Mahmud of Ghazni

Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Sabuktigin (

Mahmud's companion was a Georgian slave, Malik Ayaz, about whom poems and stories have been told.^[12]

Early career

In 994 Mahmud joined his father Sabuktigin in the capture of Khorasan from the rebel Fa'iq in aid of the Samanid Emir, Nuh II. During this period, the Samanid Empire became highly unstable, with shifting internal political tides as various factions vied for control, the chief among them being Abu'l-Qasim Simjuri, Fa'iq, Abu Ali^{[citation needed]}, the General Bekhtuzin as well as the neighbouring Buyids and Kara-Khanid Khanate.

Reign

Sabuktigin died in 997, and was succeeded by his son

Following the defeat of the Indian Confederacy, after deciding to retaliate for their combined resistance, Mahmud then set out on regular expeditions against them, leaving the conquered kingdoms in the hands of

In 1014 Mahmud led an expedition to

In 1025 Mahmud raided

Historians including Thapar, Eaton, and A. K. Majumdar have questioned the iconoclastic historiography of this incident. Thapar quoted Majumdar (1956):

But, as is well known, Hindu sources do not give any information regarding the raids of Sultan Mahmud, so that what follows is based solely on the testimony of Muslim authors.^[41]

Thapar also argued against the prevalent narrative:

Yet in a curiously contradictory manner, the Turko-Persian narratives were accepted as historically valid and even their internal contradictions were not given much attention, largely because they approximated more closely to the current European sense of history than did the other sources.^[42]

Political challenges

The last four years of Mahmud's life were spent contending with the influx of

Death

Sultan Mahmud died on 30 April 1030. His mausoleum is located in Ghazni, Afghanistan.

Campaign timeline

As emir

• 994: Gains the title of Saif ad-Dawla and becomes Governor of Khorasan under service to Nuh II of the Samanid Empire in civil strife
• 995: The Samanid rebels Fa'iq (leader of a court faction that had defeated Alptigin's nomination for Emir) and Abu Ali expel Mahmud from Nishapur. Mahmud and Sabuktigin defeat Samanid rebels at Tus
• 997: Kara-Khanid Khanate

As sultan

• 999: Khorasan, Balkh, Herat, Merv from the Samanids. A concurrent invasion from the north by the Qarakhanids under Elik Khan (Nasr Khan) ends Samanid rule.
• 1000: Sistan from Saffarid dynasty
• 1001: Gandhara: Sultan Mahmud defeats Raja Jayapala in the Battle of Peshawar; Jayapala subsequently abdicates and commits suicide.
• 1002: Seistan: Is imprisoned in Khuluf
• 1004: Bhatia (Bhera) is annexed after it fails to pay its yearly tribute.
• 1005-6: Multan: Fateh Daud, the Ismaili ruler of Multan
  Anandapala. Mahmud massacres the Ismailis^[44][45] of Multan in the course of his conquest. Anandapala is defeated at Peshawar and pursued to Sodra (Wazirabad
  ).

Ghor and Muhammad ibn Suri are then captured by Mahmud, made prisoner along with Muhammad ibn Suri's son, and taken to Ghazni, where Muhammad ibn Suri dies. Appoints Sewakpal to administer the region.

• 1005: Defends Balkh and Khorasan against Nasr I of the Kara-Khanid Khanate and recaptures Nishapur from Isma'il Muntasir of the Samanids.
• 1005: Sewakpal rebels and is defeated.
• 1008: Mahmud defeated the Hindu Shahis in the Battle of Chach near Hazro in Chach,^[47] and captures the Shahi treasury at Kangra, Himachal Pradesh.

Note: A historical narrative states in this battle, under the onslaught of the

Anandapala's elephant took flight and turned the tide of the battle.^{[citation needed}

]

• 1010: Ghor; against Amir Suri
• 1010: Multan revolts. Abul Fatah Dawood is imprisoned for life at Ghazni.
• 1012-1013: Sacks Thanesar^[47]
• 1012: Invades Gharchistan and deposes its ruler Abu Nasr Muhammad.
• 1012: Demands and receives remainder of the province of Khorasan from the Abbasid Caliph. Then demands Samarkand as well but is rebuffed.
• 1013: Bulnat: Defeats Trilochanpala.
• 1014: Kafiristan is attacked
• 1015: Mahmud's army sacks Lahore, but his expedition to Kashmir fails, due to inclement weather.^[48]
• 1015:
  Khwarezm
  : Marries his sister to Abul Abbas Mamun of Khwarezm, who dies in the same year in a rebellion. Moves to quell the rebellion and installs a new ruler and annexes a portion.

