The Sons of Chinggis Khan and the Fall of Gurganj, 1221 

Three of Chinggis Khan's son Jochi, Chagatai and Ogedai were dispatched in early 1221 against the Khwarezmian capital of Gurganj, beginning a hard fought, months long siege. Here, we look at this siege, presenting on some Mongol tactics and strategy, as well as the changing depiction of Jochi in our sources for this event.
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PRIMARY SOURCES:
Juzjani. Ṭabaḳāt-i-Nāṣirï: A General History of the Muhammadan Dynasties of Asia. Vol. I. Translated by H.G Raverty. London: Gilbert & Rivington, 1881. archive.org/stream/in.ernet.d... See pages 279-281
Juzjani. Ṭabaḳāt-i-Nāṣirï: A General History of the Muhammadan Dynasties of Asia. Vol. II. Translated by H.G Raverty. London: Gilbert & Rivington, 1881. archive.org/stream/in.ernet.d... See pages 1096-1101.
“Temujin and the Rise of the Mongol Empire,” in Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources, edited by Scott C. Levi and Ron Sela. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, (2009): 116-138. Anthology, has section from Nasawi.
“Islamic Central Asia under Mongol Rule,” in Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources, edited by Scott C. Levi and Ron Sela. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, (2009): 139-158. Anthology, has section from Rashid al-Din.
de Rachewiltz, Igor. The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the
Thirteenth Century. Translated by Igor de Rachewiltz. Edited by John C. Street.
University of Wisconsin: Madison, 2015.
cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.... See page 180-181 for Urgench.
‘Ala-ad-Din ‘Ata-Malik Juvaini, The History of the World-Conqueror. Vol. I. Translated by John Andrew Boyle. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1958. archive.org/details/historyof... See pages 123-127.
‘Ala-ad-Din ‘Ata-Malik Juvaini, The History of the World-Conqueror. Vol. II. Translated by John Andrew Boyle. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1958. archive.org/stream/historyoft... See pages 399-402.
Nasawi, “Histoirse du Sultan Djelal ed-Din Mankobirti.” Translated by O. Houdas. 1895. remacle.org/bloodwolf/arabe/ne... In French, but Google Translate did a serviceable job. See Chapter XLI
SECONDARY SOURCES:
Atwood, Christopher. “Jochi and the Early Campaigns.” in How Mongolia Matters: War, Law, and Society, edited by Morris Rossabi. Brill's Inner Asian Library, (2017) 35-56.
Barthold, W. Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion. Translated by H.A.R. Gibb. London: Oxford University Press, 1928. archive.org/details/Barthold1...
Boyle, J.A, “Dynastic and Political History of the Il-Khāns.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 5, The Saljuq and Mongol Periods, edited by John Andrew Boyle, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (1968): 303-422.
Golombek, Lisa. “The So-Called “Turabeg Khanom” Mausoleum in Kunya Urgench: Problems of Attribution.” Muqarnas 28 (2011): 133-156.
Paul, Jürgen. “Who makes Use of Whom? Some Remarks on the Nomad Policy of the Khwārazmshāhs, 1150-1200.” in Nomad Military Power in Iran and Adjacent Areas in the Islamic Period, edited by Kurt Franz and Wolfgang Holzwarth. Wiesbaden: Reichert (2015): 137-153.
Ostrowski, Donald. “City Names of the Western Steppe at the Time of the Mongol Invasion.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 61 no. 3 (1998): 465-475.
Timokhin, Dmitry. “The Conquest of Khwarezm by Mongol Toops (1219-1221).” in The Golden Horde in World History, 75-86. Tartaria Magna Series. Kazan: Sh. Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, 2017.
Timokhin, Dmitry, and Vladimir Tishin. “Khwarezm, the Eastern Kipchaks and Volga Bulgaria in the Late 12-early 13th Centuries,” in The Golden Horde in World History, 25-40. Tartaria Magna Series. Kazan: Sh. Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, 2017.
For some pictures of the site of Gurganj today, and more on its later history, see this article from Karakalpal.com, "City of Urgench." karakalpak.com/ancgurganj.html
MUSIC USED:
Desert City by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
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Faceoff by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: incompetech.com/