The Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire (1219 to 1221) was Genghis Khan's destruction of the Khwarazmian Empire under Shah Muhammad II, prompted by the massacre of a Mongol trade and diplomatic caravan at Otrar. Mongol armies took Otrar, Bukhara and Samarkand in swift succession, using a celebrated crossing of the Kyzyl Kum desert to reach Bukhara by surprise, and the shah's son Jalal al-Din Mangburni continued resistance after his father's death. Medieval chroniclers' city-by-city death tolls are regarded by modern historians as exaggerated by orders of magnitude, though the conquest was undeniably devastating.
Facts
CombatantsMongol Empire under Genghis Khan against the Khwarazmian Empire under Muhammad II and later his son Jalal al-Din Mangburni. 1 OutcomeDecisive Mongol victory. The Khwarazmian Empire was conquered and annexed. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Battles and Campaigns
Commanders and Forces
Led By
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire
Wikipediabody text, Bukhara campaignQuote, body text, Bukhara campaign
traversed 300 miles of the seemingly impassable Kyzyl Kum desert by hopping through the various oases
1. Wikipedia: Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire
WikipediainfoboxQuote, infobox
Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan...vs. Khwarazmian Empire under Muhammad II
1. Wikipedia: Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire
Wikipediainfobox, Result fieldQuote, infobox, Result field
decisive Mongol victory
1. Wikipedia: Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire
Wikipediaopening paragraph, alternate title phrasingQuote, opening paragraph, alternate title phrasing
Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire
Wikipedia: Siege of Samarkand (1220)
WikipediaBattles and Campaigns: Siege of Samarkand (1220), infoboxQuote, Battles and Campaigns: Siege of Samarkand (1220), infobox
Samarkand, Khwarazmian Empire
Open Questions (1 open question)
Why do medieval death-toll figures for the Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire differ so drastically from what modern historians consider plausible?
Medieval chroniclers gave city-by-city death tolls historians regard as impossible given known population sizes: Ibn al-Athir claimed 700,000 killed at Merv while Juvayni recorded 1,300,000; Juvayni separately reported 1,747,000 for Nishapur and a claim of 1.2 million for Gurganj that is treated as almost certainly an exaggeration. Modern historians hold that affected cities could only have supported a fraction of these reported populations.
What would resolve this A reassessment of thirteenth-century Central Asian urban populations against archaeological and administrative evidence, and a critical study of the medieval chroniclers' own methods and motives for such figures.
Historical demographyWikipedia: Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire
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