خوارزم شاه علاء الدين محمد

Ala al-Din Muhammad Khwarazmshah was the sultan of Khwarazm, ruling Khorasan and Transoxiana. He quarreled with the Abbasid caliph al-Nasir and dropped his name from the khutba; then he clashed with the Tatars, fled to an island and died there in 617 AH.

Ala al-Din Muhammad Khwarazmshah, sultan of Khwarazm, ruled Khorasan and Transoxiana. Ibn al-Athir says he reigned twenty-one years and that none after the Seljuks held such a realm — from Iraq's border to Turkestan and Ghazna, parts of India, Sijistan, Kirman, Tabaristan, Jurjan, the Jibal and Khorasan — and describes him as learned in fiqh and usul, honoring the scholars. He marched on Baghdad until heavy snow at Hamadan turned him back; he asked al-Nasir for the sultanate on the Seljuk model and was refused, and he dropped the Abbasids' khutba in his lands. Then he betrayed the Tatar merchants and had Genghis Khan's envoys put to death; the Khan marched on him, he fled to an island and died alone in 617 AH. In Shadharat al-Dhahab he went disguised into the Tatar ranks with three men to spy, was caught, and escaped by night.