Khwarezmian Empire

The Khwarezmian Empire was a Turkic-speaking, Muslim Persian dynasty that rule Central Asia and present-day Iran between the 11th and 13th centuries.

It founder was Anush Tegin Gharchai, a former slave of the Seljuk sultans, who was appointed the governor of Khwarezm in 1077.

This empire picked up many of the pieces left by the demise of the Seljuk Empire, uniting most of Persia under the rule Ala al-Din Muhammad, the man with Turkic ancestry but raised in Persian court culture.

Ala al-Din Muhammad took over the throne of the Khwarezmian Empire in 1200. Ala al-Din Muhammad was the son of a slave who had first gained his freedom and then became viceroy of a small province called Khwarezm, in present day Uzbekistan. He extended Khwarezm’s territories far to the south.

The Khwarezmian Empire reached its highest point in 1212, when Khwarezmshah conquered its former rulers, the Kara Khitai Khaganate.

In 1218, Genghis Khan decides to invade the Khwarezmian Empire. The Mongol force consists of four main armies invading form the northeast under Genghis Kahn and his sons, Juji, Jagatai and Ogodei as well as a small force under Chepe from Kara-Khitai.
Khwarezmian Empire