Firmament

Where there's fire, there's smoke.

- Dulong proverb

One might ask, what kind of country is Khorezm, why is the steppe country far north attacking it across thousands of miles, and why is the powerful and wealthy Khorezm so vulnerable?

The history of the Khorezm Empire is not long, but it is a country in the history of the world that cannot be omitted.

In a narrow sense, the Western Regions refers to the vast area west of Yumen Pass and Yangguan in the East, east of the Pamir Plateau, east of Lake Balkhash and south of the Tianshan Mountains. In a broad sense, the Western Regions refers to the vast area west of Yumen Pass and Yangguan, as far east as Arabia and Turkey, and as far as the center of the Asian continent.

The Khorezm Empire was in the heart of the Western Regions in a broad sense. Khorezm is the language of the East Iranians, a branch of the Aryan people, which means the land of the sun.

Generally speaking, the areas through which the great rivers flow are fertile and suitable for plant growth and animal survival, and are the earliest habitats and birthplaces of human civilization. For example, the Nile Valley gave rise to the ancient Egyptian civilization, the Ganges Valley gave rise to the ancient Indian civilization, and the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins gave rise to the Chinese civilization.

Fortunately, the Khorezm region is home to two famous inland rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya Darya. The banks of the Amu Darya River are suitable for primitive human habitation who live by fishing and hunting, so the area around Khorezm has been inhabited and active for a long time, and it is an area with highly developed agricultural production in ancient times.

The Indo-European Aryans were the first nomadic people to live in the Volga valley of the Urals in Europe. They are constantly migrating to the hinterland of Eurasia. From the 16th century BC to the 12th century BC, the Aryans migrated from the cold steppes of northern Kazakhstan to the warm south, settling in oases near some rivers in the Western Regions and the Iranian plateau, driving the Tocharians, an ancient Indo-European race that had arrived earlier, to the east of the Tianshan Mountains to the Loess Plateau.

The Aryans who settled on the Iranian plateau became the ancestors of today's Iranians. Iran is the diacritic of the Aryans. Persia is the name given to Iran by the Greeks and Romans.

The

Aryans who settled north of the Iranian plateau became the ancestors of the Eastern Iranians. Europeans called them Scythians. East Asians call them Cypriots. The Iranians, on the other hand, are accustomed to refer to their nomadic brothers who live in the steppe areas north of the Amu Darya River and east of the Aral Sea as the Sakhas. East Iranians inhabit a vast area from the Black Sea to the north of the Hindu Kush and Tien Shan.

Khorezm was an early city-state founded by the East Iranians, located in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya River. As its power grew, Khorezm's territory gradually expanded from the city-state to a large area on the lower reaches of the Amu Darya River and the southern shore of the Aral Sea. Khorezm has a dry climate bordered by the Kizilkum Desert to the east, the Karakum Desert to the south, the Aral Sea and the vast Kazakh steppe to the north.

The Iranian plateau region is strategically located and has abundant natural resources. The Aryans who settled there were the first to create a glorious ancient Persian civilization and establish a powerful Persian Empire. They turned Khorezm into a province of the Persian Empire.

Alexander the Great of Macedonia marched eastward, destroying the Persian Empire and subordinating Khorezm to the Macedonian Empire of the Greeks and the subsequent Seleucid Kingdom.

The Iranians were not willing to be slaves, and soon defeated the army of the Seleucid kingdom and established the Assachim dynasty. Once again, Khorezm returned to the hands of the Iranians.

The Eastern Empire traded silk, tea, and precious stones with the Western Regions. The cities of the East Iranians had a geographical advantage and became bustling trading centers. They are the wealthiest people in the Western Regions. Because of the Silk Road, Khorezm became one of the most powerful and influential provinces in the Persian Empire.

Affluence and prosperity bring happiness and joy to people, but they also bring disaster to people. The wealth of Khorezm aroused the covetousness of the steppes and the Easterners in the north. From time to time, regional wars spread everywhere.

For more than 600 years from 305 to 950, the Avrig Dynasty established by the Khorezm people successively belonged to the Sassanid Empire of the Iranians, the Kushan Dynasty of the Dayueshi people, the Hunnite-Yueban of the Bada and the Huns, the Turkic Khanate of the Turks, the Tang Empire of the Han Chinese, the Arab Empire of the Arabs, and the Tahir Dynasty and the Samanid Dynasty of the Iranians. However, the Afrig dynasty remained relatively independent for a long time and had a relatively prosperous economy.

At the beginning of the 8th century, the Arab Empire conquered Khorezm and Tocharian (that is, the northern part of present-day Afghanistan), and introduced Islam to the Western Regions, where Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Christianity, Buddhism and shamanism were originally believed. The dominant Buddhist civilization in the Western Regions turned to Arab civilization and Islamic civilization.

The East Iranians and Arabs are degenerating. The Turks, however, retained their traditional valiant warfare and seized control of the Western Regions, establishing the Qarluq and Qarakhanid states, the Oghuya Protectorate, the Ghazni dynasty, and the Seljuk empire.

The city of Khorezm was changed to Urgench during the Arab rule of the Western Regions, and soon developed into the largest city in the Khorezm region and an important trading city on the Silk Road.

In 1037, the Turks swept through the Qarakhanid and Ghazni dynasties to establish the Seljuk Empire that spanned Central and West Asia.

The Seljuk king appointed a brilliant and skilled Turkic slave as governor of the province of Khorezm. Little did he know that this Turkic slave named Nash Tijin would become the ancestor of King Khanazm, who would later overthrow the Seljuk Empire.