• 1017: Kannauj, Meerut, and Muhavun on the Yamuna, Mathura and various other regions along the route. While moving through Kashmir he levies troops from vassal Prince for his onward march; Kannauj and Meerut submit without battle.
• 1018-1020: Sacks the town of Mathura.^[47]
• 1021: Raises Ayaz to kingship, awarding him the throne of Lahore
• 1021:
  Kalinjar attacks Kannauj: he marches to their aid and finds the last Shahi King, Trilochanpaala, encamped as well. No battle, the opponents leave their baggage trains and withdraw from the field. Also fails to take the fort of Lokote again. Takes Lahore on his return. Trilochanpala flees to Ajmer. First Muslim governors appointed east of the Indus River
  .
• 1023: Lahore. He forces Kalinjar and
  Punjab
  by Ghazni. Also fails to take the Lohara fort on the western border of Kashmir for the second time.
• 1024:
  Somnath was renowned, and consequently it became an attractive target for Mahmud, as it had previously deterred most invaders. The temple and citadel
  are sacked, and most of its defenders massacred.
• 1025:
  Somnath: Mahmud sacks the temple and is reported to have personally hammered the temple's gilded Lingam to pieces, and the stone fragments are carted back to Ghazni, where they are incorporated into the steps of the city's new Jama Masjid (Friday Mosque) in 1026. He places a new king on the throne in Gujarat as a tributary. His return detours across the Thar Desert to avoid the armies of Ajmer
  and other allies on his return.
• 1025: Marches against the
  Somnath
  .
• 1027:
  Rey, Isfahan, Hamadan
  from the Buyids Dynasty.
• 1027: Devastates the fleet of Jats in Indus river to avenge the "heavy losses" suffered by his army in an onslaught by Jats in 1026 CE.[32]
• 1028, 1029: Merv, Nishapur are lost to Seljuq dynasty

View on religion and war

Under the reign of Mahmud of Ghazni, the region broke away from the

Following Mahmud's recognition by the Abbasid caliphate in 999, he pledged a jihad and a raid on India every year.[54] In 1005 Mahmud conducted a series of campaigns during which the Ismailis of Multan were massacred.^[55]

Following his quest for Jihad against the infidels of India, Mahmud Ghazni not only ruined the Somnath temple and plundered its treasures but also killed every devotee present in the town. He did the same with women devotees, either killing them or kidnapped them to be later sold in the slave markets of Afghanistan.^[56]

Mahmud used his plundered wealth to finance his armies which included mercenaries. The Indian soldiers, whom

Indian historian Mohammad Habib states that there was no imposition of Jizya on "non-Muslims" during the reign of Mahmud of Ghazni nor any mention of "forced conversions":

[H]is (Mahmud's) expeditions against India were not motivated by religion but by love of plunder.^[58]

A. V. Williams Jackson, Professor of Indo-Iranian Languages in Columbia University has written in his book History of India, "Mahmud vowed that every year he would wage a Holy War against the infidels of Hindustan".

Tomb of Mahmud of Ghazni

Agra fort.^[63]

By the end of his reign, the

Punjab and of Sindh in modern-day Pakistan came under his semi-permanent rule; Kashmir, the Doab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat

remained under the control of the local Hindu dynasties.

The booty brought back to

Abolfazl Beyhaghi, Ferdowsi) give descriptions of the magnificence of the capital, as well as of the conqueror's munificent support of literature. He transformed Ghazni, the first centre of Persian literature,^[64] into one of the leading cities of Central Asia, patronizing scholars, establishing colleges, laying out gardens, and building mosques, palaces, and caravansaries. Mahmud brought whole libraries from Ray and Isfahan to Ghazni. He even demanded that the Khwarizmshah court send its men of learning to Ghazni.^[65]

Mahmud patronized the notable poet Ferdowsi, who after laboring 27 years, went to Ghazni and presented the Shahnameh to him. There are various stories in medieval texts describing the lack of interest shown by Mahmud to Ferdowsi and his life's work. According to historians, Mahmud had promised Ferdowsi a dinar for every distich written in the Shahnameh (which would have been 60,000 dinars), but later retracted his promise and presented him with dirhams (20,000 dirhams), at that time the equivalent of only 200 dinars. His expedition across the Gangetic plains in 1017 inspired Al-Biruni to compose his Tarikh Al-Hind in order to understand the Indians and their beliefs. During Mahmud's rule, universities were founded to study various subjects such as mathematics, religion, the humanities, and medicine.

