No trace of them remained, except that the stench of their footsteps had indelibly stained the Holy Land

I am dipping into Matthew Paris's Chronicles, a history of life in the thirteenth century.  

The Chronica Majora is the seminal work of Matthew Paris, a member of the English Benedictine community of St Albans and long-celebrated historian. The work begins with Creation and contains annals down to the year of Paris' death of 1259. The Chronica has long been considered a contemporary attempt to present a universal history of the world.

I have known of the Chronicles much my adult life but I have not ever been especially ardent in my interest in the Medieval era.  More accurately, perhaps, my interest has been episodic.

In my ever futile effort to cull books, I seize upon a long held copy of Chronicles of Matthew Paris: Monastic Life in the Thirteenth Century translated and edited by Richard Vaughan.  Surely too specialized and archaic to retain?

Well, no.  A fascinating glimpse into a different world.  It remains in the collection.

Matthew was not only an historian but an illuminator of chronicles as well.  His designs and art are charming as shown in this mid-1200s representation of an elephant.

Click to enlarge.

Leafing through the book, I came across this passage:

How the menace and strength of the Khorasmians in the Holy Land faded away

In the same year too, the entire race of the detestable Khorasmians after spreading fire and slaughter and bringing manifold destruction in the Holy Land, and after besieging and impoverishing Acre, was so weakened and enervated by God’s vengeance that it faded away. For they had broken with the sultan of Babylon and, deprived of his help, they suffered from want and were attacked and defeated by their enemies on all sides until their name was completely wiped off the face of the earth and no trace of them remained, except that the stench of their footsteps had indelibly stained the Holy Land.

Khoramsians?  Who they?

They appear to have been a short lived kingdom between the Seljuks (1031-1194) and the Mongols (1206-1368).   They were a Turkic tribe from Central Asia who adopted Persian culture.  While Paris knew them as Khoramsians, the modern rendition of their name is as the Khwarazmian Empire.  They were founded in 1077 and collapsed in 1220.  Their central territory was modern day Iran and into Central Asia.  

Following their collapse before the Mongols, the Khwarazmians essentially became mercenaries across the Near East, contracting in dynastic struggles as well as auxiliaries to other powers.

After the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire, many Khwarazmians survived by employing themselves as mercenaries in northern Iraq. Sultan Jalal ad-Din's followers remained loyal to him even after his death in 1231, and raided the Seljuq lands of Jazira and Syria for the next several years, calling themselves the Khwarazmiyya. Ayyubid Sultan as-Salih Ayyub, in Egypt, later hired them against his uncle as-Salih Ismail. The Khwarazmiyya, heading south from Iraq towards Egypt, invaded Crusader-held Jerusalem along the way, on 11 July 1244 (Siege of Jerusalem (1244)). The city's citadel, the Tower of David, surrendered on 23 August, and the Christian population of the city was expelled. This triggered a call from Europe for the Seventh Crusade, but the Crusaders would never again be successful in retaking Jerusalem. After being conquered by the Khwarazmian forces, the city stayed under Muslim control until 1917, when it was taken from the Ottomans by the British.

 

From there, Paris chronicles their demise.  

They suffered from want and were attacked and defeated by their enemies on all sides until their name was completely wiped off the face of the earth and no trace of them remained, except that the stench of their footsteps had indelibly stained the Holy Land.