Nash Tijin came to Khorezm, conscientiously performed his duties, worked diligently, and was welcomed and supported by the common people. After his death, his son, Khududdin Mahamad, succeeded his father.

Kududdin Mahamat was not as loyal to the Seljuk Empire as his father. He waited until he was growing his wings to develop a dislike for the Empire. He secretly recuperated and recuperated, so that Khorezm society was stable and the economy developed quickly and well, laying a solid foundation for the later prosperity.

In 1140, Khitan troops invaded the declining Seljuk Empire and occupied Bukhara. Khuddin Mahamad's son, Aitsizi, jumped out and rebelled against the Seljuk Empire, ushering in a new era of Khwarazm's glorious empire.

Urgench became the capital of the Khorezm Empire, the most prosperous, beautiful, and well-equipped city in the Western Regions, as well as the political, economic, and cultural center of the empire.

During the reign of the third king, Arslan, the Khorezm Empire grew from an obscure vassal of a great power to a very important international power.

In 1181, Sultan Shah, Prince of Khorezm, commanded an army to invade the royal territories of the Seljuk Empire and occupy Khorasan, ending more than 140 years of Turkic rule and turning Khorasan, Ray and Hamadan into the territory of the Khorezm Empire.

In 1194, the Khorezm Empire completely buried the Seljuk Empire and expanded its territory into Baghdad, the political center of Arabia.

In 1200, Aladdin Mahamat became the sixth king of the Khorezm Empire. In the early days of his reign, he inherited his father's strategy and united with the Western Khitan and Qarakhanid to repel the attack of the powerful enemy Gur Dynasty and ensure the prosperity and territorial integrity of the empire.

In December 1206, the Khorezm Empire seized the Gur Mountains between Herat and Bamiyan, forcing the Ghur dynasty to submit to its knees.

Aladdin Mahamat led his army westward to conquer the Batandis dynasty on the Caspian Sea and forced the Arab political and religious leader Caliph in Baghdad to submit to him. Subsequently, Aladdin Mahamat unexpectedly defeated the Western Khitan, the number one power in the Western Regions. The country's strength is at its peak.

In 1212, the Khorezm Empire occupied Samarkand.

Samarkand is located in the valley of the Zeravshan River, which means fertile land in East Iranian. It was the home of the Sogdians, who were known for their ability to do business. As one of the earliest big cities in the world, Samarkand not only has abundant natural resources, but also has unique geographical advantages, the east is separated by the Qarakhanid Dynasty and the Tibetan, Gaobai Bactria and the East, the west is connected to the rich Iranian Plateau, the south is adjacent to the Hindu Kush Mountains and the Indus River Plain, and the north is the vast steppe.

The favorable geographical location made Samarkand a meeting place for major civilizations in the east, west, north and south, as well as a place where countless caravans rested and traded. The people of Samarkand transported luxury goods such as wine, nao, jataman, asana, agate, seser (turquoise gemstones), and jingi (jing) skin from the west to Chang'an in the east, and sold silk, porcelain, and tea from the East to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, Alexandria in North Africa, and the fairs of Constantinople in Eastern Rome, in exchange for countless gold and silver coins.

Xuanzang, a monk of the Tang Dynasty, went to Tianzhu to learn scriptures and passed by Samarkand, and couldn't help but praise: "The land here is fertile, the trees are towering, the flowers and fruits are everywhere, the climate is pleasant, and it is the center of the Western Regions." "

The people of Khorezm made no secret of their praise for their homeland and sang proudly:

If there is a paradise on earth

That paradise is Samarkand.

Aladdin Mahamat stood on a hill outside Samarkand as a victor, looking at the beautiful and prosperous cityscape. He found the empire's capital, Urgench, to be too remote to rule the entire Western Regions. He made the decision on the spot and moved the imperial capital to Samarkand on the Zeravshan River at the foot of the Turkestan Mountains.

Aladdin Mahamat reigned for 20 years, the territory of the Khorezm Empire was bounded by the Syr Darya River in the north, the Pamir and Waziristan mountains in the east, the north of Tianzhu in the south, and the mountains of Azerbaijan, Luristan and Khuzestan in the west, including today's Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, eastern Iraq and Israel, with a land area of up to 3.6 million square kilometers. The Great Song Dynasty, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mamluk Dynasty of Egypt, the Muwahid Dynasty, and the Holy Roman Empire were all vast, and were the largest and most powerful states in the early 13th century.

Aladdin Mahamat came to Baghdad in full swing, caressing the beard of the Abbasid Caliph, the leader of the political and religious religion, and proclaiming himself the protector of the world.

The people of Khorezm have been known for their business since ancient times. The nomadic steppe people called the Khwarazmian people the Sartas, meaning settlers and merchants, and the Khwarazm Empire the Sarta Ul, meaning the land of merchants.

In 1217, Aladdin Mahamat rode a black horse and led the mighty Khwarazm Empire army across the Iranian plateau. Everywhere they went, the people shouted long live, and the officials bowed respectfully, and the scene was very hot.

Aladdin Mahamat is invincible in the future. Unexpectedly, a raging fire broke out in the backyard.

The queen mother, Hankedun, came from the Khamli tribe of the Kipchaks. She especially favored and reused the soldiers of her mother's tribe, attracting a large number of Kangli people to Khorezm, resulting in the command of the army being in the hands of the Kangli people of the Queen Mother's Party.

The bald Hunkton's lust for power is very strong. She took advantage of her son's expedition to interfere in state affairs and relocate the imperial capital from Samarkand back to Urgench, which was like setting up a separate imperial court.

Serious discord ensued between mother and son.

The Khorezm Empire looks strong on the outside, but the inner body is inflamed, suppurated, and festering......