Overview
'Alā' al-Din Muhammad II was the Shah of the Khwarazmian Empire from 3 August 1200 to December 1220. His ancestor was Anushtegin Gharchai, a Turkic Ghulam who eventually became a viceroy of a small province in Central Asia named Khwarazm. The expansion seen under the rule of Muhammad constituted the pinnacle of the developing Khwarazmian military culture, and in various campaigns of conquest created a realm extending from Shirvan to the Indus river and the outer periphery of Mongolia after defeating his adversaries, namely the Qara Khitai, Ghurids, and Eldiguzids. He was able to rally as much as 400,000 men, and with these massive tribal armies his empire was as large as 2,400,000-3,600,000 km². By 1218, he brought the empire to its political and military zenith, but after a skirmish with the Mongols, Muhammad's realm was destroyed when they entered into Transoxiana and sacked Gurganj, Bukhara, his capital in Samarkand, Otrar, Herat among others. Muhammad died on the Caspian island of Ashur-Ada in December 1220.