(Cont.) - After the conquest of China in 1215 Genghis Khan started the invasion of Mawarannahr. The State of Khorezmshakhs was not ready for the invasion of such a powerful enemy. Khorezm Shah Muhammad beat in hastily retreat to Balkh, taking all valuables. Under the leadership of his eldest son, a talented military commander Dzhalaleddin Manguberdi, local people entered into the struggle against the Mongolian invasion. But forces were unequal, and the Mongols conquered and destroyed Khorezm oasis cities almost without difficulties. In 1220-1221 Mongols ruined Samarkand and Urgench (capital of Gurganj State) to the ground. Many monuments of ancient culture of Central Asia were destroyed in the Middle Ages.
Quiz Time - To be continued
- (XII century)
Under the Mongols. Chagatai Ulus - A vast empire of Genghis Khan went to his three sons: Jochi, Ugedei and Chagatai. Possession of Chagatai Khan stretched from Chinese Xinjiang to Samarkand and Bukhara, and from the southern Altai to the Amu Darya. These lands were called the Chagatai Ulus. Mongol rulers appointed Muslim merchants the governors of Mawarannahr, who forced people to pay overtax. Again and again rebellions were stirred up (for example, under the leadership of Mahmoud Taraba in Bukhara in 1238), which were cruelly suppressed. Such instability caused to the break up of Mawarannahr into small possessions, competing with each other.
Timurids State - In 1363 a military conqueror Amir Timur seized Samarkand, which later became the capital of his vast empire. In 1370 Timur was declared the supreme ruler of Mawarannahr. In 1388 Amir Timur destroyed Urgench city, a major point on the Silk Road, and then the capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai Berke. Now all the caravan routes passed through Mawarannahr cities: Otrar (south Kazakhstan), Balkh, Tashkent, Herat, Sultan (Iran). In the Middle Ages the capital of Amir Timur, Samarkand, was deemed to be the most beautiful city on the Earth. The best architects created more and more new masterpieces of architecture: palaces, mosques, mausoleums, which still amaze with beauty and size. In the second half of 14th century, Timur started military campaigns against other states, subduing a huge area: from the Black Sea to the Ganges River and from the Aral Sea to the Arabian Sea.
- After his death in 1405 the state became to split. Amir Timur’s son, Shahrukh, managed to preserve Chorasan, Afghanistan and Mawarannahr. He made his capital in Herat, and Samarkand was ruled by his son Ulugbek. In 1447 after the death of Shahrukh, Ulugbek became the head of the ruling dynasty, but in 1449 he was insidiously killed by his son Abdulatif. Timurids Dynasty with its rulers Shahrukh, Ulugbek and Babur, was marked by the development of arts, crafts, trade and flourishing of literature and sciences.
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