Warlord Anarchy, circa 1200 CE
Tekish, allied with troops sent by the Caliph, went on to take Hamadan, and was nominated as Sultan, following which he appointed Qutlugh Inanj as nominal governor of the region, but gave the real power to his own sons Yunus Khan and Muhammad Khan, and awarded land to his amirs. Neither Qutlugh, nor the Caliph's vizier, Mu'ayyid al-Din ibn al-Qassab, was happy with this, and once Tekish had left for Khorasan, early in 591 H (autumn 1194 CE) Qutlugh marched an army towards Hamadan. Yunus' general Miyajuq brought a force out from Ray and defeated him, but over the winter, Qutlugh joined forces with Mu'ayyid, and they returned to drive Yunus and Miyajuq back from Hamadan to Ray, which they then attacked. The Khwarazmians abandoned the city and headed east towards Djurdjan, at which point Qutlugh betrayed Mu'ayyid by leading his own force into Ray and taking possession (and allowing his troops to take possession of anything movable). Mu'ayyid therefore laid siege to the city, and when the defences were breached, Qutlugh was forced to withdraw. The vizier also let his victorious troops take what they wanted from Ray, before taking them in pursuit of his former ally.
Failing to capture Qutlugh, Mu'ayyid attempted instead to drive all the remaining Khwarazmians out of western Iran, but late in 592 H (July 1196 CE) he fell ill and died, shortly before the Khwarazm Shah returned with his main army. Tekish therefore sent Miyajuq to reconquer Hamadan, while he captured Ray. A couple of months earlier, Muhammad Khan and Miyajuq, with help from Yunus Khan's wife (daughter of the late Sultan Toghril) had arranged an ambush in which Qutlugh was beheaded. The power vacuum in the anti-Khwarazmian forces was quickly filled by a mamluk (soldier-slave) named Nur al-Din Kukya, who seized Hamadan as soon as Tekish was safely on his way back eastwards, then formed an alliance with other mamluks and displaced Iranian amirs, which went on to take Ray, where Miyajuq's treasury was seized, and his supporters killed. Hearing of this, Miyajuq assembled a large force, so Kukya and his allies fled the city as the Khwarazmians approached in 593 H (1197 CE). In the spring of 594 H (1198 CE) Tekish returned, and appointed Miyajuq as his deputy with full responsibility for western Iran (Iraq Adjami). After the Khwarazm Shah had left again, Miyajuq and his troops began pillaging the whole region, so Abu Bakr of Azerbaijan and Ay Aba (an honourable mamluk who had given up supporting Qutlugh when it became apparent how much damage the wars were doing) formed an alliance to bring him under control. They defeated him that autumn, and Abu Bakr's troops settled at Ray for the winter, but then he received word that the Khwarazm Shah was returning, so he hurried back to Azerbaijan, giving Miyajuq's army the opportunity to re-enter the city and continue pillaging. On hearing in 595 H that Tekish was indeed returning, and intended to punish him, he left rapidly (he was later caught and punished).
Once Miyajuq had fled Ray, Kukya returned there. Although Abu Bakr was his father -in-law, he ignored all attempts to control him, which Abu Bakr could not easily back up with force, because he had to devote most of his resources to fighting Crusaders on his western borders. Perceiving this as weakness, many of Abu Bakr's eastern supporters switched their allegiance to Kukya. Tekish could probably have controlled him, but in Ramadan 596 H (June 1200) the Khwarazm Shah died, and was succeeded by Muhammad Khan (who took the honorific name 'Ala' al-Din). Among the first to hear of this were the Ghurid leaders then in power at Ghazni, the brothers Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam and Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam, and within weeks they had moved their armies westwards into Khorasan. Once they had captured Nishapur, Mu'izz al-Din was sent on an expedition towards Ray, but he let his troops get out of control and got little further than Djurdjan, earning criticism from Ghiyath al-Din which led to the only reported quarrel between the brothers. Meanwhile, when the news of Tekish's death reached the Iranian Iraqis, they killed every Khwarazmian they could find.
Another mamluk, Nur al-Din Gokche, took control of Ray (possibly without violence), and eventually the whole of north-western Iran, but in 600H (1203-4 CE) he was defeated by yet another mamluk, Shams al-Din Ai-Toghmish, and killed. In the same year Kukya was defeated in battle by one of his former mamluk associates, Aydughmish, and killed. Shams formed an alliance with Abu Bakr which brought peace to the region for several years, but in 608 H (1211-12 CE) he was ousted by the power-hungry Mengli, against whom the Caliph eventually formed a successful grand alliance, in 612 H (1215–16). Another mamluk, Saif al-Din Ighlamish, was appointed as governor in north-western Iran, then in 614 H (1217 CE) the Khwarazm Shah 'Ala' al-Din Muhammad, having gained some stability in Khwarazm and Khorasan, brought his army west to claim the Sultanate which had been granted to his father. Ighlamish decided to recognise the claim, but was soon assassinated. Learning of this power vacuum, Sa'd ibn Zangi, the atabeg of Fars, brought his army north to seize power in Ray. He seems to have learned of the assassination, but not of the presence of 'Ala' al-Din's large Khwarazmian army in the vicinity, and he was defeated and captured (sources are divided on whether he actually got into the city at all, or was stopped en route). In return for tribute payments and other forfeitures, he was freed and treated as an ally.
Less than three years later, early in 617 H (1220 CE) the refugee geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi passed through the semi-ruined city. It was explained to him that, a short distance to the north, there was a large village or market-town, consisting largely of underground dwellings, "with rebellious inhabitants. They not only disregard their governors, but are in constant clashes amongst themselves, to the extent that the inhabitants of its twelve quarters cannot visit one another" (he also implied that one reason for the luxuriant horticulture around the village was that grazing animals were likely to be stolen). Most of the population of Ray had not gone far; they had merely left the fortifications to the warriors, and settled in the strategically insignificant village, Tehran.
Read more about this topic: Military History Of Ray, Iran