A walled town and fortress among the orchards at the foot of the Kopet Dag, chief of the Atak, the strip of foothill oases between the mountains and the Kara Kum.
It guards the road from Khwarazm across the desert to Khurasan; Tekish's last journey will end near Shahristana, by Nasa. The Turkmen of the desert winter at its edge.
Who holds it
- Title
- Khwarazmian town
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not applicable
- Family
- not applicable
- Confidence
- low
See sources.
Lord in 1200
Not pinned. Nasawi, from the castle of Khurandiz in its district, writes of hereditary local lords of Nasa in his own day (the 1210s-1220s); who held it for Tekish on 1 January 1200 is not established here.
Overlord
The Khwarazmshah Tekish
How things stand that morning
Khwarazmian.
Council
No ra'is or qadi of this town is named for 1200 in the sources checked.
Communities
Persians; Turkmen at the desert edge.
Fairs and markets
not known by name; daily bazaars
Walls and castle
Walled town; castles in its district, among them Khurandiz.
Trade and crafts
Orchards and grain watered by mountain streams; the halt on the Khwarazm-Khurasan road.
Where the sources disagree
- The local lords of Nasa named by Nasawi belong to the next generation; not projected back.
Evidence: The town is well known in general; its lords 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
- Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, year 596: the death of Tekish at Shahristana, via al-Durar al-Saniyya
- TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi: Tekis, Alaeddin
- 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.