Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Sabuktigin (Persian:ابوالقاسم محمود بن سبکتگین,romanized: Abu al-Qāṣim Maḥmūd ibn Sabuktigīn; 2 November 971 – 30 April 1030), usually known asMahmud of Ghazni orMahmud Ghaznavi (محمود غزنوی),[2] wasSultan of theGhaznavid Empire, ruling from 998 to 1030. During his reign and in medieval sources, he is usually known by hishonorific titleYamin al-Dawla (یمین الدوله,lit.'Right Handof the State'). At the time of his death, his kingdom had been transformed into an extensive military empire, which extended from northwesternIran proper to thePunjab in theIndian subcontinent,Khwarazm inTransoxiana, andMakran.
HighlyPersianized,[3] Mahmud continued the bureaucratic, political, and cultural customs of his predecessors, theSamanids. He established the ground for a futurePersianate state inPunjab, particularly centered onLahore, a city he conquered.[4] His capital ofGhazni evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual centre in the Islamic world, almost rivalling the important city ofBaghdad. The capital appealed to many prominent figures, such asal-Biruni andFerdowsi.[4]
Mahmud ascended the throne at the age of 27[5] upon his father's death, albeit after a brief war of succession with his brotherIsmail. He was the first ruler to hold the titleSultan ("authority"), signifying the extent of his power while at the same time preserving an ideological link to thesuzerainty of theAbbasid Caliphs. During his rule, he invaded and plundered the richest cities and temple towns, such asMathura andSomnath in medievalIndia seventeen times, and used the booty to build his capital in Ghazni.[6][7]
Mahmud was born in the town ofGhazni in the region ofZabulistan (in present-dayAfghanistan) on 2 November 971. His father,Sabuktigin, was aTurkic slave commander who laid foundations to the Ghaznavid dynasty in Ghazni in 977, which he ruled as a subordinate of theSamanids, who ruledKhorasan andTransoxiana. Mahmud's mother was a local woman of possible Iranian descent from a landowning aristocrat family in the region of Zabulistan,[8][9] and he is therefore known in some sources asMahmud-i Zavuli ("Mahmud from Zabulistan").[9] Not much about Mahmud's early life is known, other than that he was a school-mate and foster brother ofAhmad Maymandi, a Persian native of Zabulistan.[10]
Mahmud married the daughter ofAbu'l Haret Ahmad,[11] and they had twin sons,Mohammad andMa'sud, who succeeded him one after the other; his grandson by Mas'ud,Maw'dud Ghaznavi, also later became ruler of the empire. According toMirat-i-Masudi ("Mirror of Masud"), a Persian-language hagiography written by Abdur Rahman Chishti in the 1620s, Mahmud's sister, Sitr-e-Mu'alla, was purportedly married to Dawood bin Ataullah Alavi, also known asGazi Saiyyed Salar Sahu, whose son wasGhazi Saiyyad Salar Masud.[12]
Mahmud's companion was aGeorgian slave,Malik Ayaz, about whom poems and stories have been told.[13]
In 994 Mahmud joined his fatherSabuktigin in the capture of Khorasan from the rebel Fa'iq in aid of the SamanidEmir,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, AbuAli[citation needed], the General Bekhtuzin as well as the neighbouringBuyids andKara-Khanid Khanate.
Sabuktigin died in 997, and was succeeded by his sonIsmail as the ruler of theGhaznavid dynasty. The reason behind Sabuktigin's choice to appoint Ismail as heir over the more experienced and older Mahmud is uncertain. It may have been due to Ismail's mother being the daughter of Sabuktigin's old master,Alptigin.[9] Mahmud shortly revolted, and with the help of his other brother, Abu'l-Muzaffar, the governor ofBust, he defeated Ismail the following year at thebattle of Ghazni and gained control over the Ghaznavid kingdom.[14] That year, in 998, Mahmud then traveled toBalkh and paid homage to AmirAbu'l-Harith Mansur b. Nur II.[15] He then appointedAbu'l-Hasan Isfaraini as hisvizier,[16] and then set out west from Ghazni to take theKandahar region followed by Bost (Lashkar Gah), which he transformed to a militarised city.
Mahmud's first campaign to the south was against anIsmaili state first established atMultan in 965 by ada'i from theFatimid Caliphate in a bid to curry political favor and recognition with theAbbasid Caliphate; he also engaged elsewhere with the Fatimids. At this point, Jayapala attempted to exact revenge for an earlier military defeat at the hands of Mahmud's father, who had controlled Ghazni in the late 980s and had cost Jayapala extensive territory. His sonAnandapala succeeded him and continued the struggle to avenge his father's suicide. In theBattle of Chach, he assembled a powerful confederacy that suffered defeat as his elephant turned back from the battle at a crucial moment, turning the tide in Mahmud's favor once more atLahore in 1008 and bringing Mahmud control of the Shahi dominions of Udbandpura.[19]
Mahmud of Ghazni receiving Indian elephants as tribute (Majmu al-Tawarikh, byHafiz-i Abru, Herat, 1425).[20][21]Captured IndianRaja brought to Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. Folio fromMajmu al-Tavarikh, byHafiz-i Abru, Herat, 1425.
