He passed away(1) at daybreak on Friday, the tenth of Jumada I, in the year 640 AH.

His sovereignty endured for seventeen years, and he himself lived fifty-two.

In 624 AH the Khwarazm-Shah confronted the Tatars in the Isfahan region: he routed and scattered them, but they soon regrouped and charged again. His forces broke, leaving him with only fourteen horsemen, surrounded on every side. With a burst of courage he cut through them, and the engagement proved painful for both armies. He then took refuge within Isfahan(2).

The Ismaʿilis killed the amir of Ganja, an act that grieved Jalal al-Din. He therefore marched against their territories, killing and taking captives. They, in turn, gathered against him, and al-Ashraf’s army advanced with the chamberlain ʿAli, seizing Marand and Khuy, then returning to Khilat. They also captured the Khwarazm-Shah’s wife—a daughter of Sultan Tughril ibn Arslan the Seljuq. The Khwarazm-Shah had married her after Uzbak ibn al-Bahlawan, lord of Tabriz, but had neglected her; so she wrote to the chamberlain and delivered the lands into his hands.

Al-Muʿaẓẓam fell ill, gave away a thousand sacks of grain and eighty thousand dirhams in charity, bound the emirs by oath to his son al-Nasir Dawud, and died in Dhu al-Qaʿdah.

In that same year the qan, Genghis Khan the Mongol—tyrant of the Tatars—died in Ramadan; his ill-omened reign had lasted twenty-five years.

It is said that he began life as a blacksmith called Temurjin, and after him his son Ögedei assumed authority.

Al-Muʿaẓẓam lived forty-nine years and was well versed in the school of Abu Hanifah.