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Mahmud of Ghazni

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Mahmud and AyazThe Sultan is to the right, shaking the hand of the sheykh, with Ayaz standing behind him. The figure to his right is Shah Abbas I who reigned about 600 years later.Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran
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Mahmud and Ayaz
The Sultan is to the right, shaking the hand of the sheykh, with Ayaz standing behind him. The figure to his right is Shah Abbas I who reigned about 600 years later.
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran

Mahmud of Ghazni (Persian: محمود غزنوی) (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 Turkic-Afghan 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.

Contents

Lineage

Mahmud's grandfather was Alptigin, a Turkic general from Balkh in Turkestan who crossed the Hindu Kush mountains to seize Ghazni from the Samanids, located strategically on the road between Kabul and Kandahar. Alptigin was succeeded in 977 by his slave and son-in-law 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 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.

Military campaigns

In 994 Mahmud was engaged with 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 state became highly unstable, with shifting internal political tides as various factions vied for control, cheif being Abu'l-Qasim Simjuri, Fa'iq, Abu Ali, the General Behtuzun as well as the neighbouring Buyid and Qarakhanids.

Sultan Mahmud's first campaign was against the Qarakhanid Empire in the North to his Empire. After his defeat he had to enlist the alliance of Seljuk Turks in southern Soghdia and Khwarazm and diplomatically secure his north by 998. In 999 under the reign of 'Abd al-Malik II of the Samanids engaged in hostilities with Mahmud over Khorasan after political alliances shifted under a new Samanid emir. These forces were defeated when the Kharakhanids under Nasr Khan invaded them from the North even as Fa'iq died.

Mahmud's first campaign to the south was against the Ismaili Fatimid Kingdom at Multan in a bid to curry political favour and recognition with the Abbassid Caliphate engaged with the Fatimids elsewhere. Raja Jayapala of the Hindu Shahi Dynasty of Gandhara at this point attempted to gain retribution for an earlier military defeats at the hands of Ghazni under Mehmud's father in the late 980s that had lost him Gandhara, the Khyber Pass region as far east as the Indus.

Mahmud had already had relationships with the leadership in Balkh through marriage, and its local Emir, Abu Nasr Mohammad, offered his services to the Sultan and his daughter to Mahmud's son, Muhammad. After Nasr’s death Mahmud brought Balkh under his leadership. This alliance greatly helped him during his expeditions into Northern India.

Campaign Timelines

As a Prince

As a Ruler (non-Indian Campaigns) Indian Campaigns Note: A historical narrative states in this battle, under the onslaught of the Khokar tribe Mahmud's army was about to retreat when Jayapala's son King Anandpala's elephant took flight and turned the tide of the battle. Mahmud's campaigns seem to be motivated by both religious zeal against both the Fatimids Shiites and non-Muslims; Buddhists, Jains and Hindus. His principal drive remained the Shiites, Buyid Iran as well as favor and recognition of independence from the Abbassid Caliphate and the wealth plundered from the Rajput Confederacy went a long way towards these ends. By 1027, Mahmud had accomplished this as well as capturing most of Pakistan and North Western India and obtained formal recognition of Ghazni's sovereignty from the Abbasid Khalifah, al-Qadir Billah, as well as the title of Yameen ud Daula. There is considerable evidence from writings of Al-Biruni, Soghidan, Uyghur and Manichean texts that the Buddhists, Hindus and Jains were accepted as People of the Book and references to Buddha as Burxan or a prophet can be found. After the initial destruction and pillage Buddhists, Jains and Hindus were granted protected subject status as dhimmis.Alexander Berzin, Berzin Archives, The Historical Interaction between the Buddhist and Islamic Cultures before the Mongol Empire, Part III: The Spread of Islam among and by the Turkic Peoples (840 - 1206 CE) [link]

Mahmuds expeditions in the Indian sub-continent are marked by a large baggage train of slaves as plunder. This has led to the accusation that he attempted to convert non-Muslims by force. He is also on record for having vowed to raid Hind every year.[[Citing sources citation needed]]

The later invasions of Mahmud were specifically directed to temple towns as Indian temples were depositories of great wealth, in cash, golden idols, diamonds, and jewellery; Nagarkot, Thanesar, Mathura, Kanauj, Kalinjar and Somnath. Mahmud's armies routinely stripped the temples of their wealth and then destroyed them; Varanasi, Ujjain, Maheshwar, Jwalamukhi, and Dwarka.

