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Mongol invasion of Central Asia

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

   Invasion of Khwarezmia
   Part of the Mongol invasions
   Khwarezmid Empire (1190-1220)

      Date    1218 - 1221
    Location  Central Asia
     Result   Complete Mongol victory
   Territorial
   changes    Khwarezmia added to the Mongol Empire
   Combatants
   Mongol Empire Khwarezmia
   Commanders
   Genghis Khan,
   Jochi,
   Chaghatai,
   Ogodei,
   Tolui,
   Subutai,
   Jebe,
   Jelme,
   Mukali,
   Khubilai,
   Kasar,
   Boorchu,
   Sorkin-shara Ala ad-Din Muhammad,
   Jalal Al-Din, Inaltjuk (executed)
   Strength
   100,000 - 150,000 mounted archers, with powerful siege engines -400,000
   men, however not organized into armies, only city garrisons and very
   low draft rate left the majority unmobilized
   Casualties
   Unknown, but significally low (probably -100,000) At least 150,000
   killed, with another 2,5-4 million civilians
   Mongol invasion of Central Asia
   Parwan – Indus
   The Mongol Invasions
   Central Asia – Georgia and Armenia – Kalka River – Volga Bulgaria –
   Ryazan – Vladimir-Suzdal – Sit River – Köse Dag – Legnica – Mohi –
   Baghdad – Ain Jalut – Korea – Japan – Xiangyang – Bun'ei – Ngasaunggyan
   – Yamen – Kōan – Pagan – Syria – Kulikovo – Vorskla – Ugra River

   The Mongol invasion of Khwarezmia lasted from 1219 to 1221. It marked
   the beginning of the Mongol Conquest of the Islamic States, and it also
   expanded the Mongol invasions, which would ultimately culminate in
   conquest of virtually the entire known world save western Europe,
   Scandinavia, Arabia, north Africa, part of southeast Asia, and Japan.

   Ironically, it was not originally the intention of the Mongol Khanate
   to invade the Khwarezmid Empire. Indeed, Genghis Khan had originally
   sent the ruler of the Khwarezmid Empire, Ala ad-Din Muhammad , a
   message greeting him as his equal: "you rule the rising sun and I the
   setting sun." The Mongols original unification of all "people in felt
   tents" unifying the nomadic tribes in Mongolia, and then Turcomens and
   other nomadic peoples, had come with relatively little bloodshed, and
   almost no material loss. Even his invasions of China, to that point,
   had involved no more bloodshed that nomadic invasions such as the Huns
   had previously mounted, had caused.

   It would be the invasion and utter destruction and complete devastation
   of the Khwarezmid Empire which would earn - and rightly so - the
   Mongols the name for bloodthirsty ferocity that would mark all the
   remainder of their campaigns. In this brief less than two year war, not
   only was a huge empire destroyed utterly, but Genghis Khan introduced
   the world to tactics that would not be seen again until the Germans
   used them so well in World War II - indirect attack, and complete and
   utter terror and slaughter of populations wholesale as weapons of war.

Origins of the Conflict

   After the defeat of the Kara-Khitais, Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire had
   a border with the Khwarezmid Empire, governed by Shah Ala ad-Din
   Muhammad. The Shah had only recently taken some of the territory under
   his control, and he was also busy with a dispute with the caliph in
   Baghdad. The Shah had refused to make the obligatory homage to the
   Caliph as Titular Leader of Islam, and demanded recognition as Sultan
   of his Empire, without any of the usual bribes, or pretend homage. This
   alone had created him problems along his southern border. It was at
   this junction the Mongol Empire, expanding incredibly, made contact. It
   is possible that Genghis Khan's long term goal was to take advantage of
   the internal instability of the Shah's empire. However, in the short
   term, it is clear that Genghis Khan saw the potential advantage in
   Khwarezmia as a commercial partner and started a correspondence with
   the shah in 1218 in order to establish trade between their empires.
   Mongol history is adamant that the Great Khan at that time had no
   intention of invading the Khwarezmid Empire, and was only interested in
   trade and even a potential alliance. (It must be noted that Genghis
   Khan eventually abrogated every allegiance he ever made, but in the
   short term, he probably did not intend to invade the Khwarezmid Empire
   when he did)

