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

Merv

The capital of the Seljuk sultan Sanjar, with his great domed tomb (about 1157) inside the walled Seljuk city.

Sacked by the Ghuzz in 1153 but still a large and learned town: Yaqut worked in its libraries in 1216-1218. The whole oasis lives from the great dam on the Murghab, kept by a large corps of workmen under the water master (mir-ab). It belonged to Sultan Shah, Tekish's brother, until his death in 1193. Merv is a metropolitan see of the Church of the East.

Who holds it

Name
governor not pinned
Title
Khwarazmian town
Since
not pinned
Born
not applicable
Family
not applicable
Confidence
low

See sources.

Lord in 1200

Not pinned. A Khwarazmian governor under the heir's general charge. Malikshah held it briefly in 1193-94; Wikipedia calls Hindu Khan wali of Merv at Tekish's death, but Juvaini has him sent to Khwarazm in 1197; in 1201 the amir Jaqir (Chaqir) held it for Muhammad.

Overlord

The Khwarazmshah Tekish

How things stand that morning

Khwarazmian on 1 January 1200; the nearest Ghurid ground lies up the Murghab at Panjdih and Marw al-Rud.

Council

No ra'is or qadi of this town is named for 1200 in the sources checked. The water master who runs the Murghab dam is one of the town's great officers (not named for 1200).

Communities

Persians; Turks; Shafi'is and Hanafis; Christians of the Church of the East under their metropolitan; Jews; merchants of the Transoxiana and India roads.

Fairs and markets

not known by name; daily bazaars

Walls and castle

The walled Seljuk city (Sultan Kala) with its citadel (Shahriyar Ark) beside the older Gyaur Kala.

Trade and crafts

Cotton and silk cloth of Merv; melons; the roads to Bukhara (by Amul), Herat, Balkh, Nishapur and Khwarazm.

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. autumn 1200Hindu Khan raises men here and is driven out by the amir Jaqir.Depends on: Tekish's death Stopped by: an agreed succession
  2. late 1200 or early 1201Besieged by the Ghurid governor of Talaqan, Muhammad Kharnak, and the two sultans with elephants; Jaqir surrenders; Kharnak is made governor.Depends on: the Ghurid invasion Stopped by: a relieving army

Where the sources disagree

  • Merv's governor on 1 January 1200 is not pinned; see lord_1200.

Evidence: The town is well known; its governor that winter is 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. Wikipedia: Muhammad II of Khwarazm (after Buniyatov, Ibn al-Athir, Juvaini)
  3. Wikipedia: Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad
  4. 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.