Battle of Waliyan
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The Battle of Waliyan (also "Wilan" or "Vâliyân") was fought between Sultan Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu of the Khwarazmian Empire and the Mongols ruled by Genghis Khan in the spring of 1221 CE in the Ghor Province, across the mountains north of Parwan, in present-day Afghanistan. Jalal ad-Din's victory prompted provoked Genghis Khan into sending an army of 30,000 troops under Shigi Qutuqu, leading to the Battle of Parwan.[5]
Background[edit]
Genghis Khan invaded the Khwarazmian Empire to avenge the murder of a Mongol trade caravan by the government of Otrar and the subsequent refusal of Shah Ala ad-Din Muhammad II to bring the governor of Otrar to task for his crime.[6] Genghis Khan commanded a skilled, disciplined, combat-proven army of 150,000 to 200,000 soldiers,[7] mostly Mongols and other allied tribes who were well-drilled in their method of warfare.[8][9] The army also included a corps of Chinese siege engineers.[10] Genghis Khan was a charismatic, inelegant and experienced leader, his sons Jochi, Chagatai, Ogedei and Tolui were competent generals, and he was also served by brilliant generals like Jebe and Subutai, adept in employing flexible and innovative tactics.[11][12]
Shah Muhammad II may have been able to mobilize a mercenary army numbering 200,000 to 400,000 men,[13] but his Turkish soldiers were undisciplined, and unity was lacking between the Turks, Iranians, Arabs and Afghans in the army.[14] The mistrust that the Shah had for his Qanqli Turk troops and commanders[15][8] meant he could only offer battle under favorable conditions with superior numbers. He adopted a defence in depth strategy based on fortified cities,[16][7][17][18] and stationed garrisons of veteran soldiers at various cities including Otrar, Bukhara, Banakat and Samarkand, trusting to the Mongol inexperience with siegecraft[19] and their unfamiliarity with the terrain to delay their progress and give him the chance to offer battle at his own initiative. He planned to raise a new army beyond the Amu Darya near Kelif[20] and then strike the Mongols in Transoxania, or defend the Amu Darya barrier by preventing the Mongols from crossing the river, and if needed retreat to Ghazni and then to India.[18][lower-alpha 1]
Genghis Khan invested Otrar with his entire field army in September 1219. After some time, he divided his army, sending a detachment under his eldest son Jochi down the Syr Darya, and another division to march on Banakat. Leaving Chagatai and Ogedei to maintain the siege of Otrar, Genghis Khan and Tolui crossed the Kyzylkum Desert to attack Bukhara, which fell in February 1220, and Samarkand, which was taken in March 1220.[21] Banakat was also occupied, Otrar fell in April 1220, and the Mongol armies from Banakat and Otrar joined Genghis Khan near Nasaf, where they spent the summer of 1220 resting the army and the horses.[22] Jochi had taken all the towns along Syr Darya, including Sighnaq and Jend, by April 1220, then camped on the Kipchak steppes.[23] Several Mongol armies invaded Tocharistan, Guzgan and Gharchistan during the last eight months of 1220, collecting a rich plunder in cattle and slaves.[24] Genghis Khan sent a 30,000–40,000 man army led by Jebe and Subutai and his own son-in-law Toghachar to hunt down the Shah.[25][26]
The rapid fall of Transoxania further unnerved Shah Muhammad II, who began to retreat west along with Jalal al-Din.[27] He had halted for a while at Nishapur,[28] but when the Mongol army under Jebe and Subutai crossed the Amu Darya, the Shah moved across Persia, then eluded the Mongols by pretending to make for Baghdad, and eventually found refuge on an island in the Caspian Sea, where he died in December 1220, naming Jalal ad-Din his heir.[29] The Mongol army sacked several cities, including Zaveh, Quchan, Tus, Qazvin and Ardabil,[30][22] and then wintered in the Mughan steppes.[31]
Jalal al-Din needed an army to confront the Mongols. The Sultan went to Gurganj, a city reportedly housing 90,000 troops, but the city officials preferred his brother Uzlaq Shah as the Sultan. After discovering a plot against his life, the Sultan with 300 cavalry crossed the Karakum Desert in 16 days and defeated a Mongol detachment near Nisa[32] to reach Nishapur. Jalal al-Din intended to raise an army at Nishapur, but abandoned the city when Mongols arrived unexpectedly.[33] The Mongols chased the Sultan across Khuistan, but Jalal al-Din managed to elude his enemies to reach Bost.[34] Here, an army of 10,000 Turks commanded by his maternal uncle Amin Malik joined him, and the Sultan reached Ghazni after driving off a Mongol army from Qanhahar after a three-day battle.[35]
Battle[edit]
Jalal al-Din spent the summer of 1221 in Ghazni where thousands of people from all over Afghanistan joined his ranks to defend their homelands after hearing the fate of Bamiyan. He assembled a coalition of Afghan and Turkic warriors. Jalal al-Din successfully managed to assemble an army.[36]
From there, he went first to Waliyan, which was under siege by the Mongols, defeated their two armies under the leaderships of Tekejik and Molger, and lifted the siege of Waliyan, with about 1,000 Mongol casualties.[1] The Mongols fled by crossing a river, probably the Panjshir River, and destroyed the bridge behind them.[37][1]
The victory of Waliyan motivated other cities to rebel against the Mongols, and to slain their Mongol Governors.[36]
After the encounter, Jalal ad-Din regrouped at Parwan.[38] A week later, Genghis Khan sent his chief justice Shigi Qutuqu to hunt down Jalal al-Din, but only gave the inexperienced general 30,000–50,000 troops.[lower-alpha 2] Shigi Qutuqu was overconfident after the continuous Mongol successes, and he quickly found himself on the back foot against the more numerous Khwarazmian force. The battle took place in a narrow valley, which was unsuitable for the Mongol cavalry, leading to his major defeat at the Battle of Parwan.[38][39]
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Historians agree that the choice of the Khwarazmshah Muhammad II was due to the Battle near the Irghiz River.