   The shah was very suspicious of Genghis' want for a trade agreement and
   messages from the shah's ambassador at Zhongdu in China describing the
   exaggerated savagery of the Mongols when they assaulted the city during
   their war with the Jin Dynasty . Of further interest is that the caliph
   of Baghdad, An-Nasir, had attempted to instigate a war between the
   Mongols and the Shah some years before the Mongol invasion actually
   occurred. This attempt at an alliance with Genghis was done because of
   a dispute between Nasir in the Shah. But the Khan had no interest in
   alliance with any ruler who claimed ultimate authority, titular or not,
   and which marked the Caliphate for an extincation which would come by
   Genghis's Grandson, Hulegu Khan. At the time, this attempt by the
   Caliph involved the Shah's ongoing dispute with wanting to be named
   sultan of Khwarezm, something that Nasir had no wish to do, as the Shah
   refused to acknowledge his authority, however illusory such authority
   was. However, it is known that Genghis rejected the notion of war as he
   was engaged in war with the Jin Dynasty and was gaining much wealth
   from trading with the Khwarezmid Empire.

   Genghis then sent a 500-man caravan, comprised of Muslims to officially
   establish trade ties with Khwarezmia. However Inalchuq, the governor of
   the Khwarezmian city of Otrar, had the members of the caravan that came
   from Mongolia arrested, claiming that the caravan was a conspiracy
   against Khwarezmia. It seems unlikely, however, that any members of the
   trade delegation were spies. Nor does it seem likely that Genghis was
   trying to provoke a conflict with the Khwarezmid Empire, considering he
   was still dealing with the Jin in northeastern China.

   Genghis Khan then sent a second group of three ambassadors (one Muslim
   and two Mongols) to meet the shah himself and demand the caravan at
   Otrar be set free and the governor be handed over for punishment. The
   shah had both of the Mongols shaved and had the Muslim beheaded before
   sending them back to Genghis Khan. Muhammad also ordered the caravan to
   be executed. This was seen as a grave affront to Khan himself, who
   considered ambassadors "as sacred and inviolable." This led Genghis
   Khan to attack the Khwarezmian Dynasty. The Mongols crossed the Tien
   Shan mountains, coming into the Shah's empire in 1219.

Initial Invasion of Khwarezmia

   After compiling information from many intelligence sources, primarily
   from spies along the Silk Road, Genghis Khan carefully prepared his
   army, which was organized differently from Genghis' earlier campaigns.
   (see " Mongol military tactics and organization" for overall coverage).
   The changes had come in adding supporting units to his dreaded cavalry,
   both heavy and light. While still relying on the traditional advantages
   of his mobile nomadic cavalry, Genghis incorporated many aspects of
   warfare from China, particularly in siege warfare. His baggage train
   included such siege equipment as battering rams, gunpowder, trebuchets,
   and enormous siege bows capable of throwing 20-feet arrows into siege
   works. Also, the Mongol intelligence network was formidable. The
   Mongols never invaded an opponent whose military, and economic will and
   ability to resist had not been thoroughly and completely scouted. (for
   instance, Subutai and Batu Khan spent a year scouting central Europe,
   before destroying the armies of Hungary and Poland in two separate
   battles, two days apart) .

   The size of Genghis' army is often in dispute, ranging from a small
   army of 90,000 soldiers to a larger estimate of 250,000 soldiers, and
   Genghis brought along his most able generals to aide him, the dreaded "
   dogs of war". Genghis also brought a large body of foreigners with him,
   primarily of Chinese origin. These foreigners were siege experts,
   bridge-building experts, doctors and a variety of speciality soldiers.
   A minaret in Samarkand.
   Enlarge
   A minaret in Samarkand.

   But it is vital to note at this juncture that it was in this invasion
   that the Khan first demonstrated the concept of indirect attack, that
   would so mark his career, and even that of his sons and grandsons. The
   Khan divided his armies, and literally sent one force solely to find
   and execute the Shah - so that a ruler of an Empire as large as the
   Mongols, with an army which was larger, was literally forced to run for
   his life in his own country, as various Mongol armies decimated his
   forces piecemeal, and began the utter devastation of the country which
   would so terribly mark their other conquests in history.

