1220 · Central Asia (Khwarezmia) Theater
1220
When the Khwarezmian Shah executed Mongol envoys and merchants, Genghis Khan unleashed a war of annihilation on his vast and wealthy empire. The great cities of Bukhara and Samarkand fell in 1220; their populations were massacred, enslaved, or used as human shields, their artisans deported and the rest put to the sword. Genghis reportedly told the people of Bukhara that he was 'the punishment of God.'
Commanders