- ↑ Modern scholarship varies on the armies' sizes. Mclynn Frank estimates 45,000–50,000 Mongols against 60,000–70,000 Khwarazmians.
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Sverdrup 2017, pp. 161–162: "Mongol officers Taqacaq and Mulgar attempted to take Waliyan. Jalal al-Din moved to Parwan; making a quick move across the mountains to the north, he surprised and routed the Mongols at Waliyan, inflicting a reported 1,000 loss on them. The Mongols retreated across a river, and destroyed a bridge to keep the enemy from following (spring 1221). Jalal al-Din had left his baggage at Parwan and returned there." [1]
- ↑ "Bataille de Vâliyân (1221)". mandragore.bnf.fr. Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
- ↑ Peers, Chris (31 March 2015). Genghis Khan and the Mongol War Machine. Pen and Sword. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-4738-5382-9.
Tekechuk: Mongol officer defeated at Waliyan (1221)
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- ↑ Sverdrup 2017, pp. 161-162.
- ↑ Jaques 2007, p. 778.
- ↑ Tanner 2002, p. 88.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Barthold 1968, p. 404.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Buniyatov 2015, p. 115.
- ↑ Tanner 2002, p. 83.
- ↑ Tanner 2002, p. 89.
- ↑ Mclynn 2015, p. 80.
- ↑ Tanner 2002, pp. 84–85.
- ↑ Mclynn 2015, p. 261.
- ↑ Barthold 1968, p. 439.
- ↑ Barthold 1968, p. 419.
- ↑ Grousset 2003, p. 238.
- ↑ Mclynn 2015, pp. 260–261.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Boyle 1968, p. 306.
- ↑ Mclynn 2015, pp. 270–272.
- ↑ Bregel, Yuri 2003, p. 36.
- ↑ Tanner 2002, p. 90.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Boyle 1968, p. 311.
- ↑ Barthold 1968, p. 416.
- ↑ Fleet & Temple 1885, p. 84.
- ↑ Buniyatov 2015, p. 119.
- ↑ Mclynn 2015, p. 284.
- ↑ Mclynn 2015, p. 282.
- ↑ Boyle 1968, p. 307.
- ↑ Buniyatov 2015, p. 121.
- ↑ Juvaini 1997, pp. 143–146.
- ↑ Boyle 1968, p. 313.
- ↑ Mclynn 2015, p. 295.
- ↑ Buniyatov 2015, p. 127.
- ↑ Boyle 1968, p. 317.
- ↑ Buniyatov 2015, p. 126.
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 Jacobs, Steven Leonard (23 July 2012). Lemkin on Genocide. Lexington Books. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-7391-4528-9. Search this book on
- ↑ Barthold, W. (1928). Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion. Oxford University Press. pp. 441–442. Search this book on
- ↑ 38.0 38.1 Atwood 2004, p. 436.
- ↑ Tanner 2009, p. 94.
Sources[edit]
- Atwood, Christopher (2004). Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire. United States of America: Facts On File, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4381-2922-8. Search this book on
- Barthold, W. (1968). Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion (third ed.). Messers. Luzac and Company Ltd. Search this book on
- Boyle, J. A., ed. (1968). The Cambridge History of Iran. 5. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-06936-6. Search this book on
- Bregel, Yuri (2003). A Historical Atlas of Central Asia. Brill, Boston. ISBN 978-90-04-12321-2. Search this book on
- Buniyatov, Z.M. (2015). A History of The Khorezmian State under the Anushteginids 1097 – 1231. IICAS Samarkand. ISBN 978-9943-357-21-1. Search this book on
- Fleet, John F.; Temple, Richard C., eds. (1885). The Indian Antiquary a Journal of Oriental Research. XIV. Delhi: Swati Publications. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3372253. Search this book on
- Grousset, René (2003). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-1304-1. Unknown parameter
|orig-date=ignored (help) Search this book on - Jaques, Tony (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: P-Z. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-33539-6. Search this book on
- Juvaini, Ata-Malik (1997). Mirza Muhammad Qazwini, ed. Genghis Khan: The History of the World Conqueror. Translated by John Andrew Boyle. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-5144-9. Search this book on
- Mclynn, Frank (2015). Genghis Khan His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-82396-1. Search this book on
- Sverdrup, Carl (2017). The Mongol Conquests The Military Operations of Genghis Khan and Sübe'etei. West Midlands: Helion & Company Limited. ISBN 978-1-910777-71-8. Search this book on
- Tanner, Stephen (2002). Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander The Great to the Fall of The Taliban. DA CAPO Press. ISBN 0-306-81233-9. Search this book on
- Tanner, Stephen (2009). Afghanistan - A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War Against the Taliban. Da Capo Press. p. 94. Search this book on
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