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 ofHinduvassals andannexing only thePunjab region.[19] He also vowed to raid and loot the wealthy region of northwestern India every year.[22]
In 1001 Mahmud of Ghazni first invaded modern day Pakistan and then parts of India. Mahmud defeated, captured, and later released theHindu Shahi rulerJayapala, who had moved his capital toPeshawar (modern Pakistan). Jayapala killed himself and was succeeded by his sonAnandapala. In 1005 Mahmud of Ghazni invaded Bhatia (probably Bhera), and in 1006 he invadedMultan, at which time Anandapala's army attacked him. The following year Mahmud of Ghazni attacked and crushed Sukhapala, ruler ofBathinda (who had become ruler by rebelling against the Shahi kingdom). In 1008–1009, Mahmud defeated theHindu Shahis in theBattle of Chach. In 1013, during Mahmud's eighth expedition into eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Shahi kingdom (which was then under Trilochanapala, son of Anandapala) was overthrown.[23]
In 1014 Mahmud led an expedition toThanesar. The next year he unsuccessfully attackedKashmir. The ruler of KashmirSangramaraja had been an ally of theHindu Shahis against the Ghaznavids, and Mahmud wanted retribution.[24][25] Antagonized by Sangramaraja's having helped Trilochanapala, Mahmud invaded Kashmir. He advanced along theTohi river valley, planning to enter Kashmir through theTosamaidan pass. However, his advanced was checked by the strong fort of Loharkot. After having besieged the fort for a month, Mahmud abandoned the siege and retreated, losing many of his troops on his way and almost losing his own life as well. In 1021, Mahmud again attempted to invade Kashmir, but was again not able to advance beyond the Loharkot fort. After the two failed invasion attempts, he did not attempt to invade Kashmir again.[24][25][26]
In 1018 Mahmud attackedMathura and defeated a coalition of rulers there while also killing a ruler called Chandrapala. The city of Mathura was "ruthlessly sacked, ravaged, desecrated and destroyed".[3][27] In particular, Al-utbi mentioned in his workTarikh-e-yamini, that Mahmud Ghaznavi destroyed a "great and magnificent temple" in Mathura.[28] According toFirishta, writing a "History of Hindustan" in the 16th-17th century, the city of Mathura was the richest in India, and was consecrated toVāsudeva-Krishna. When it was attacked by Mahmud of Ghazni, "all the idols" were burnt and destroyed during a period of twenty days, gold and silver was smelted for booty, and the city was burnt down.[29] TheArt of Mathura fell into decline thereafter.[30]
In 1021 Mahmud supported theKannauj king againstChandela Ganda, who was defeated. That same year Shahi Trilochanapala was killed at Rahib and his son Bhimapala succeeded him.Lahore (modern Pakistan) was annexed by Mahmud. Mahmud besiegedGwalior, in 1023, where he was given tribute. Mahmud attackedSomnath in 1025, and its rulerBhima I fled. The next year, he captured Somnath and marched toKachch against Bhima I. That same year Mahmud also attacked the Jats of Jud and defeated them.[23] Mahmud's desecration of the Somnath temple in Gujarat in 1024 CE motivatedRajput kingBhoja to lead an army against him, however after Somnath raid, Mahmud Gazhnavi chose a more dangerous route via Sindh, to avoid facing the invading powerful armies of Bhoja, he passed through a desert, where the scarcity of food and water killed a large number of his soldiers and animals, Kitabh Zainu'l Akhbar (c. 1048 CE) by 'Abd al-Hayy Gardizi,Tabaqat-i-Akbari byNizamuddin Ahmad and Firishta's writings also mention this incident.[31][32]
Christoph Baumer notes that in 1026 CE,Jats "inflicted heavy losses" on the army of Mahmud while it was on its way from Somnath toMultan. Later in 1027 CE, he avenged the attack by the Jats, who had been resisting "forced Islamisation" for the past 300 years, by ravaging their fleet in theIndus river. Even though the Jats had a bigger fleet than Mahmud, he is said to have had around 20 archers on each of his 1400 boats, stocked with "special projectiles" carryingnaphtha, which he used to burn the Jats' fleet.[33]
The Indian kingdoms ofNagarkot,Thanesar,Kannauj, andGwalior were all conquered and left in the hands of Hindu,Jain, andBuddhist kings as vassal states and he was pragmatic enough not to neglect making alliances and enlisting local peoples into his armies at all ranks. Since Mahmud never kept a permanent presence in the northwestern subcontinent, he engaged in a policy of destroying Hindu temples and monuments to crush any move by the Hindus to attack the Empire;Nagarkot,Thanesar,Mathura,Kannauj,Kalinjar (1023)[34] andSomnath all submitted or were raided. It is estimated Mahmud's invasions killed over 2 million people.[35]
