The Mongol conquest of Bukhara, even by their own standards, was brutal. After the capital of Samarkand fell, the capital was moved to Bukhara by the remaining men, and Genghis Khan dedicated two of his generals and their forces to completely destroying the remnants of the Khwarezmid Empire, including not only royal buildings, but entire towns, populations and even vast swaths of farmland. According to stories, Genghis Khan even went so far as to divert a river through the Khwarezmid emperor’s birthplace, erasing it from the map.

The Mongols attacked Samarkand, using prisoners as body shields. After several days only a few remaining soldiers, die-hard supporters of theShah, held out in the citadel. After the fortress fell, Genghis Khan supposedly reneged on his surrender terms and executed every soldier that had taken arms against him at Samarkand. The people of Samarkand were ordered to evacuate and assemble in a plain outside the city, where they were killed and pyramids of severed heads raised as a symbol of victory. Historian Ata-Malik Juvayni, a high official in the service of the Mongol empire, wrote that in the town of Termez, on the Amu Darya, or Oxus River, “all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain.”

The city of Bukhara was not heavily fortified, with a moat and a single wall, and the citadel was typical of Khwarezmi cities. The city leaders opened the gates to the Mongols, though a unit of Turkish defenders held the city’s citadel for another twelve days. Survivors from the citadel were executed, artisans and craftsmen were sent back to Mongolia, young men who had not fought were drafted into the Mongolian army and the rest of the population was sent into slavery. As the Mongol soldiers looted the city, a fire broke out, razing most of the city to the ground.Genghis Khan had the city’s surviving population assemble in the main mosque of the town, where he declared that he was the flail of God, sent to punish them for their sins.

Today, Bukhara is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan, and the cultural capital of country.

Map of the Emirate of Bukhara.