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I think whoever advised the shah of Khwarazm to execute the envoy of Genghis Khan has to go down as the worst political adviser in history. Genghis and the Mong

• thaumasiotes 6y ago
  > the Mongol Army practically wiped out the entire country in retaliation. He can't have been the worst, then; worse things have happened to countries than just being "practically wiped out". Compare Nongqawuse, who did not hold an official advisory position, but who nevertheless "successfully" advised the Xhosa that the solution to the stress they were under through contact with the British was to destroy all their crops and slaughter all their cattle. Unsurprisingly, they mostly starved to death afterwards.
• satvikpendem 6y ago
  This marked the beginning of the end of the Islamic Golden Age, and Baghdad still hasn't recovered. That is one of the most interesting facts to me, that over 600 years later the Middle East is still in disarray.
• throwawaysea 6y ago
  That would be Inalchuq (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inalchuq https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inalchuq), the governor who killed Genghis Khan’s envoys who were there to make a trade deal and open relations. He suggested that the trade caravan were spies (which may have been correct) and got permission from the shah to kill them and take their goods. The shah repeated the same offense to the khan a second time when Genghis sent a second set of diplomats demanding that Inalchuq be punished or handed over.