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Mahmud of Ghazni (October 2, 971–April
30, 1030), also
known as Yamin ad-Dawlah
Mahmud (in full:
Yamin ad-Dawlah
Abd al-Qasim Mahmud
Ibn Sebük Tigin)
was the ruler of
Ghazni from 997
until his death.
Mahmud turned the
former provincial
city of Ghazni (in
present-day Afghanistan)
into the wealthy
capital of an extensive
empire which included
today's Afghanistan,
most of modern Iran,
and parts of Pakistan
and northern India.
Mahmud's grandfather
was Alptigin, a
Turkic general from
Balkh in Turkestan
who crossed the
Hindu Kush mountains
to seize Ghazni,
located strategically
on the road between
Kabul and Kandahar.
Alptigin was succeeded
in 977 by his son
Sabuktigin, who
enlarged upon his
Alptigin's conquests,
extending his domain
north to Balkh,
west to Kandahar
and Khorasan, and
east to the Indus
River. Sabuktigin
was recognized by
the Abbasi Caliph
in Baghdad as governor
of his dominions.
Sultan Alptigin
died in 997, and
was succeeded by
his younger son
Sultan Ismail of
Ghazni. Mahmud rebelled
against his younger
brother, Sultan
Ismail of Ghazni,
and took over the
Ghazni as the new
Sultan. Issuing
forth year after
year from his capital
of Ghazni, Sultan
Mahmud carried sixteen
or seventeen campaigns
into northern India
and Gujarat, as
well as others to
the north and west.
His first campaigns
were against the
Hindu Shahi kingdom,
which occupied the
Punjab from the
Indus east to the
Ganges. He had participated
in his father's
campaigns against
the Shahi king Jayapala
in the late 980s
that conquered the
Khayber
Pass region
as far east as the
Indus.
Sultan Mahmud campaigned
against the Shahis
in 1001, and in
1004 marched deep
into the Punjab,
defeated a Shahi
army and captured
Bhatia and Multan.
In 1008, he conquered
most of the Punjab
and captured the
Shahi treasury at
Kangra in the Punjab
Hill States, which
reduced the Shahi
kingdom to a sliver
of the eastern Punjab.
Mahmud's campaigns
seem to be motivated
by both religious
zeal and an interest
in wealth and gold.
Mahmud followed
the injunction to
convert pagans,
whom he had vowed
to follow every
year of his life.
Hindu temples were
depositories of
vast quantities
of wealth, in cash,
golden idols, diamonds,
and jewelry - and
these made them
targets for a non-Hindu
searching for wealth
in northern India.
The later invasions
of Mahmud were directed
against the pagan
temple towns, including
Nagarkot (1009),
Thanesar (1012),
Mathura and Kanauj
(1018), Kalinjar
1021, and finally
Somnath (1026).
Mahmud's armies
took the wealth
of the temples and
then destroyed them;
after Mahmud's raids
on the cities of
Varanasi, Ujjain,
Maheshwar, Jwalamukhi,
and Dwarka. The
concentration of
wealth at Somnath
was renowned, and
consequently it
became an attractive
target for Mahmud.
The raid in 1026
was his last major
campaign, and took
him across the Thar
Desert in Sindh,
which had previously
deterred most invaders.
The temple and citadel
were sacked, and
most of its Brahmin
defenders died in
the battle; Mahmud
personally hammered
the temple's gilded
lingam (the phallic
symbol of Shiva)
into pieces, and
the stone fragments
were carted back
to Ghazni, where
they were alleged
to be incorporated
into the steps of
the city's new
Jamia
Masjid (Friday mosque).
By the end of his
reign, his empire
extended from Kurdistan
in the west to Samarkand
in the northeast,
and from the Caspian
Sea to the Yamuna.
Although his raids
carried his forces
across northern
and western India,
only the Punjab
and Sindh, modern
Pakistan,
came under his permanent
rule; Kashmir,
the Doab, Rajasthan
and Gujarat remained
under the control
of the local Hindu
Rajput dynasties.
The wealth brought
back to Ghazni was
enormous, and contemporary
historians (e.g.
Abolfazl Beyhaghi,
Firdowsi)
give glowing descriptions
of the magnificence
of the capital,
as well as of the
conqueror's munificent
support of literature.
On April 30, 1030,
Sultan Mahmud died
in Ghazni, at the
age of 59 years.
Sultan Mahmud had
contracted malaria
during his last
invasion. The medical
complication from
malaria has caused
lethal tuberculosis.
In Afghanistan,
Mahmud is celebrated
as a national hero
and a great patron
of the arts, architecture
and literature as
well as a vanguard
of Islam and a paragon
of virtue and piety.
In modern Pakistan,
Mahmud of Ghazni
is hailed as a conquering
hero who established
the standard of
Islam
upon heathen land,
while in India he
may be depicted
as raiding iconoclastic
conqueror, bent
upon the loot and
plunder of Hindu
temples. Iranians
remember him as
an Orthodox Sunni
who was responsible
for the revival
of the Persian culture
by commissioning
and appointing Persians
to high offices
in his administration
as ministers, viziers
and generals. In
addition Iranians
remember him for
the promotion and
preference of Persian
language instead
of Turkish and patronage
of great nationalist
poets and scholars
such as Ferdowsi,
Al-Biruni and Ferishta
as well as his '''Lion
and Sun''' flag
which is still a
national symbol
in the modern state
of Iran.
The Ghaznavid Empire
was ruled by his
successors for 157
years, but after
Mahmud it never
reached anything
like the same
splendor
and power. The expanding
Seljuk Turkish empire
absorbed most of
the Ghaznavid west.
The Persian
Ghauris
captured Ghazni
c. 1150, and Muhammad
Ghauri captured the
last Ghaznavid stronghold
at Lahore
in 1187.
Page Last Updated:
Friday, March 28, 2008 17:12:50 -0400
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