Conflict1219 – 1221

Mongol Invasion of Khwarazm

Also called: Mongol Conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire

After a Mongol caravan and envoys were killed at Otrar, Genghis Khan attacked the Khwarazmian Empire. Bukhara, Samarkand and the other great cities of Central Asia fell.

In 1218 the governor of Otrar, a Khwarazmian frontier town, had a caravan sent by Genghis Khan killed as spies, and then the envoys who came to protest. In 1219 Genghis marched west with a great army, took Otrar, then Bukhara and Samarkand in 1220 and the capital Urgench in 1221. Sultan Muhammad II fled and died on an island in the Caspian; his son Jalal al-Din was beaten on the Indus in 1221 and escaped across the river. Cities that resisted, such as Nishapur and Merv, were almost wholly massacred.

Show on the map

The map in 1219

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

States and rulers at the time: Mongol Empire · conqueror — Genghis Khan
Khwarazmian Empire · conquered
Places: Otrar, Samarkand

People

Genghis Khan1162 – 1227
commander · Founder of the Mongol Empire, born Temüjin, proclaimed Genghis Khan at the kurultai of 1206; he attacked Western Xia, Jin and Khwarazm
Muhammad II of Khwarazm1220
monarch · Khwarazmian sultan whose killing of Mongol envoys provoked the Mongol invasion; he fled and died on an island in the Caspian Sea
Jalal al-Din Mingburnu1231
commander · Last Khwarazmian sultan, defeated by Genghis Khan on the Indus in 1221; he escaped across the river and resisted for a decade
Subutai1175 – 1248
commander · General of Genghis Khan and Ögedei, who with Jebe defeated the Rus at the Kalka and was the operational commander of Batu’s European campaign

Before and after

Earlier: 1055 Seljuk Turks Enter Baghdad
Later: 1370 Founding of the Timurid Empire

Themes that include this event

The Mongol Conquests1206 – 1294
From the rise of Genghis Khan to the Yuan conquest of the Song — eighty years in which the Mongols swept Eurasia from Goryeo to Hungary