The Battle of the Indus (1221)

After Parwan, Genghis Khan himself pursued Jalal al-Din with a large army. Having lost half his men, Jalal al-Din fell back to the Indus to cross into India. On the morning of 24 November 1221, as he prepared to cross, the Mongols caught up with him.

The Khwarazmian army of about 30,000 took a strong position on the riverbank and at first threw back the Mongol attacks. But when an elite Mongol detachment outflanked them and struck from behind, Jalal al-Din saw the battle was lost. In full armour he rode his horse off a high cliff into the river and swam to the far bank.

The Persian historian Juvayni writes that Genghis Khan ordered his archers not to shoot and told his sons, "Every father should have such a son." Jalal al-Din's family and almost all his army perished, but he fought the Mongols for another ten years in India, Iran and Azerbaijan.