   The Shah's army, numbered roughly 400,000, was split among the various
   major cities. This was done because of two reasons. Firstly, the Shah
   was fearful of his army being in one large unit. He did not want the
   army to be under a single command structure, one that could possible be
   turned against him. Secondly, the Shah's reports from China seemed to
   indicate that the Mongol's were not experts in siege warfare and
   experienced problems attempting to take fortified positions. This
   proved to be a disastrous decision on the Shah's part as the campaign
   unfolded.

   Tired and exhausted from the journey, the Mongols still won their first
   victories against the Khwarezmia army. A Mongol army, under Jochi, with
   25,000 to 30,000 men, attacked the Shah's army in southern Kwarezmia
   and prevented the much larger Shah army from forcing them into the
   mountains. The primary Mongol army, headed personally by Khan, quickly
   sieged the town of Otrar, reaching the city in the fall of 1219. For
   five months Genghis sieged the city before he managed to storm the main
   part of the city, by entering a sally port gate that was not secured.

   Another month went by before the citadel at Otrar was taken. Inalchuq
   held out until the end, even climbing to the top of the citadel in the
   last moments of the siege, throwing down tiles at the oncoming Mongols.
   Genghis killed many of the inhabitants, enslaving the rest, and
   executed Inalchuq by pouring molten silver into his ears and eyes, as
   retribution for the death of Genghis' caravan.
   Ruins of Muhammad's palace in Urgench.
   Enlarge
   Ruins of Muhammad's palace in Urgench.

Sieges of Bukhara, Samarkand, and Urgench

   Genghis had sent one of his generals, Jebe, far to the south, at the
   head of a small army, intending to cut off any retreat by the Shah to
   the southern half of his kingdom. Further, Genghis and Tolui, at the
   head of an army of roughly 50,000 men, skirted past Samarkand and went
   westwards, intending to siege the western city of Bukhara first.
   Bukhara was not heavily fortified, with a moat and a single wall, plus
   the typical citadel that every Khwarezmi town had. The garrison at
   Bukhara was made up of Turkish soldiers and led by Turkish generals.
   They attempted to break out on the third day of the siege, but the
   break out force, comprised of as many as 20,000 men, were annihilated
   in open battle. The city leaders opened the gates to Bukhara, though a
   unit of Turkish defenders held the city's citadel for another twelve
   days. Survivors from the citadel were executed, artisans and craftsmen
   were sent back to Mongolia, young men who had not fought were drafted
   into the Mongolian army and the rest of the population was sent into
   slavery. This was to be Genghis' typical treatment of captured cities
   throughout the rest of the campaign. As the Mongol soldiers looted the
   city, a fire broke out, razing the majority of the city to the ground.

   After the fall of Bukhara, Genghis headed west, towards the Khwarezmi
   capital of Samarkand and arrived at the city in March 1220. Samarkand
   was significantly more fortified and there were as many as 100,000 men
   defending the city. As Genghis began seiging the city, his sons
   Chaghatai and Ogodei joined him after finishing off the reduction of
   Otrar and the joint Mongol forces launched an assault on the city.
   Using prisoners as body shields, the Mongols attacked. On the third day
   of fighting, the Samarkand garrison launched a counterattack. Feigning
   retreat, Genghis reportedly drew out a garrison force of 50,000 outside
   the fortifications of Samarkand and slaughtered them in open combat.
   Muhammad attempted to relieve the city twice, but was driven back. On
   the fifth day, all but an approximate 2,000 soldiers surrendered. The
   remaining soldiers, diehard supporters of the Shah, held out in the
   citadel. After the fortress fell, Genghis reneged on his surrender
   terms and executed every soldier that had taken arms against him at
   Samarkand.

