The Khwarazmian or Khwarezmian Empire[note 2] (English: /kwəˈræzmiən/)[9] was a culturally Persianate, Sunni Muslim empire of Turkic mamluk origin.[10][11] Khwarazmians ruled large parts of present-day Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Iran from 1077 to 1231; first as vassals of the Seljuk Empire[12] and the Qara Khitai (Western Liao dynasty),[13] and from circa 1190 as independent rulers up until the Mongol conquest in 1219–1221.
The Khwarazmian Empire eventually became "the most powerful and aggressively expansionist empire in the Persian lands", defeating the Seljuk Empire and the Ghurid Empire, even threatening the Abbasid caliphate. In the beginning of the 13th century, the empire is thought to have become the greatest power in the Muslim world.[14] It is estimated that the empire spanned an area of 2.3 to 3.6 million square kilometres.[15][16] The empire, which was modelled on the preceding Seljuk Empire, was defended by a huge cavalry army composed largely of Kipchak Turks.[17]
The Khwarezmian Empire was the last Turco-Persian Empire before the Mongol invasion of Central Asia. In 1219, the Mongols under their ruler Genghis Khan invaded the Khwarazmian Empire, successfully 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, while putting its citizens to the sword in one of the bloodiest wars in human history.
The date of the founding of the state of the Khwarazmshahs remains debatable. The dynasty that ruled the empire was founded by Anush Tigin (also known as Gharachai), initially a Turkic slave of the rulers of Gharchistan, later a Mamluk in the service of the Seljuks. However, it was Ala ad-Din Atsiz (r. 1127–1156), descendant of Anush Tigin, who achieved Khwarazm's independence from its neighbors.
^Babayan 2003, p. 14.
^Katouzian 2007, p. 128.
^Kuznetsov & Fedorov 2013, p. 145.
^Gafurov, B.G. Central Asia:Pre-Historic to Pre-Modern Times, Vol. 2, (Shipra Publications, 1989), p. 359.
^Vasilyeva, G.P. "Ethnic processes in origins of Turkmen people." Soviet Ethnography. Publishing house: Nauka, 1969. pp. 81–98.
^Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D. (December 2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires". Journal of World-Systems Research. 12 (2): 222. ISSN 1076-156X. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
^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. JSTOR 2600793.
^Cite error: The named reference John Man 2007. Page 180 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Khwarazmian: definition". Merriam Webster. n.d. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
^Bosworth, C.E. (1998). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. UNESCO. p. 164. ISBN 978-92-3-103467-1. 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
^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." Norman M. Naimark, Genocide: A World History (Oxford University Press, 2017), 20 "The Persian-speaking and Islamic Khwarezmian empire, which was founded in Central Asia south of the Aral Sea around its capital of Samarkand, and included such remarkable centers of trade and civilizations as Bukhara and Urgench, ..."
^Rene Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes:A History of Central Asia, Transl. Naomi Walford, Rutgers University Press, 1991, p. 159.
^Biran, Michel, The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian history, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 44.
^Bosworth, C.E. (1998). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. UNESCO. p. 164. ISBN 978-92-3-103467-1. 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.
^Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D (December 2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical Empires". Journal of World-Systems Research. 12 (2): 222. ISSN 1076-156X. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
^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. JSTOR 2600793.
^David Abulafia (2015). The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 5, c. 1198–c. 1300. p. 610.
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).
and 24 Related for: Khwarazmian Empire information
The Khwarazmian or Khwarezmian Empire (English: /kwəˈræzmiən/) was a culturally Persianate, Sunni Muslim empire of Turkic mamluk origin. Khwarazmians ruled...
1221, the Mongol forces under Genghis Khan invaded the lands of the KhwarazmianEmpire in Central Asia. The campaign, which followed the annexation of the...
Bekdili clan of the Oghuz Turks. The Anushteginid dynasty ruled the KhwarazmianEmpire, consisting in large parts of present-day Central Asia, Afghanistan...
Look up Khwarazmian, Khwarezmian, Khorezmian, or Chorasmian in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. The name Khwarazmian (also Khwarezmian, Khwarizmim, Khorezmian...
1140s, the Seljuk Empire began to decline in power and influence, and was eventually supplanted in the east by the KhwarazmianEmpire in 1194 and the Zengids...
provoked to invade the KhwarazmianEmpire the following year following the execution of his envoys; the campaign toppled the Khwarazmian state and devastated...
mercenaries between 1231 and 1246, following the Mongol conquest of the KhwarazmianEmpire (1221) and the death of the last Khwarazmshah, Jalal al-Din (1231)...
ad-Din Abul-Fath Muhammad Sanjar ibn Tekish) was the Shah of the KhwarazmianEmpire from 1200 to 1220. His ancestor was Anushtegin Gharchai, a Turkic...
retrieved 16 February 2022 Daryaee, Touraj (18 August 2016), "Persian Empire", in McNeill, William H (ed.), Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History,...
Several empires in human history have been contenders for the largest of all time, depending on definition and mode of measurement. Possible ways of measuring...
The Achaemenid Empire (559–330 BCE) was the first of the Persian Empires to rule over significant portions of Greater Iran. The empire possessed a "national...
the Great. The Fratarakas appear to have been Governors of the Seleucid Empire. The Seleucid dynasty gradually lost control of Persia. In 253, the Arsacid...
provocations on the part of Muhammad II, the ruler of the neighbouring KhwarazmianEmpire, the Mongols launched an invasion in 1219. The invaders laid waste...
The Timurid Empire was a late medieval, culturally Persianate Turco-Mongol empire that dominated Greater Iran in the early 15th century, comprising modern-day...
commanded by Shah Jalal al-Din Mingburnu of the KhwarazmianEmpire, and Genghis Khan of the Mongol Empire. The battle, which resulted in an overwhelming...
domes in ancient Mesopotamia was carried forward through a succession of empires in the Greater Iran region. An ancient tradition of royal audience tents...
conquest of the KhwarazmianEmpire. Genghis Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire, had launched a multi-pronged assault on the KhwarazmianEmpire, ruled by Shah...
and his distinguished service during the Mongol invasion of the KhwarazmianEmpire secured his reputation. After the fall of the cities of Transoxiana...
the KhwarazmianEmpire. As the KhwarazmianEmpire disintegrated after the capture of the large cities of Samarkand and Bukhara by the Mongol Empire, Shah...
This is a navigational list of empires. Contents: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z See also References External links List of former...
December 1219 and February 1220 during the Mongol conquest of the KhwarazmianEmpire at Otrar, a large trading city on the Syr Darya river. Inalchuq, the...
invasion of the KhwarazmianEmpire. Genghis Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire, had launched a multi-pronged assault on the KhwarazmianEmpire ruled by Shah...
where it acquired the support of rulers including Delhi Sultanate, KhwarazmianEmpire, Kazakh Sultanate and the local Samanid rulers. Turkic expansion introduced...