Bukhara and Samarkand Fall to the Mongol Advance
Genghis Khan's army crosses the Kyzylkum desert and breaks Khwarazm's two greatest cities
Quick facts
- Bukhara falls
- 10 February 1220 (citadel 12 days later)
- Samarkand
- Falls March 1220
- Mongol force
- c. 100,000 men
- Khwarazmshah's fate
- Fled, died on a Caspian Sea island
What happened
Genghis Khan led a force of roughly 100,000 men through Persia in response to the Otrar massacre. Encyclopaedia Iranica records that Bukhara was conquered by Genghis Khan on 10 February 1220, with its citadel falling twelve days later; the inhabitants were driven out, their property plundered, and the city burned, while the citadel's defenders were killed. Genghis Khan then advanced on Samarkand, one of Transoxiana's greatest cultural and commercial centers, which also fell and was sacked. The Khwarazmshah, Ala al-Din Muhammad, fled the Mongol advance and died weeks later on an island in the Caspian Sea. The World History Encyclopedia notes that the Mongols also wrecked the region's irrigation system as they went, destroying the agricultural base that had supported the cities for centuries.
Why it matters
Bukhara and Samarkand were among the wealthiest and most learned cities in the Islamic world, and their destruction within weeks of each other showed both Mongol powers and the region's other rulers that no fortified city, however large or prosperous, could expect to survive resistance. The wrecked irrigation systems left parts of Transoxiana economically diminished for generations.
How we know
Encyclopaedia Iranica's account draws on the Persian chroniclers Juvaini and Nasavi, near-contemporary sources for the Khwarazmian collapse.
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Iranica. CENGIZ KHAN · General sourceiranicaonline.org · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Genghis Khan · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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