Khwarezmid Empire

Politics and institutions

The Khwarezmid Empire was ruled by the Anushteginid dynasty, a family of Turkic mamluks who served the Seljuks as governors of Khwarazm, the oasis delta of the Oxus. Anush Tigin received the province around 1077, and his descendants gradually made it hereditary and independent as Seljuk power declined. Atsiz and Il-Arslan balanced between the Seljuks and the Qara Khitai, while Tekish defeated the last Seljuk sultan in 1194 and claimed authority over Iran. His son Ala al-Din Muhammad II brought the empire to its greatest extent, but real power was shared with his mother Turkan Khatun, whose separate court and treasury weakened the state. The Mongol invasion of 1219–1221 destroyed the empire, and the last shah, Jalal al-Din, was murdered in 1231.

Economy and finance

Khwarazm's wealth came from agriculture in the Oxus delta, from the Silk Road caravans and from the great cities of Transoxiana and Khorasan. Gurganj, the capital, was famous for its artisans, silk workshops and ivory and ebony carving, and Samarkand, Bukhara and Merv were among the richest cities of the Islamic world. The shahs taxed land, trade and crafts, and their revenue supported a large cavalry army and an elaborate court. The empire's position between China, the steppe, Iran and the Middle East made it a hub of commerce, but the Mongol conquest destroyed its cities, irrigation systems and merchant networks, and the region took generations to recover.

Society and culture

Khwarezmid society was Turco-Persian. The ruling family and most of the army were Turkic, while the bureaucracy, literature and urban culture were Persian; Persian was the official language of administration, history and poetry, and Arabic remained the language of science and religion. The population was mainly Sunni Muslim, with Zoroastrians, Christians and Jews in the cities, and the empire's cities were centres of Islamic scholarship, Sufism and the arts. Mina'i ceramics, metalwork and manuscript painting flourished in Khorasan and Transoxiana, and the Khwarazmshahs patronized mosques, madrasas and libraries. The Mongol conquest destroyed much of this urban culture, but its Persian administrative and literary traditions survived in the successor states.

Military and frontiers

The Khwarezmid army was a large but poorly integrated cavalry force, mainly Turkic Kipchaks and Qangli with Turkmen and other auxiliaries. The shah's mother and the Qipchak commanders controlled separate contingents, and the army lacked the discipline and unity to face the Mongols. Muhammad II dispersed his forces among the cities rather than concentrating them, and the Mongols defeated them one by one. Jalal al-Din, however, won a notable victory at Parwan in 1221 and later fought the Mongols, Georgians, Ayyubids and Seljuks of Rum with a smaller mobile army. His Khwarazmian mercenaries continued to fight in the Middle East after his death, even capturing Jerusalem in 1244.

Foreign relations

Khwarezmid foreign policy was dominated by the Qara Khitai, the Seljuks, the Abbasid caliph and the Mongols. The shahs paid tribute to the Qara Khitai and then broke free, fought the Seljuks for Iran and the caliph for control of Baghdad, and competed with the Ghurids in Afghanistan. Muhammad II sought to present himself as a new Alexander and challenged the caliph's authority, but his diplomatic blunders with Genghis Khan proved fatal. The execution of Mongol merchants and envoys gave the Mongols a pretext for invasion, and the Khwarazmshahs found no ally willing or able to save them. The empire's collapse opened Iran and Central Asia to Mongol rule.

Legacy and influence

The Khwarezmid Empire is remembered chiefly for its destruction. Its cities were among the most prosperous of the Islamic world, and their sack by the Mongols marked a turning point in the history of Iran and Central Asia. The dynasty's Persian bureaucracy, tax registers and artistic traditions were partly inherited by the Mongol Ilkhanate, which learned to govern Iran through Khwarazmian officials. Jalal al-Din became a symbol of resistance against the Mongols, and the Khwarazmiyya mercenaries left traces from Iraq to Egypt and Syria. The empire's brief existence also showed how quickly a Turkic military elite could rise and fall in the fragmented world of the thirteenth-century Middle East.