Gurganj (Khwarazm)

Gurganj (Arabic Jurjaniyya, later Kunya-Urgench), in present-day Turkmenistan, was the capital of the region of Khwarazm and a major centre of learning, especially under the Khwarazmshahs and the Ma'munid academy around 1000. The scholar al-Biruni (d. c. 1050) and the philosopher Ibn Sina were associated with its court; the Mu'tazilite Qur'an commentator al-Zamakhshari (d. 1144) came from Khwarazm.