Islam Museum Islam Museum islam.museum
Search ⌕ ARENUR
Accessibility
Text size 100%

Saved on this device only — nothing is sent anywhere.

Khwarazmshah's betrayal of the Tatar merchants and the killing of envoys

غدر خوارزمشاه بتجار التتار وقتل الرسل

c. 1218 CE · c. 615 AH

Genghis Khan sent envoys and gifts — 'I hold your peace a duty and you as a dearest son; let traders pass for both our goods'. Khwarazmshah's uncle at Transoxiana coveted the Muslim traders' wealth, claimed them spies, seized them; the envoys came — 'you gave your aman then broke faith, foulest in a sultan of Islam; hand us your uncle or see what you shall know me by'. The terror clouded his reason — he had the envoys killed. 'O what a move', writes al-Suyuti: 'for every drop of Muslim blood it spilled, it ran a river of blood' 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era
Region
Persia & Central Asia
Review
Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

In time

121012201230 c.
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era

Overview

Al-Suyuti relates that Genghis Khan sent envoys and gifts to Khwarazm Shah asking for peace and for merchants to travel freely, and he answered him. Then Khwarazm Shah's maternal uncle, his governor over Transoxiana, is said to have seized the merchants and taken their property, claiming they were spies. 2

The envoys

Genghis Khan sent envoys saying that he had given the merchants his safe conduct and they had been betrayed; if his uncle acted without his command, he should hand him over to them. Khwarazm Shah ordered the envoys killed, and they were killed. 2

The historians' judgement

Al-Suyuti says that this movement spilled so much Muslim blood that a river of blood flowed from every drop. The author of Shadharat al-Dhahab gives a similar account, in which Khwarazm Shah repented and the matter was of great ill omen. 2 3

The date is around 615 AH and is derived.

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant
خوارزم شاه علاء الدين محمد· جنكزخان قان التتار

People and things also explored

Perishing of the Khwarazmshah on an island in the Caspian Sea· The Mongols Erupt into the Lands of Islam· The battle that destroyed the Khitai· death of Khwarazmshah Tekish· Ibn Khurmail killed; Herat besieged again· Khwarazmshah takes Ghazna and its dependencies· Khwarazmshah seizes the Ghurid lands in Khurasan· the Khwarazmshah retakes what the Ghurids had seized

Sources

  1. Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition) , p. 713-714
  2. Tarikh al-Khulafa — al-Suyuti (Dar al-Minhaj edition) , p.713-714
  3. Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali , p.69-70
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Khwarazmshah's betrayal of the Tatar merchants and the killing of envoys”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/khwarazmshah-trader-betrayal/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · JSON

Wing

Time

Eras, timelines, this day in history, any year in the Islamic world. Related

Perishing of the Khwarazmshah on an island in the Caspian Sea

Genghis marched; Khwarazmshah fled the Jayhun to Nishapur, then Hamadan's field, where the enemy ringed him, killed his company, and he alone swam to an island — pleurisy took him, alone, shrouded in a farrash's cloth, in 617; his whole realm fell. Ibn al-Athir: 'the Tatar calamity — had one said the world since creation was never tried its like, he would speak true'.