In addition to Shihāb al-Dīn al-Khīwaqī’s nisba, which indicates that his family hailed from Khīwa in the heart of Khwārizm, it turns out that there is much information available about him, from both primary and secondary sources because of his eminence as a scholar and also advisor to the Khwārizm Shāh ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad (596-617/1199-1219).