The khwarezmians in medieval arabic and persian manuscripts

Abstract

The article examines the historical role of the Khwarezm people in the socio-political life of the Middle East countries of the 1330s and 1360s based on the Medieval Arabic and Persian manuscripts. It is known, the brave Jalal al-Din Mingburnu, the last Shah of the Khwarezmian dynasty, had already gathered a ten-thousand-strong army of the Khwarezmians outside of Khwarezm, and he was repeatedly engaged in the battle with the Mongols and won their invasion further to West into the Arab world. But he died in 1231, and his army roamed all over the Middle East, serving either the Seljuq empire sultans, or the Ayyubid princes in Syria (Sham) who entered into an internecine struggle for thecentral power in Syria and Egypt. The Khwarezmians helped the Ayyubids defeat the crusaders, liberate the Holy Muslim city of al-Quds and several fortress cities from them, and later they inflict a crushing overthrow the Mongols who entered the Arab lands. These important events are reflected in detail in the historical chronicles by al-Maqrizi, Ibn Iyas, al-Khanbali, as-Suyuti, Ibn Taghriberdi, al-Khamadani and many other historians of the Mamluk period of the 13–15th centuries, associated with the arrival of the Mamluk Turks in Egypt and Syria. These works repeatedly emphasize the crucial role of the Khwarezmians in the historical arena of the Middle East in the 1330-60th, when they were considered to be a formidable military force in the fateful battles for the peoples of this region. The authors of the Chronicles also pay great attention to certain historical figures, which they concede to be of Khwarezm origin, such as the Egyptian Sultana Shajarat ad-Dur and the Mamluk Sultan Sayf ad-din Qutuz. Qutuz, along with his emirs, including the Khwarezmians, won a crushing victory over the Mongols in the town of Ayn Jalut in 1260, and stopped their victorious march through the Arab world. The chronicles unanimously state that Qutuz's real name is Mahmood Ibn Mamdood and he comes from the Khwarezmshah dynasty, as he is the son of Jalal