Jalal Al-Din Mangubirti

Date of birth unknown; died 1231. Shah of Khwarizm (Khorezm) from 1220.

After the death of his father, Khwarizm-Shah Muhammad, he led the struggle of the Khwarizmians against the Mongol-Tatar invasion. On the territory of Khorasan, Jalal al-Din gathered a militia of several tens of thousands and defeated the Mongols at a battle at Pervan. However, on Nov. 24, 1221, Genghis Khan routed Jalal al-Din’s forces at the Indus River, and he was forced to flee into India. Jalal al-Din lived in India until the beginning of 1224 and then went to Transcaucasia. In 1224 he undertook a campaign from Transcaucasia into Iran and Mesopotamia, and in 1225 he captured Azerbaijan, part of Georgia, and Armenia. In 1231 in Giandzha a popular uprising flared up against Jalal al-Din because of heavy tributes and the excesses of his rule. In the same year the Mongol-Tatar forces again invaded Azerbaijan, and Jalal al-Din was routed in battle against the invaders. He fled to Mesopotamia, where he was killed by Kurds.