The Islamic Slaughter of Persian Knowledge in Khwarazm (712 AD): The Brutal Eradication of Iranian Civilization By: Ofer Binshtok During the second Muslim (Umayyad) conquest of Khwarazm, Muslim forces under the command of Qutayba ibn Muslim (governor appointed by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf) carried out a systematic campaign against the educated elite. Al-Biruni himself: a prominent scientist and scholar born in Khwarazm (973 to 1048): describes it in his book "Al-Āthār al-Bāqiyah ʿan al-Qurūn al-Khāliyah" (The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries, also known as The Chronology of Ancient Nations): "When Qutayba ibn Muslim was sent to Khwarazm and conquered it for the second time, he promptly killed everyone who could write in the local Khwarezmian language and who knew the region's heritage, history, and culture. He then killed all their Zoroastrian priests and burned and destroyed their books, until only illiterate people remained who knew nothing of writing: and thus the history of the region was almost entirely forgotten." (Accurate translation from Eduard Sachau’s standard edition, 1879). This is direct testimony from a great Muslim historian, not a later polemical tale. It describes a direct outcome of the Muslim conquest: not merely battlefield killing, but the deliberate destruction of knowledge and cultural memory. Full source: Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Al-Āthār al-Bāqiyah ʿan al-Qurūn al-Khāliyah (pp. 48 to 49 in the standard English translation).