The Indian kingdoms of Nagarkot, Thanesar, Kannauj, Gwalior, Ujjain and Kalinjar were all conquered and left in the hands of Hindu, Jain and Buddhist Kings as vassal states and he was pragmatic enough not to shirk making alliances and enlisting local peoples into his armies at all ranks. Some of his raids were to quell rebellions or aid his newly acquired vassals.

The last four years of Mahmud's life were spent contending with the influx of Oghuz Turkic horse tribes from Central Asia, the Buyid Dynasty and rebellions by Seljuk Turks.

Relationship with Ayaz

It is related that Mahmud fell in love with a young male slave by the name of Ayaz. The love he bore his favourite, and the latter's devotion, became a staple of Islamic lore, emblematic of ideal love affairs. The Sultan, because of the power of his love, becomes "a slave to his slave." Ayaz became the paragon of the ideal beloved, and a model of purity in Sufi literature.

In 1021 the Sultan raised Ayaz to kingship, awarding him the throne of Lahore. The poet Sa'adi was among those celebrating the two.[link] "Under the Turkish Ghaznavid, Seljuk, and Khawarazmshah rulers of Iran in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, pederasty was quite common in courtly circles." [link]

Historical Controversies

Over the past century with the rise of hindutva and the partition of India a lot more attention has been focused on casualties, temple destructions, slavery and forced conversions to Islam than before. This controversy has been further stoked by the depictions of the historical Mahmud as either a hero or a villian by the polarization of nationalist or ideological orientations. In modern Pakistan he 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 invader, bent upon the loot and plunder of a peaceful hindu population. Conversion to Islam of the native population has also become a controversial topic with the versions of sword enforced mass conversions vs. inspirational missionary activity.

Legacy

Under his reign the region broke away cleanly from the Samanid sphere of influence and hastened their end. While he nominally acknowledged the Abbassids as Caliph as a matter of form, he was also granted the title Sultan as recognition of his independence.

By the end of his reign, the Ghaznavid 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 Indian sub-continent, 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 vassal Rajput dynasties.

The wealth brought back to Ghazni was enormous, and contemporary historians (e.g. Abolfazl Beyhaghi, Ferdowsi) give glowing descriptions of the magnificence of the capital, as well as of the conqueror's munificent support of literature. He transformed Ghazni into one of the leading cities of Central Asia, patronizing scholars, establishing colleges, laying out gardens, and building mosques, palaces, and caravansaries.

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 had caused lethal tuberculosis. He had been a gifted military commander, and during his rule, universities were founded to study various subjects such as mathematics, religion, the humanities, and medicine&. Islam was the main religion of his kingdom and the Perso-Afghan dialect Dari was made the official language.

The Ghaznavid Empire was ruled by his successors for 157 years, but after Mahmud it never reached anything like the same splendour and power. The expanding Seljuk Turkish empire absorbed most of the Ghaznavid west. The Persian Ghorids captured Ghazni c. 1150, and Muhammad Ghori captured the last Ghaznavid stronghold at Lahore in 1187. The Ghaznavids went on to live as the Nasher-Khans in their home of Ghazni until the 20th century.

Preceded by:
Ismail of Ghazni 		Ghaznavid Ruler
997–1030 		Followed by:
Mohammad

Footnotes

See also

External links

References

between the Buddhist and Islamic Cultures before the Mongol Empire, 2001 [link]

 

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