   Around the fall of Samarkand, Genghis Khan charged Subutai and Jebe,
   two of the Khan's top generals, with hunting down the Shah, who had
   fled westwards to escape the Mongols. The Shah fled with some of his
   diehard soldiers and his son, Jalal Al-Din, towards the shores of the
   Caspian Sea, where he was taken to a small island out in the sea. It
   was there that the Shah died. Most scholars attribute his death to
   pneumonia, but others cite the sudden shock of the loss of his empire
   and his power. This was in December 1220. Meanwhile, the wealthy
   trading city of Urgench was still in the hands of Khwarezima forces.
   Previously, the Shah's mother had ruled there, but she fled and was
   captured when she learned her son had fled to the Caspian Sea. She was
   imprisoned and sent back to Mongolia. One of Muhammad's generals, a man
   by the name of Khumar Tegin, had declared himself Sultan of Urgench.
   Jochi, who had been on campaign in the north since the invasion,
   approached the city from that direction, whereas Genghish, Ogodei, and
   Chaghatai attacked Urgench from the south.

   The siege and assault on Urgench proved to be the hardest battle in the
   entire course of the invasion. The city was built along the river Amu
   Darya in a marshy delta area. The soft ground did not lend itself to
   siege warfare, and there was a lack of large stones for the catapults.
   The Mongols assaulted regardless, and after the defenders put up a
   stout defense, fighting block for block, the city fell. Mongolian
   casualties were higher than normal, due to the difficult city fighting
   that did not lend well to Mongolian tactics. The taking of Urgench was
   further complicated by Genghis' eldest son, Jochi, who had been
   promised the city as his prize. It must be noted that there had always
   been tension between Jochi and his father. It was this battle, that
   brought that tension to a point it would mean permanent estrangement
   between the two. Jochi's mother was the same as his three brothers,
   Genghis's "official" sons. Genghis Khan's teen bride, and apparent
   lifelong love, was Borte - only her sons would command as sons of the
   Khan, not the bastards conceived by the Khan's 500 or so other "wives
   and consorts." But Jochi had been conceived in controversy. Borte was
   captured in the early days of the Khan's rise, and held prisoner while
   she was raped. Jochi was born nine months later, and while Genghis Khan
   chose to acknowledge him as his oldest son, (primarily due to his love
   for Borte, whom he would have had to reject if he rejected her child)
   tension always existed over Jochi's true parentage. Ultimately, the
   single quarrel would destroy the unity of the Mongol Empire. But the
   tension was present as Jochi engaged in negotiations with the
   defenders, trying to get them to surrender so that as little of the
   city as possible was undamaged. This angered Chaghatai, and Genghis
   headed off this sibling fight by appointing Ogodei the commander of the
   seiging forces and Urgench fell. But the removal of Jochi from command,
   and the sack of a city he considered promised his, enraged him,
   estranged him from his brothers, and is credited with being essentially
   the final straw for a man who saw his younger brothers being promoted
   over him, despite his own considerable military skills. As usual, the
   artisans were sent back to Mongolia, the young women and children were
   given to the Mongol soldiers as slaves, and the rest of the population
   was massacred. The Persian scholar Juvayni states that 50,000 Mongol
   soldiers were given the task of executing twenty-four Urgench citizens
   each, which would mean that 1.2 million people were killed. While this
   is almost certainly exaggeration, Juvayni's numbers highlight the fear
   effects that the Mongol tactics created.

The Khurasan Campaign

   As the Mongols battered their way into Urgench, Genghis dispatched his
   youngest son Tolui, at the head of an army, into the western Khwarezmid
   province of Khurasan. Khurasan had already felt the strength of Mongol
   arms. Earlier in the war, the generals Jebe and Subatai had travelled
   through the province while hunting down the fleeing Shah. However, the
   region was far from subjugated, many major cities remained free of
   Mongol rule, and the region was rife with rebellion against the few
   Mongol forces present in the region after the rumors of Jalal Al-Din
   gathering an army to fight against the Mongols. Tolui's army consisted
   of somewhere around 50,000 men, which was comprised of a core of Mongol
   soldiers (some estimates place it at 7,000), supplemented by a large
   body of foreign soldiers, such as Turks and previously conquered
   peoples in China and Mongolia. The army also included "3,000 machines
   flinging heavy incendiary arrows, 300 catapults, 700 mongonels to
   discharge pots filled with naphtha, 4,000 storming-ladders, and 2,500
   sacks of earth for filling up moats." The major city to fall to Tolui's
   army was the city of Merv. Juvayni wrote of Merv: "In extent of
   territory it excelled among the lands of Khurasan, and the bird of
   peace and security flew over its confines. The number of its chief men
   rivaled the drops of April rain, and its earth contended with the
   heavens."

