City · The Khwarazmshah's realm · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Gurganj

The Khwarazmshah's capital on the left bank of the Amu Darya, which flowed past it to the Aral and was held back from the city by dams.

It took the place of Kath as the chief city of Khwarazm in the eleventh century and is now the greatest market between the Volga and Khurasan, the starting point of the caravans across the Ustyurt to Saqsin and the Bulgars and into the steppe. Tekish has built a great madrasa here with the tomb where he will lie. Khwarazm is famous for its Hanafi scholars of the Mu'tazili school of theology; al-Zamakhshari (died 1144) taught in this tradition.

Yaqut, here in 1219, thought it the largest and richest city he had seen.

Who holds it

Name
Ala al-Din Tekish (in person when at home)
Title
capital of the Khwarazmshah
Since
not pinned
Born
not applicable
Family
not applicable
Confidence
high

See sources.

Lord in 1200

The Khwarazmshah Tekish directly; who kept the city for him while he was in the west in the winter of 1199-1200 is not pinned.

Overlord

The Khwarazmshah Tekish

How things stand that morning

The capital, quiet; the shah away on campaign until 28 March 1200; the captive Qipchaq khan Qadir Buqu and his chiefs held here since 1198 (release not pinned).

Council

The shah's court and diwan sit here. No ra'is or qadi of this town is named for 1200 in the sources checked. The Hanafis are the great majority, with a Mu'tazili tradition among the scholars; Shafi'is are few.

Communities

Khwarazmians speaking their own Iranian language; Persians; Turkish soldiers and their families, many of them Kangli and Qipchaq of the queen's people; merchants from Khurasan, Transoxiana and the Volga.

Fairs and markets

Daily bazaars; caravans to the Volga and the steppe leave in the cool season (no named fair known)

Walls and castle

Walled city with a citadel and the shah's palace; dams and dykes against the river.

Trade and crafts

The Volga and steppe trade (furs of sable, squirrel, ermine and fox, wax, honey, hides, slaves); Khwarazmian cotton and silk cloth, brocade, carpets, bows and arrows, locks, dried melons and raisins; boats on the Amu Darya.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 3 August 1200 (20 Shawwal 596)Muhammad enthroned here; Tekish buried in his madrasa.Depends on: Tekish's death on 3 July Stopped by: only a change in his health

Places of note

  • Tekish's madrasa and tomb: Built in his lifetime; his tomb from 1200.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The city's standing is well attested; its officials and quarters in 1200 are not.

On the map: The town's near land only; its wider district is drawn in the realm and governor records.

Primary sources for Khwarazm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • The Chronography of Bar Hebraeus, Gregory Bar Hebraeus (Abu'l-Faraj) (about 1275 to 1286). A later compilation that for 1200 relies on Michael the Syrian and Ibn al-Athir, but adds the Jacobite church's own memory of the Jazira, Mosul, Melitene and the Artuqid and Zangid courts, and carries Michael's story past 1195: the Seljuk brothers' war in Rum, the Khwarazmian and Ghurid wars in the east, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah, and the caliph al-Nasir. Read online
  • The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
  • Comfort of Hearts and Sign of Joy: a History of the Seljuks, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rawandi (Ravandi) (1203 to 1204, dedicated to Kaykhusraw I of Rum). A history of the Great Seljuks from their origins to the death of the last sultan Toghril III in 1194, begun at Hamadan and finished for Kaykhusraw of Rum when the author moved to Anatolia. Read online
  • History of Tabaristan, Ibn Isfandiyar (Baha al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan) (begun 1206, extended about 1216; continued anonymously to 1349). The local history of the Caspian province and the only account of the Bavandid kings of Tabaristan: Husam al-Dawla Ardashir (reigned 1173 to 1206) at Sari and Amul, his dealings with the Khwarazmshahs Tekish and Ala al-Din Muhammad, the Nizaris of Alamut, the Eldiguzids and the caliph, and the marriages, feuds and raids of the Daylamite and Gilaki lords. Read online
  • The History of the World Conqueror, Ata-Malik Juvayni (1252 to 1260). Written for the Mongols but with a long retrospective on the powers they destroyed. Read online
  • The Life of Sultan Jalal al-Din Mankubirti, Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi (about 1241, at Aleppo). A Khwarazmian secretary's life of the last Khwarazmshah. Read online
  • The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. Read online
  • Compendium of Chronicles, Rashid al-Din Fadl Allah Hamadani (1300 to 1311, at Tabriz). The official Ilkhanid history, compiled from Mongol oral tradition and the lost Altan Debter. Read online

3 more in the sources library for Persia and the Eastern Islamic World.

Sources and studies

  1. Juvaini, The History of the World-Conqueror, tr. J. A. Boyle, vol. I (1958), Part II, the chapters on Tekish and Muhammad (scan pp. 342-362, read through archive.org search-inside in the copies dli.ernet.507519 and dli.ernet.528458)
  2. Encyclopaedia Iranica: Khwarazmshahs i. Descendants of the line of Anushtigin (C. E. Bosworth)
  3. G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (1905): towns, districts and roads, used from the researcher's knowledge of the text, not re-read for this file

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.