Ruins of theSomnath temple in the 19th century. Photograph by Henry Cousens
In 1025 Mahmud raidedGujarat, plundering theSomnath temple and breaking itsjyotirlinga. He took away booty of 2 million dinars. The conquest of Somnath was followed by a punitive invasion ofAnhilwara.[36][37][38] Some historians claim that there are records of pilgrimages to the temple in 1038 that do not mention damage to the temple.[39] However, powerful legends with intricate detail had developed regarding Mahmud's raid in the Turko-Persian literature,[40] which "electrified" the Muslim world according to scholarMeenakshi Jain.[41]
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.[42]
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.[43]
TheKara-Khanid ruler "Ilig Khan" on horse, submitting to Mahmud of Ghazni, who is riding an elephant.Jami al-Tawarikh, 1314
The last four years of Mahmud's life were spent contending with the influx ofOghuz andSeljuk Turks from Central Asia and the Buyid dynasty. Initially, after being repulsed by Mahmud, the Seljuks retired toKhwarezm, but Togrül and Çagrı led them to captureMerv andNishapur (1028–1029). Later, they repeatedly raided and traded territory with his successors across Khorasan andBalkh and even sackedGhazni in 1037. In 1040, at theBattle of Dandanaqan, they decisively defeated Mahmud's son,Mas'udI, resulting in Mas'ud abandoning most of his western territories to the Seljuks.
On 30 April 1030 Sultan Mahmud died in Ghazni at the age of 58. Sultan Mahmud had contractedmalaria during his last invasion. The medical complication from malaria had caused lethal tuberculosis. Hismausoleum is located inGhazni,Afghanistan.[44]
994: Gains the title of Saif ad-Dawla and becomes Governor of Khorasan under service to NuhII 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 fromNishapur. Mahmud and Sabuktigin defeat Samanid rebels atTus
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.
1001:Gandhara: Sultan Mahmud defeats Raja Jayapala in theBattle 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[45] revolts and enlists the aid ofAnandapala. Mahmud massacres the Ismailis[46][47] of Multan in the course of his conquest. Anandapala is defeated at Peshawar and pursued to Sodra (Wazirabad).
Ghor andMuhammad 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.Anandapala flees toKashmir, fort in the hills on the western border ofKashmir.
1015: Mahmud's army sacks Lahore, but his expedition toKashmir fails, due to inclement weather.[50]
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.
Silverjitals of Mahmud of Ghazni with bilingual Arabic and Sanskrit minted inLahore in 1028 CE. Obverse in Arabic:la ilaha illa'llah muhammad rasulullah sal allahu alayhi wa sallam "There is no God except Allah, and Muhammad is the meassenger of Allah" Reverse in Sanskrit (Sharada script):avyaktam eka muhammada avatāra nrpati mahamuda "There is one Invisible; Muhammad is theavatar; the king is Mahmud".[51][52][53][54]
1017: Kannauj,Meerut, and Muhavun on theYamuna, 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.
1021: RaisesAyaz to kingship, awarding him the throne ofLahore
1021:Kalinjar attacksKannauj: 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. TakesLahore on his return. Trilochanpala flees toAjmer. First Muslim governors appointed east of theIndus River.
1023: Lahore. He forces Kalinjar andGwalior to submit and pay tribute:[55] Trilochanpala, the grandson of Jayapala, is assassinated by his own troops. Official annexation ofPunjab by Ghazni. Also fails to take the Lohara fort on the western border of Kashmir for the second time.
1024:Ajmer, Nehrwala,Kathiawar: This raid is his last major campaign. The concentration of wealth atSomnath was renowned, and consequently it became an attractive target for Mahmud, as it had previously deterred most invaders. Thetemple andcitadel are sacked, and most of its defenders massacred.
1025:Somnath: Mahmud sacks the temple and is reported to have personally hammered the temple's gildedLingam to pieces, and the stone fragments are carted back to Ghazni, where they are incorporated into the steps of the city's newJama Masjid (FridayMosque) in 1026. He places a new king on the throne inGujarat as a tributary. His return detours across theThar Desert to avoid the armies ofAjmer and other allies on his return.
1025: Marches against theJats of theJood mountains who harry his army on its return from the sack ofSomnath.
