Rare! Huge silver broad dirhem of Ala ud-din Mohamed Khwarezmshah (1200-1220 AD)

Description

Al-Sultan in the center, Mohamed and additional inscriptions (al-Sultan al-azam... the rest unread) in the margins / Mohamed Bin Takesh in a monogram in the center, additional inscriptions (presumably mint and date) in the margins. 32mm, 5.81 grams. Mint of Balkh. MWOI rare type is poorly studied - the inscriptions were never read completely, and because this type is always very weakly struck, they are hard to read. Still, a very interesting and rare huge silver coin of this infamous ruler!Mohamed Khwarezmshah was the most famous and powerful of the rulers of Khwarezm, though he is most known for his downfall and the story of the great expansion of the Empire of Genghis Khan. In 1218, Genghis Khan sent some emissaries to the Shah, but when he executed the Mongol diplomats in defiance of the emerging great power, Genghis retaliated with a force of 200,000 men. In February 1220 the Mongolian army crossed the Syr Darya and launched the Mongol invasion of Central Asia. The Mongols stormed Bukhara, Samarkand, and the Khwarezmid capital Urgench. The Shah fled and died some weeks later on an island in the Caspian Sea.