In March 1220 the Mongols under Genghis Khan besieged Samarkand, a heavily fortified Khwarazmian city with eight iron gates. After encircling the city and repelling a Khwarazmian sortie that included war elephants, most of the garrison surrendered on 16 March, though a small force held out in the citadel for about a month. Roughly 1,000 defenders escaped, and the remaining garrison of about 3,000 was executed. Medieval sources claimed 2.5 million killed, a figure historians consider exaggerated given the empire's total estimated population of about 3 million.
Facts
LocationSamarkand, Khwarazmian Empire (present-day Uzbekistan). 1 OutcomeDecisive Mongol victory. Most of the city surrendered on 16 March 1220; the citadel held out about a month longer before falling. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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The Mongols destroyed field armies first and starved the remaining cities into surrender, as at Samarkand in 1220.
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