


He overthrew the Karakhanids (1212) and Ghurids (1215). He again initiated a conflict, this time with the aid of the Kara-Khanids, and defeated a Qara-Khitai army at Talas (1210), but allowed Samarkand (1210) to be occupied by the Qara-Khitai. Īla ad-Din Muhammad's alliance with his suzerain was short-lived. With this reinforcement, Muhammad won a victory over the Ghurids at Hezarasp (1204) and forced them out of Khwarizm. Following the sack of Khwarizm, Muhammad appealed for aid from his suzerain, the Qara Khitai who sent him an army. In 1200, Tekish died and was succeeded by his son, Ala ad-Din Muhammad, who initiated a conflict with the Ghurids and was defeated by them at Amu Darya (1204). In 1194, the last Sultan of the Great Seljuq Empire, Toghrul III, was defeated and killed by the Khwarezm ruler Ala ad-Din Tekish, who conquered parts of Khorasan and western Iran. As the Seljuk state fell into chaos, the Khwarezm-Shahs expanded their territories southward. In 1141, the Seljuq Sultan Ahmed Sanjar was defeated by the Qara Khitai at the battle of Qatwan, and Anush Tigin's grandson Ala ad-Din Atsiz became a vassal to Yelü Dashi of the Qara Khitan. In 1077, the governorship of the province, which since 1042/1043 belonged to the Seljuqs, fell into the hands of Anush Tigin Gharchai, a former Turkic slave of the Seljuq sultan. As a result, Khwarezm became a province of the Ghaznavid Empire from 1017 to 1034. In response, Mahmud invaded and occupied the region of Khwarezm, which included Nasa and the ribat of Farawa. During a revolt in 1017, Khwarezmian rebels murdered Abu'l-Abbas Ma'mun and his wife, Hurra-ji, sister of the Ghaznavid sultan Mahmud. The date of the founding of the Khwarazmian dynasty remains debatable. See also: Timeline of the Turkic peoples (500–1300) Anush Tigin may have belonged to either the Begdili tribe of the Oghuz Turks or to Chigil, Khalaj, Qipchaq, Qangly, or Uyghurs. His son, Qutb ad-Din Muhammad I, became the first hereditary Shah of Khwarazm. The dynasty was founded by commander Anushtegin Gharchai, a former Turkic slave of the Seljuq sultans, who was appointed as governor of Khwarazm. The Anushteginid dynasty ruled the Khwarazmian Empire, consisting in large parts of present-day Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran in the approximate period of 1077 to 1231, first as vassals of the Seljuks and the Qara Khitai, and later as independent rulers, up until the Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire in the 13th century. The Anushtegin dynasty or Anushteginids (English: / æ n u ʃ t ə ˈ ɡ i n i d/, Persian: خاندان انوشتکین), also known as the Khwarazmian dynasty ( Persian: خوارزمشاهیان) was a Persianate Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turkic mamluk origin.
