In a battle between Shah Malik and the Seljuks, the latter were defeated and forced to seek refuge in Ghaznavid Khurasan.
He did so in the hopes that Shah Malik would overthrow Harun's successor, Isma'il, who had become an enemy of the Ghaznavids.
The Seljuk ruler Tughril and his brother Chaghri descended upon Khwarazm in 1042 and forced him from the province.
He chose to flee to Kerman and then Makran (his territories of Jand and Yengi-kent may have been occupied by the Kipchaks, preventing him from returning there).
Shah Malik's wife Altun Jan Khatun married Tughril around 1043, and their son Anoushirvan remained with her after her marriage.