Coins of Mahmud with theIslamic declaration of faith. Obverse legend with the name of the caliphal-Qadir bi-llah (in the fifth line). Reverse legend:Muhammad Rasul/Allah Yamin al-Daw/la wa-Amin al-Milla/Mahmud.
Under the reign of Mahmud of Ghazni, the region broke away from theSamanid sphere of influence. While he acknowledged theAbbasids ascaliph as a matter of form, he was also granted the titleSultan in recognition of his independence.
Following Mahmud's recognition by the Abbasid caliphate in 999, he pledged ajihad and a raid on India every year.[56] In 1005 Mahmud conducted a series of campaigns during which the Ismailis of Multan were massacred.[57]
Following his quest for Jihad in 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.[58]
Mahmud used his plundered wealth to finance his armies which included mercenaries. The Indian soldiers, whomRomila Thapar presumed to beHindus, were one of the components of the army with their commander calledsipahsalar-i-Hinduwan and lived in their own quarter of Ghazna practicing their own religion. Indian soldiers under their commander Suvendhray remained loyal to Mahmud. They were also used against a Turkic rebel, with the command given to a Hindu named Tilak according toBaihaki.[59]
Indian historianMohammad Habib states that there was no imposition ofJizya 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.[60]
A. V. Williams Jackson, Professor of Indo-Iranian Languages in Columbia University has written in his bookHistory of India, "Mahmud vowed that every year he would wage a Holy War against the infidels of Hindustan".[61] During the seventh year of his reign, Mahmud mintage fromLahore styled him as "Mahmudbut-shikan" (Mahmud the breaker of idols).[62]
The booty brought back toGhazni was enormous, and contemporary historians (e.g.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 ofPersian literature,[66] 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.[67]
Mahmud patronized the notable poet Ferdowsi, who after laboring 27 years, went to Ghazni and presented theShahnameh 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 adinar 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 200dinars. His expedition across the Gangetic plains in 1017 inspiredAl-Biruni to compose hisTarikh 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.
The Ghaznavid Empire was ruled by his successors for 157 years. The expandingSeljuk empire absorbed most of the Ghaznavid west. TheGhorids captured Ghazni in 1150, andMu'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.[68][69]
The military of Pakistan has named itsshort-range ballistic missile theGhaznavi Missile in honour of Mahmud of Ghazni.[70] 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.
Portrait of Maḥmūd of Ghazni from the genealogyZübdet-üt Tevarih (1598)
Sultan Mahmud thought of himself as "the Shadow of the God on Earth",[71] an absolute power whose will is law. He paid great attention to details in almost everything, personally overseeing the work of every department of hisdivan (administration).[72]
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.[73] 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..."[73] Sultan Mahmud had numerous spies (calledmushrifs) across his empire, supervised by the special department within his diwan.[74]
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.[73]
^Rafiqi, Abdul Qaiyum (October 1972)."Chapter 1"(PDF).Sufism in Kashmir from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century (Thesis). Australian National University.Archived(PDF) from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved5 August 2021.
^Sethi, R. R.; Saran, Parmatma; Bhandari, D. R. (1951).The March of Indian History. Ranjit Printers & Publishers. p. 269.Archived from the original on 11 May 2024. Retrieved30 March 2021.
^abBaumer, Christoph (30 May 2016).The History of Central Asia: The Age of Islam and the Mongols.Bloomsbury. pp. 207–208.ISBN978-1838609399.Archived from the original on 11 May 2024. Retrieved26 June 2020.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.
^Williams, Teri (3 May 2021)."The Lost Splendour of Ghazni".Edinburgh University Press.Archived from the original on 20 September 2022. Retrieved19 September 2022.
^Salma Ahmed Farooqui (2011).A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: From Twelfth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century. Pearson Education India. pp. 49–50.ISBN978-81-317-3202-1.Archived from the original on 25 January 2024. Retrieved3 May 2022.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.
^Satish Chandra (2006).Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals (1206–1526). Vol. 1. Har-Anand Publications. pp. 20–21.ISBN978-81-241-1064-5.Archived from the original on 20 January 2023. Retrieved9 March 2022.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
Bosworth, C. Edmund (1983). "Abu'l-Ḥasan Esfarāʾīnī".Archived copy.Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 3. pp. 303–304.Archived from the original on 17 May 2023. Retrieved9 February 2019.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
Bosworth, C.E. (1991). "Mahmud bin Sebuktigin".Encyclopedia of Islam.VI. E.J.Brill.
Bosworth, C. Edmund (2012). "Maḥmud b. Sebüktegin".Archived copy.Encyclopaedia Iranica.Archived from the original on 17 May 2023. Retrieved9 February 2019.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
Bosworth, C. E. (2012b)."Āl-e Farīġūn".Encyclopaedia Iranica.
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