Siege of Samarkand (1220)

Battle of Samarkand (1220)
Equestrian battle in front of a city gate. Rashid ad-Din, Jami al-Tawarikh, 1300-1325
Date 1220 Location Samarkand, present-day Uzbekistan 39°37′N 66°58′E / 39.62°N 66.97°E / 39.62; 66.97 Result Mongol Victory
Belligerents
Mongol Empire	Khwarazmian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Genghis Khan Subutai Jebe	Jalal-ad-Din Khwarazmshah
Units involved
Horse archers Siege engines, including Chinese gunpowder weapons	City garrison
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	All
Samarkand class=notpageimage| Location of the siege on a map of modern Uzbekistan Show map of Uzbekistan Samarkand Samarkand (Continental Asia) Show map of Continental Asia

The siege of Samarkand (1220) took place in 1220 A.D. after Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire, had launched a multi-pronged invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire, ruled by Shah Muhammad II. The Mongols had laid siege to the border town of Otrar, but finding its defences obdurate, a large force commanded by Genghis and his youngest son Tolui detached from the vanguard and set off southwards, towards Transoxiana.

Samarkand was the Shah's capital and the pivot of his defence — the city's garrison was large and its battlements were one of the strongest in the empire. Genghis, however, managed to isolate it by capturing and destroying Bukhara in a surprise manoeuvre, and then laying waste to the nearby Transoxianan towns. After repelling relief forces, the Mongol army, now reinforced after the capture of Otrar, ambushed and massacred a sortie by the town's defenders. The citizens of the city soon surrendered at the instigation of the Muslim clergy; most were however enslaved or conscripted in traditional Mongol fashion.

A small force held out in the citadel for around one month, after which around half managed to break through the Mongol lines and escape over the Amu Darya. Although the city was then comprehensively looted and pillaged, it revived slowly under the Pax Mongolica, and then, in the late 14th-century, returned to worldwide prominence as the capital of the Timurid Empire.