Killing of Sultan Tughril III, last Seljuk sultan in Iraq

قتل السلطان طغرل الثالث آخر سلاطين السلاجقة بالعراق

c. March 1194 CE · 24 Rabi' I 590 AH

In the year 590 Sultan Tughril ibn Arslan ibn Tughril al-Saljuqi marched on the city of Rayy and raided those there who belonged to Khwarazm-Shah Ala al-Din Tekish. Khwarazm-Shah set out from Nishapur for Rayy, and Qutlugh Inanj ibn al-Bahlawan met him in submission. When Tughril heard of his approach, with his troops scattered, he did not wait to gather them. He was told that what he was doing was not sound judgement and that the right course was to assemble the armies, but he would not accept this, for he had courage. The two armies met near Rayy, and Tughril charged in person into the middle of Khwarazm-Shah's army; they surrounded him, threw him from his horse, and killed him on the 24th of Rabi' I. His head was sent to Khwarazm-Shah, who had it forwarded to Baghdad, where it was displayed for several days at Bab al-Nawbi. Khwarazm-Shah marched on Hamadhan and took all those lands. The caliph al-Nasir li-Din Allah had sent an army to his aid, with the sultanic robes, under his vizier Muayyad al-Din ibn al-Qassab. The vizier sent a messenger to summon Khwarazm-Shah to his tent in order to seize him, but Khwarazm-Shah was wary and went to him intending to seize him instead, and the vizier fled into the mountain fastnesses ¹.