ABSTRACT
The year 628 H exposed the weakness of Mongol administration. West of the Amu Darya control consisted only of the threat of marauding groups rather than any normal political organisation. Moreover, government in the region was principally focused on an individual personality rather than on communities. As a result, the death of the last Khwarazmshah allowed his new territories to relapse into the same conditions that had existed before his arrival. Regional leaders took cognisance of his absence instead of the presence of diverse Mongol raiding parties. Perhaps the best indication of the fluid situation was that the Mongols allowed Tabriz, Jalal al-Din’s capital, to return to its former rulers. There were two reasons for the local, basically non-Mongol, turn of events. The first was central Mongol policy, and the second was the semi-independent prerogatives assumed by the Mongol generals.
