Otrar, 1218, the murdered caravan that turned the Mongols west
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TL;DR — In 1218 the governor of Otrar killed 450 merchants sent by Genghis Khan; after the shah executed a Mongol envoy, the Mongols invaded Khwarazm in 1219.
The Mongol invasion of Central Asia began with a caravan of merchants killed at the frontier town of Otrar in 1218. The Encyclopaedia Iranica records “the massacre at Otrār of 450 Muslim merchants sent by Čengiz Khan from his ordu to open up commercial relations with the Khwarazmian dominions.” When a Mongol envoy came to protest, the Khwarazmshah, ʿAlāʾ al-Din Muhammad, had him executed. “This made war inevitable,” the historian David O. Morgan writes.
Quick facts
- When
- The massacre in 1218; the invasion of Transoxania in 1219; Bukhara taken on February 10, 1220
- Where
- Otrar, a Khwarazmian frontier town on the middle Syr Darya, in present-day Kazakhstan
- Who
- Genghis Khan; Inalchuq (Ghayir Khan), governor of Otrar; ʿAlāʾ al-Din Muhammad, the Khwarazmshah; the historian Juvaini
- Outcome
- The killing of the caravan and of a Mongol envoy led to the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian empire in 1219
A balish of gold for each trader
The caravan grew out of an earlier exchange of goods. Juvaini, a Persian official in Mongol service who began his history at the Mongol capital, Qaraqorum, in 1251–52, tells how merchants from the shah’s lands brought fabrics to Genghis Khan and were paid a balish of gold for each gold-embroidered piece. When they went home, Genghis Khan ordered his sons, noyans and commanders “to equip, each of them, two or three persons from their dependents and give them capital of a balish of gold or silver,” so that “four hundred and fifty Moslems were assembled.”
He sent a message with them. In Juvaini’s version it hoped “that henceforth the abscess of evil thoughts may be lanced by the improvement of relations and agreement between us, and the pus of sedition and rebellion removed.”
The governor of Otrar
At Otrar the merchants met its governor, Inalchuq, who in Juvaini’s words “was a kinsman of the Sultan’s mother, Terken Khatun, and had received the title of Ghayir-Khan.” Among the merchants was an Indian who had known him before and “now addressed the latter simply as Inalchuq.” The governor “became annoyed and embarrassed; at the same time he conceived a desire for their property.”
He arrested them and sent word to the shah in Iraq. Juvaini writes that “without pausing to think the Sultan sanctioned the shedding of their blood and deemed the seizure of their goods to be lawful.” The Encyclopaedia Iranica’s entry on Otrar, by C. Edmund Bosworth, is more careful: the governor acted “apparently with the agreement of the king himself.” Juvaini wrote his history in Mongol service, a generation after the events.
Three days on a hilltop
One merchant escaped from prison and reached Genghis Khan with the news. Juvaini describes the khan going “up alone to the summit of a hill,” baring his head and praying for three days and nights: “I was not the author of this trouble; grant me strength to exact vengeance.”
He then sent envoys to the shah. According to Morgan, the shah “resolved any doubt by executing a Mongol ambassador who had come to protest at the murder and plunder of a caravan of merchants.” Bosworth puts it as the shah’s “rejection of an embassy” seeking reparations, which made an invasion “inevitable.”
The siege of Otrar and the fall of Bukhara
The Mongols invaded Transoxania in 1219, in Morgan’s words “in a carefully coordinated three-pronged attack.” Genghis Khan marched on Bukhara and left his sons Ögedei and Chaghatai to besiege Otrar, where, Juvaini writes, the garrison “resisted for a space of five months.” When the town fell, Bosworth records, the Mongols razed its walls and citadel, deported much of its population and executed Ghayir Khan.
Bukhara fell on February 10, 1220, according to Yuri Bregel, who follows the Arab historian Ibn al-Athir, and its citadel twelve days later; the inhabitants were driven out and the city burned. The shah, Morgan writes, failed to meet the Mongols in battle, “instead distributing his vast army uselessly in small packets, as city garrisons.” He fled and “died on the Āšūrāda island in the Caspian.” Samarkand fell as well.
Counting the dead
The worst came in Khorasan, under Genghis Khan’s youngest son, Tolui. The chroniclers give enormous totals: in Herat 1,600,000 by one account and 2,400,000 by another, in Marv over 1,300,000 according to Juvaini, and in Nishapur 1,747,000. Peter Jackson, writing in the Encyclopaedia Iranica, warns that “such figures cannot be taken at face value; yet they surely indicate slaughter on a scale unprecedented in the minds of contemporaries.”
Key facts
- In 1218, 450 Muslim merchants sent by Genghis Khan were killed at Otrar (Bosworth; Juvaini).
- Each of Genghis Khan’s sons, noyans and commanders sent two or three people with a balish of gold or silver (Juvaini).
- The governor, Inalchuq (Ghayir Khan), was a kinsman of the shah’s mother, Terken Khatun (Juvaini).
- Juvaini says the shah sanctioned the killing; Bosworth writes “apparently with the agreement of the king himself.”
- The shah executed a Mongol ambassador who came to protest (Morgan).
- Otrar resisted for five months; Bukhara fell on February 10, 1220 (Juvaini; Bregel).
- The chroniclers’ death tolls for Khorasan “cannot be taken at face value” (Jackson).
FAQ
What was the Otrar massacre?
The killing in 1218 of 450 Muslim merchants whom Genghis Khan had sent to trade with the Khwarazmian empire. The governor of Otrar, Inalchuq, arrested them and seized their goods.
Why did the governor of Otrar kill the merchants?
Juvaini says Inalchuq was offended when an Indian merchant who knew him addressed him by his plain name, and that he "conceived a desire for their property." He then sought the shah's approval.
Did the shah order the massacre?
Juvaini says he sanctioned it "without pausing to think." Bosworth's entry in the Encyclopaedia Iranica says the governor acted "apparently with the agreement of the king himself."
What happened to Genghis Khan's envoy?
The shah had the Mongol ambassador executed when he came to protest. Morgan writes that "this made war inevitable."
When did the Mongols invade Khwarazm?
In 1219, with a coordinated attack on three fronts. Otrar fell after a five-month siege, and Bukhara on February 10, 1220.
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, C. Edmund Bosworth, "OTRĀR"
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, David O. Morgan, "ČENGĪZ KHAN"
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, Peter Jackson, "MONGOLS"
- Juvaini, The History of the World-Conqueror, vol. 1, translated by John Andrew Boyle (Manchester University Press, 1958), Internet Archive
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, Yuri Bregel, "BUKHARA iii. After the Mongol Invasion"
- Encyclopaedia Iranica, George E. Lane, "JOVAYNI, ʿALĀʾ-AL-DIN"
Cite this article
- APA
- Song Letter. (2026, October 11). Otrar, 1218, the murdered caravan that turned the Mongols west. Our Earth's History. https://ourearthshistory.com/east-asia/medieval/caravan-murder-that-built-the-largest-empire/
- Chicago
- Song Letter. “Otrar, 1218, the murdered caravan that turned the Mongols west.” Our Earth's History, October 11, 2026. https://ourearthshistory.com/east-asia/medieval/caravan-murder-that-built-the-largest-empire/.
- MLA
- Song Letter. “Otrar, 1218, the murdered caravan that turned the Mongols west.” Our Earth's History, 11 Oct. 2026, https://ourearthshistory.com/east-asia/medieval/caravan-murder-that-built-the-largest-empire/.
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