What was the ethnic makeup of Khwarezm empire?

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Category: Regional History or Period History
Forum Name: Ethnic History of Central Asia
Forum Discription: Discussions about the ethnic origins of Central Asian peoples. All topics related to ethnicity should go here.
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=23579
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Topic: What was the ethnic makeup of Khwarezm empire?

Posted By: Guests
Subject: What was the ethnic makeup of Khwarezm empire?
Date Posted: 20-Feb-2008 at 00:17

Ghengis invaded the Khwarezm empire around 1220. From what I understand the worse devestation caused by his army was to cities sieged in the early years of his conquest of persia. If anyone can name some of these cities that he massacred that would help:

My question is what was the demographics of these places that he devastated? I assumed that since it was persia the population was mostly or all indo-iranian. However ive seen evidence that would suggest there were other ethnic groups, and considering the fact that the ruler of this empire was turkic, maybe central asia (north and east iran + afghanistan) was not all indo-iranian as I had assumed before?

Replies:

Posted By: Bulldog
Date Posted: 20-Feb-2008 at 03:14

There is an Allempires article about the Khwarezm empire

http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=kwarezm_shah_empire - http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=kwarezm_shah_empire

Basically, the empire was founded by Turkic rulers appointed by the Seljuks.

The demographics would have been predominantly Turkic and Iranic with some Arab quaters in large cities.

Kunya Urgench one of the major cities of the Khwarzemshahs and Seljuks, which was home to many distinct architectural works including tombs of the Kagans, shrines and huge minarets was razed to the ground.

Only recently the lost city of Jend was found in Kazakistan, Jend was one of the first cities which newly converted Turks founded and was the power centre of the newly formed Seljuks. Tombs and buildings dating to the 9th centuries are being excavated. This city was totally destroyed by the Mongols, literally wiped off the map for centuries.

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