   The garrison at Merv was only about 12,000 men, and the city was
   inundated with refugees from eastern Khwarezmid. For six days, Tolui
   sieged the city, and on the seventh day, he assaulted the city.
   However, the garrison beat back the assault and launched their own
   counter-attack against the Mongols. The garrison force was similarly
   forced back into the city. The next day, the city's governor
   surrendered the city on Tolui's promise that the lives of the citizens
   would be spared. As soon as the city was handed over, however, Tolui
   reneged on his promise and slaughtered almost every person who
   surrendered. After finishing off Merv, Tolui headed westwards,
   attacking the cities of Nishapur and Herat. Nishapur fell after only
   three days and Tolui put every living thing in city, including the cats
   and dogs, to the sword. After Nishapur's fall, Herat surrendered
   without a fight. By spring 1221, the province of Khurasan was under
   complete Mongol rule. Leaving garrison forces behind him, Tolui headed
   back east to rejoin his father.

The Final Campaign and Aftermath

   After the Mongol campaign in Khurasan, the majority of the Shah's army
   was broken. Jalal Al-Din, who took power after his father's death,
   began assembling the remnants of the Khwarezmid army in the south, in
   the area of Afghanistan. Genghis had dispatched forces to hunt down the
   gathering army under Jalal Al-Din, and the two sides met in the spring
   of 1221 at the town of Parwan. The engagement was a humiliating defeat
   for the Mongol forces. Enraged, Genghis headed south himself, and
   defeated Jalal Al-Din on the Indus River. Jalal Al-Din, defeated, fled
   to India. Genghis spent some time on the southern shore of the Indus
   searching for the new Shah, but failed to find him. Khan returned
   northwards, content to leave the Shah in India.

   After the remaining centers of resistance were destroyed, Genghis
   returned to Mongolia, leaving Mongolian garrison troops behind. The
   destruction and absorption of the Khwarezmid Empire would prove to be a
   sign of things to come for the Islamic world, as well as Eastern
   Europe. The new territory proved to be an important stepping stone for
   Mongol armies under the reign of Genghis' son Ögedei to invade Russia
   and Poland, and future campaigns brought Mongol arms to Austria, the
   Baltic Sea and Germany. For the Islamic world, the destruction of
   Khwarezmid left Iraq, Turkey and Syria wide open. All three were
   eventually subjugated by future Khans.

   The war with Khwarezmid also brought up the important question of
   succession. Genghis was not young when the war began, and he had four
   sons, all of whom were fierce warriors and each with their own loyal
   followers. Such sibling rivalry almost came to a head during the siege
   of Urgench, and Genghis was forced to rely on his third son, Ögedei, to
   finish the battle. Following the destruction of Urgench, Genghis
   officially selected Ögedei to be successor, as well as establishing
   that future Khans would come from direct descendants of previous
   rulers. Despite this establishment, the four sons would eventually come
   to blows, and those blows showed the instability of the Khanate that
   Genghis had created.

   Jochi never forgave his father, and essentially withdrew from further
   Mongol wars, into the north, where he refused to come to his father . -
   indeed, at the time of his death, the Khan was contemplating a march on
   his rebellious son. While Jochi acknowledged officially the rule of
   Ögedei, he never accepted it literally, and that bitterness,
   transmitted to his sons, and especially grandsons, Batu and Berke Khan,
   (of the Golden Horde) who would conquer Kiev Rus, and the Russian
   States, brought open warfare to the empire, and it's fall. When the
   Mamluks of Egypt managed to inflict one of history's more significant
   defeats on the Mongols at Ain Jalut in 1260, Hulegu Khan, one of
   Genghis Khan's grandsons by his son Tolui, who had sacked Bagdad in
   1258, was unable to avenge that defeat when Berke Khan, his cousin,
   (who had converted to Islam) attacked him in the Transcaucus to aid the
   cause of Islam, and Mongol battled Mongol for the first time. The seeds
   of that battle began in the war with Khwarezmid when their fathers
   struggled for supremacy.
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