Perishing of the Khwarazmshah on an island in the Caspian Sea

The Khwarazm-shah Muhammad died alone in 617 AH of pleurisy, having fled from the armies of Genghis Khan, according to al-Suyuti. ¹

al-Suyuti says that Genghis Khan marched against him, and he fled from the Oxus to Nishapur and then to the plain of Hamadhan. The enemy surrounded him, killed those with him, and he escaped by himself to an island. He was shrouded in a linen sheet that he had with him, and the Tatar king took over his kingdom. ¹

He quotes Sibt ibn al-Jawzi that the first appearance of the Tatars beyond the Oxus was in 615 AH. He quotes Ibn al-Athir's description of the Tatar events as among the greatest disasters. ¹

Ibn al-Athir relates that after Samarkand Genghis Khan sent twenty thousand horsemen after him. They crossed the Oxus on wooden troughs covered with cowhide, and drove the horses into the water. The Khwarazm-shah marched to Nishapur and then Mazandaran, with the Tatars behind him, until he reached the fortress of Ab Sakun in the sea of Tabaristan and boarded ships. The Tatars turned back, and he died in that fortress. ²

The Gregorian date is derived from the Hijri date.