Messengers of state and embassadors were considered sacred, sacrosanct or had some kind of official immunity in most states throughout history.
It was a fairly common practise because it’s just really hard to conduct affairs of state if anyone you send fears for their life.
When you want to provoke someone into war, killing their messengers is a tried and true method. I believe that was the goal of the khwarizmian shah when he killed those mongol messengers.
Messengers of state and embassadors were considered sacred, sacrosanct or had some kind of official immunity in most states throughout history.
It was a fairly common practise because it’s just really hard to conduct affairs of state if anyone you send fears for their life.
When you want to provoke someone into war, killing their messengers is a tried and true method. I believe that was the goal of the khwarizmian shah when he killed those mongol messengers.