Iran / Persia: A decorated ceramic bowl depicting a man and a woman of Turko-Mongolian ethnicity. Kashan, c1200, late Khwarezmid Period

The Khwarezm Shahs were a Persianate Turkish Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled over Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and western Afghanistan from a succession of capitals at Urgench, Samarkand, Ghazni and Tabriz.

Trade contacts between the Khwarezmids and China’s Song Dynasty (960-1279) were maintained via the Silk Road as well as by sea, but while Chinese porcelain techniques and designs strongly influenced Islamic potters, there is little indication of Chinese artistic influence on Iran and Central Asia through paintings.

In 1218 Genghis Khan sent ambassadors to Khwarezm, but they were seized and executed, prompting a Mongol invasion in 1220 that captured Bukhara, Urgench and Samarkand, resulting in the total destruction of the Khwarezmian state.

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