See Also: Khwarezm(encyclopedia)
Khwarezm-Shah dynasty(encyclopedia)

Khwarezm (sh)




or Khwarizm

Historic region along the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus River), in modern Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

It formed part of the empire of Achaemenian Persia in the 6th-4th centuries BC. The Arabs conquered it in the 7th century AD. In the following centuries it was ruled by many, including the Seljuqs, Khwarezm-shahs, Mongols, and Timurids, until the early 16th century, when it became the centre of the khanate of Khiva. In 1873 Russia conquered the region and made it a protectorate. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the khanate was replaced by a Soviet republic, which was later dissolved and incorporated into the U.S.S.R.