walford, (Rutgers University Press, 1991), 159.
  14. Biran, Michel, The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian history, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 44.
  15. Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Khwarezm-Shah-Dynasty", (LINK)
  16. C.E. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids:994-1040, (Edinburgh University Press, 1963), 237.
  17. C.E. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids:994-1040, 237.
  18. Biran, Michel, The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 44.
  19. Rene, Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes:A History of Central Asia, (Rutgers University Press, 1991), 168.
  20. Rene, Grousset, 168.
  21. Rene, Grousset, 169.
  22. Rene, Grousset, 234.
  23. Rene, Grousset, 237.
  24. John Man, "Genghis Khan: Life, Death, and Resurrection", Feb. 6 2007. Page 180.
  25. http://persian.packhum.org/persian/pf?file=90001012&ct=107&rqs=68&rqs=491&rqs=893
  26. Riley-Smith The Crusades, p. 191

Further reading

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