Mingburnu

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Jelal ad-Din Mingburnu (also جلال الدین منکبرنی Jalāl al-Dīn Menguberdī or Mankburny) was the last ruler of the Khwarezmid Empire. Following the defeat of his father, Ala ad-Din Muhammad II by Chinggis Khan in 1220, Jelal ad-Din Mingburnu came to power but he rejected the title shah that his father had assumed and called himself simply sultan. Due to the Mongol invasion and sacking of Samarkand, he was forced to flee to India with an escort of only five thousand men. At the river Indus however, the Mongols caught up with him and slaughtered his forces and thousands of refugees at the Battle of Indus.

Jelal ad-Din Mingburnu spent three years in exile in India before returning to Persia. He gathered an army and recaptured his empire. He never consolidated his power however, and he spent the rest of his days struggling against Mongols, pretenders to the throne and the Seljuk Turks of Rüm. He lost his power over Persia in a battle against the Mongols in the Alborz Mountains and fled to the Caucasus, where he captured the cities of Tabriz and Tbilisi. He had a brief victory over the Seljuks and captured the town Akhlat, but was later defeated by sultan Kay Qubadh I at the Battle of Yassi Chemen in 1230. He was murdered in 1231 by an assassin hired by the Seljuks or possibly by Kurdish highwaymen.

Jelal ad-Din Mingburnu's followers remained loyal to him even after his death and raided the Seljuk lands of Jazira and Syria for the next several years, calling themselves the Khwarezmiyyas. Ayyubid sultan Salih Ayyub later hired them as mercenaries against his uncle Salih Ismail and they captured Jerusalem in 1244. The Khwarezmiyyas served as Mameluks of Egypt before they were finally beaten by Mansur Ibrahim some years later.