| Ruler | Reign (CE) | Yrs | Father | Mother | Persian Name | فارسی |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Khwarazmshahs1 | ||||||
| Anushtegin Gharchai | 1077–1097 | 20 | Turkic ghulamSeljuk governor of Khwarazm | unknown | Anūshtegin Gharchā’i | انوشتگین غرچهای |
| Qutb al-Din Muhammad I | 1097–1127 | 30 | Anushtegin Gharchai | unknown | Qotb-al-Dīn Mohammad | قطبالدین محمد |
| Ala al-Din Atsiz | 1127–1156 | 29 | Qutb al-Din Muhammad I | unknown | Alā’-al-Dīn Atsiz | علاءالدین اتسز |
| Il-Arslan | 1156–1172 | 16 | Ala al-Din Atsiz | unknown | Il-Arslān | ایلارسلان |
| Ala al-Din Tekish | 1172–1200 | 28 | Il-Arslan | unknownended the Seljuks, 11942 | Alā’-al-Dīn Tekesh | علاءالدین تکش |
| Ala al-Din Muhammad II | 1200–1220 | 20 | Ala al-Din Tekish | unknowntriggered the Mongol invasion3 | Alā’-al-Dīn Mohammad | علاءالدین محمد خوارزمشاه |
| Jalal al-Din Mingburnu | 1220–1231 | 11 | Ala al-Din Muhammad II | unknownlast Khwarazmshah4 | Jalāl-al-Dīn Mingbornū | جلالالدین مینگبرنی |
1 Anushtegin Gharchai began as a Turkic slave-commander (ghulam) appointed Seljuk governor of the Khwarazm region, south of the Aral Sea. His descendants gradually transformed the governorship into a hereditary, and eventually fully independent, monarchy as Seljuk central authority declined.
2 Ala al-Din Tekish's defeat and killing of the last Great Seljuk successor sultan, Toghrul III, in 1194 made Khwarazm the dominant power across Iran and Central Asia almost overnight.
3 Under Ala al-Din Muhammad II the empire reached its greatest extent — briefly one of the largest states in the Islamic world, and one of the most catastrophically short-lived. His execution of a Mongol trade caravan and its envoys at the frontier city of Otrar in 1218 gave Genghis Khan his pretext for invasion.
4 The Mongol invasion of 1219–1221 was among history's most devastating campaigns, destroying Bukhara, Samarkand, Urgench, Merv and Nishapur. Muhammad II fled and died in obscurity on an island in the Caspian Sea; his son Jalal al-Din Mingburnu waged a remarkable seven-year running resistance against the Mongols across Iran, the Caucasus and Anatolia before being killed — reportedly by local bandits unaware of his identity — in 1231, the last gasp of Khwarazmian rule.