Battle of Parwan

Battle of Parwan
Part of the Mongol invasion of Central Asia
Date 1221 Location Parwan village, near Ghazni Result Khwarezmian victory
Belligerents
Mongol Empire	Khwarezmian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Shihihutag	Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu
Strength
unknown	unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

The Battle of Parwan was fought between sultan Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu of the Khwarezmid Empire and the Mongols in 1221.^[1]

Battle

Following the Mongol invasion of Khwarezm Jalal ad-Din was forced to flee towards the Hindukush, where he began to muster additional troops to face the Mongols. With the arrival of over 30,000 Afghan warriors from what is now Afghanistan; his strength reportedly rose to 60,000. Though badly equipped and ill-managed being tribal Lashkar, they managed to defeat the Mongol hordes under the command of Shikhikhutug after the day-long battle at Parwan in the vicinity of Ghazni.

But the Khwarezmian prince did not prove himself as able in victory as he had been in defeat.^[2] In a dispute over the spoils -a Mongolian white horse- between his father-in-law and an Afghan Chief, he sided with his father-in-law. The Afghans left their camp fire burning and left the same night, despite being completely exhausted by the day's fighting. Finding himself without more than half of his fighting strength Jalal ad-Din retreated the next day towards the east.

Aftermath

As he no longer had sufficient resources to last another battle, they headed towards the Indus river to the area north of the present city of Kalabagh, Pakistan. The Mongols caught up with him on the banks of the Indus and defeated him what in now referred to as the Battle of Indus.^[3]

References

1. The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 1; Volume 3. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2003. p. 33.
2. Harold Lamb, Chenghez Khan, 173.
3. A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle, Vol.I, ed. Spencer C. Tucker, (ABC-CLIO, 2010), 273.