On 30 April 1030 Sultan Mahmud died in Ghazni at the age of 58. Sultan Mahmud had contracted malaria during his last invasion. The medical complication from malaria had caused lethal tuberculosis.

The Ghaznavid Empire was ruled by his successors for 157 years. The expanding

Mu'izz al-Din

(also known as Muhammad of Ghori) captured the last Ghaznavid stronghold at Lahore in 1187.

Despite Mahmud's remarkable abilities as a military commander, he failed to consolidate his empire's conquests with subtle authority. Mahmud also lacked the genius for administration and could not build long term enduring institutions in his state during his reign.^[66][67]

The military of Pakistan has named its

Ghaznavi Missile in honour of Mahmud of Ghazni.^[68]

In addition, the Pakistan Military Academy, where cadets are trained to become officers of the Pakistan Army, also gives tribute to Mahmud of Ghazni by naming one of its twelve companies Ghaznavi Company.

Personality

Sultan Mahmud thought of himself as "the Shadow of the God on Earth",^[69] an absolute power whose will is law. He paid great attention to details in almost everything, personally overseeing the work of every department of his divan (administration).^[70]

Mahmud appointed all his ministers himself without advising his wazir (chief advisor) or diwan, though occasionally he had to, as his religion dictated that Muslims should consult each other on all issues.^[71] Most of the time he was suspicious of his ministers, particularly of the wazir, and the following words are widely believed to be his: "wazirs are the enemies of kings..."^[71] Sultan Mahmud had numerous spies (called mushrifs) across his empire, supervised by the special department within his diwan.^[72]

Mahmud was a patron of literature, especially poetry, and he was occasionally found in the company of talented poets either in his palace or in the royal garden. He was often generous to them, paying unstintingly for their works according to their talent and worth.^[71]

See also

• History of Afghanistan
• Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent

References

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3. ^ ^{a b} Grousset 1970, p. 146.
4. ^ ^{a b} Meri 2005, p. 294.
5. ^ "Maḥmūd | king of Ghazni". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
6. ^ Heathcote 1995, p. 6.
7. ^ Anjum 2007, p. 234.
8. ^ Bosworth 1991, p. 65.
9. ^ ^{a b c} Bosworth 2012.
10. ^ Nazim & Bosworth 1991, p. 915.
11. ^ Bosworth 2012b.
12. ^ Ritter 2003, p. 309-310.
13. ^ Nazim & Bosworth 1991, p. 65.
14. ^ Bosworth 1963, p. 45.
15. ^ Bosworth 1983, pp. 303–304.
16. ^ "Medieval Catapult Illustrated in the Jami' al-Tawarikh". IEEE Reach. Mahmud ibn Sebuktegin attacks the rebel fortress (Arg) of Zarang in Sijistan in 1003 AD
17. ^ Bosworth 1963, p. 89.
18. ^ ^{a b} Holt, Lambton & Lewis 1977, p. 3-4.
19. ^ "An Indian Embassy before Sultan Mahmud of Ghanzna, from the "Majmal al-Tawarikh" of Hafiz-e Abru". worcester.emuseum.com.
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21. ^ Saunders 1947, p. 162.
22. ^ ^{a b} Barnett 1999, p. 74-78.
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24. ^ ^{a b} F.M. Hassnain (1977). Hindu Kashmīr pp74. 74: Light & Life Publishers. p. 138.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
25. ^ Rafiqi, Abdul Qaiyum (October 1972). "Chapter 1" (PDF). Sufism in Kashmir from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century (Thesis). Australian National University. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
26. ^ Sethi, R. R.; Saran, Parmatma; Bhandari, D. R. (1951). The March of Indian History. Ranjit Printers & Publishers. p. 269.
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30. ^ Krishna Narain Seth 1978, pp. 162–163.
31. ^ Mahesh Singh 1984, pp. 60–62.
32. ^
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    . In 1026, warriors of the Jats, the indigenous population of Sindh, inflicted heavy losses on Mahmud's army when he retreated from Somnath to Multan. Mahmud returned a year later to take revenge on the Jats, who had been stubbornly resisting forced Islamisation since the eighth century. As the contemporary writer Gardizi reports, Mahmud had 1,400 boats built; each boat was to carry 20 archers and be equipped with special projectiles that could be filled with naphtha. Mahmud's fleet sailed down the Jhelum and then the Indus, until it met the Jat fleet. Although the Jats had far more boats than Mahmud, their fleet was set ablaze and destroyed.
33. ^ Khan 2007, p. 66.
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35. ^ I. H. Qureshi et al., A Short History of Pakistan (Karachi Division (Pakistan): University of Karachi, 2000), (p.246-247)
36. ^ Yagnik & Sheth 2005, pp. 39–40.
37. ^ Thapar 2005, pp. 36–37.
38. ^ Thapar 2005, p. 75.
39. ^ Thapar 2005, Chapter 3.
40. ^ Meenakshi Jain (21 March 2004). "Review of Romila Thapar's "Somanatha, The Many Voices of a History"". The Pioneer. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
41. ^ A. K. Majumdar, Chalukyas of Gujarat (Bombay, 1956), quoted in Thapar 2005, p. 16
42. ^ Thapar 2005, p. 14.
43. ^ Blank 2001, p. 37.
44. ^ Hanifi 1964, p. 21.
45. ^ Daftary 2005, p. 68.
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47. ^ ^{a b c} Barua 2005, p. 27.
48. ^ Chandra 2006, p. 18.
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51. ^ Cappelletti, Sara. ""The bilingual coins of Maḥmūd of Ghazna (r. 998-1030) Translating the medieval Indo-Islamic world between Arabic and Sanskrit" (Poster presented at the Workshop "Les Ghaznavides et leurs voisins: nouvelles recherches sur le monde iranien oriental" at CNRS, Ivry sur Seine, February 26th, 2016)". CNRS.
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53. ^ Kumar 2008, p. 127.
54. ^ Qassem 2009, p. 19.
55. ^ Virani 2007, p. 100.
56. ISBN 978-81-207-0617-0
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57. ISBN 9781844670208
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58. ^ Habib 1965, p. 77.
59. ^ A. V. Williams Jackson. "Chapter 2 – The Idol-Breaker – Mahmud of Ghazni – 997–1030 A.D."
60. ISBN 9004102361
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61. S2CID 238121625
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62. ^ Williams, Teri (3 May 2021). "The Lost Splendour of Ghazni". Edinburgh University Press.
63. ^ Agra Fort Museum notice
64. ^ "Arts, Islamic". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 20 October 2006.
65. ^ Bosworth 1963, p. 132.
66. ISBN 978-81-317-3202-1
    . Despite his huge conquests, Mahmud could not ,consolidate them with firm hand. He lacked the genius for civil administration, and neither did his reign create any lasting institutions. There were no enduring bonds between the conqueror and the conquered in a state that was built and maintained by force alone.
67. ISBN 978-81-241-1064-5
    . He also gave patronage to literary men and poets, such as Firdausi, and carried forward the Persian renaissance which had begun with the Samanids. But he built no lasting institutions which could outlive him
68. ^ Ramachandran 2005.
69. ^ Ibn Qutaiba, Uyunu'l-Akhbar, p.3
70. ^ Nazim 1931, p. 127.
71. ^ ^{a b c} Nazim 1931, p. 128.
72. ^ Nazim 1931, p. 144.

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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mahmud of Ghazni.

• UCLA website
• Mahmud of Ghazna Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth Edition)
• Mahmud Encyclopædia Britannica (Online Edition)
• Ghaznavid Dynasty Encyclopædia Britannica (Online Edition)
• Ghaznavids and Ghurids Encyclopædia Britannica (Online Edition)
• Mahmud Ghazni
• History of Iran: Ghaznevid Dynasty
• Rewriting history and Mahmud of Ghazni
• [1] Online Copy:Last Accessed 11 October 2007 Elliot, Sir H. M., Edited by Dowson, John.
  The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period
• Tarikh Yamini, or Kitabu-l Yami of Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad al Jabbaru-l 'Utbi.

Preceded by: Ismail of Ghazni

Ghaznavid Sultan 998–1030

Followed by: Mohammad Ghaznavi