No More Learning

The Brāhmans and
other inhabitants were invited to accept Islām, and on their refusing
their wives and children were enslaved and all males of the age of
seventeen and upwards were put to the sword. The carnage lasted
for three days and Muhammad laid out a Muslim quarter, built
a mosque, and placed a garrison of 4000 in the town. The legal
fifth of the spoil and seventy-five damsels were sent to Hajjāj, and the
rest of the plunder was divided among the army.
.
Dāhir attempted to make light of the fall of Debul, saying that
it was a place inhabited by mean people and traders, and as Muham-
mad advanced towards Nīrūn, about seventy-five miles to the north-
east and near the modern Haidarābād (Hydrābād), ordered his son
Jai Singh to leave that fort, placing a priest in charge of it, and to
join him in the strong fortress of Bahmanābād. The Arabs, after
seven days' march, arrived before Nīrūn early in 712, and the priest
left in charge of the place surrendered it to Muhammad, who,
placing a Muslim governor there marched to Sehwān, about eighty
miles to the north-west.
This town, populated chiefly by priests and traders, who were
anxious to submit at once to the invaders, was held by Bajhrā, son
of Chandra and cousin of Dāhir, who upbraided the inhabitants for
their pusillanimity and prepared, with the troops at his disposal, to
defend the place, but after a week's siege lost heart, fled by the north
gate of the city, crossed the Kumbh, which then flowed more than
ten miles to the east of Sehwān, and took refuge with the Jāts of
Būdhiya, whose raja was Kāka, son of Kotal, and whose capital was
at Sisam, on the bank of the Kumbh. The inhabitants of Sehwān
then surrendered the town to Muhammad, who granted them their
lives on condition of their remaining loyal and paying the poll-tax
leviable from non-Muslims.
Sir William Muir has observed that the conquest of Sind marks
a new stage in Muhammadan policy. The Islamic law divides
misbelievers into two classes, 'the People of the Book,' that is Chris-
tians and Jews, as the possessors of inspired Scriptures, and idolators.
The first, when conquered, are granted, by the authority of the
Koran, their lives, and may not lawfully be molested in any way,
even in the practice of the rites of their creeds, so long as they
loyally accept the rule of their conquerors and pay the jiz ya or
poll-tax, but a rigid interpretation of the Koran, subsequently
modified by commentators and legislators, allows to idolators only
1-2


## p. 4 (#40) ###############################################

4
[CH.
THE ARAB CONQUEST OF SIND
the choice between Islām and death. By a legal fiction which placed
the scriptures of Zoroaster on a level with the Old and New Testa-
ments as a divine revelation the Magians of Persia had often obtained
the amnesty which was strictly the peculiar privilege of Christians
and Jews, but Hajjāj, a bitter persecutor, knew nothing of the lax
interpretation which tolerated idolatry on payment of tribute, and in
Central Asia idolators, were rooted out. In India Muhammad granted
the amnesty to idolators, and in many cases left their temples standing
and permitted their worship. At Debul he had behaved as an ortho-
dox Muslim, but his subsequent policy was toleration except when he
met with obstinate resistance or his troops suffered serious losses.
Thus we find the zealous Hajjāj remonstrating with the young soldier
for doing the Lord's work negligently and Muhammad consulting
his couisn on the degree of toleration permissible. His campaign in
Sind was not a holy war, waged for the propagation of the faith, but
a mere war of conquest, and it was undoubtedly politic in the leader
of a few thousand Arabs to refrain from a course which might have
roused swarms of idolators against him.
The endeavour to follow in detail the movements of Muhammad
after the fall of Sehwān bristles with difficulties. The unsatisfactory
attempts of historians to reproduce in a script utterly unsuited to
the purpose the place names of India, the corruption of their versions
of those names by copyists who had never heard and could not read
them, and above all the constant changes in the face of the country
due to the repeated shifting of the courses of the great rivers which
traverse it, combine to confound the student. The general course
followed by him may, however, be traced.
From Sehwān he marched to Sisam on the Kumbh, defeated
the Jāts, who attacked his camp by night, and captured their strong-
hold in two days. Bajhrā, Dāhir's cousin, and his principal follow-
ers were slain, but Kāka submitted, and afterwards joined the
Muslims.
In accordance with orders received from Hajjāj, Muhammad
returned towards Nirūn, there to make preparations for the passage
of the Mihrān, the main stream of the Indus, which then flowed
some distance to the east of Nirūn and between it and his objective,
the strong fortress of Bahmanābād, where Dāhir was prepared to
oppose his further advance into the country. He halted on the
western bank of the river, opposite to a fortress called Baghrūr by
the Arab chroniclers, but was delayed there for some months by
scurvy, which broke out among his troops, by a malady which
>


## p. 5 (#41) ###############################################

1)
THE DEATH OF DÄHIR
5
carried off a large number of his horses, and by the impossibility of
obtaining boats. Hajjāj sent him sage advice as to the best means
of effecting the passage of the river and, what was more to the pur- .
pose, two thousand horses and a supply of vinegar for his suffering
troops. This last was transported in a concentrated form. Cotton
was saturated in it and dried and the operation was repeated until
the cotton would hold no more; the essence could then be extracted
by the simple process of soaking the cotton in water. In June, 712,
Muhammad crossed the river with his troops without serious
opposition from the Hindus.
Dāhir had meanwhile assembled an army of 50,000 horse, and
marched from Bahmanābād to Rāwar to meet the invader, The
armies lay opposite to one another for several days, during which
some skirmishing took place, and on June 20 Dāhir mounted his
elephant and advanced to the attack. The battle was sustained
with great valour on both sides, but an Arab succeeded in planting
an arrow, to which burning cotton was attached, in Dāhir's elephant,
and the terrified beast turned and fled towards the river, pursued
by the Arabs. The driver arrested his flight in midstream and
induced him once more to face the enemy, and the battle was
renewed on the river bank. Dāhir charged the Arabs, and did great
execution among them until he was struck by an arrow and ſell from
his elephant. He contrived to mount a horse but an Arab cut him
down, and the Hindus fled from the field, some towards Aror, the
capital, and others, with Jai Singh, to Bahmanābād, while Dāhir's
wiſe, Rāni Baī, and her handmaids immolated themselves at Rāwar,
to avoid falling into the hands of the strangers.
The remnant of the Hindu army rallied at Bahmanābād and
offered such a determined resistance that 8000 or, according to
another account, 26,000 of them were slain. Jai Singh, loth to
sustain a siege in Bahmanābād, retired to Chitrūr and Muhammad
captured Bahmanābād, and with it Rāni Lādi, another wife of Dāhir,
whom he afterwards married, and Suryadevi and Parmaldevī, Dāhir's
two maiden daughters, who were sent through Hajjāj to the Caliph.
After the capture of Bahmanābād he organised the administra-
tion of Lower Sind, placing governors in Rāwar, Sehwān, Nīrun,
Dhāliya, and other places, and on October 9th set out for Aror,
receiving on his way the submission of the people of Muthalo and
Bharūr, and of the Sammas, Lohānas, and Sihtas.
Aror was held by a son of Dāhir, called, by Muslim chroniclers
Fūfī, whose conviction that his father was yet alive and had but


## p. 6 (#42) ###############################################

6
( ch.
THE ARAB CONQUEST OF SIND
retired into Hindūstān to collect an army encouraged him to offer a
determined resistance. Muhammad attempted to destroy his illusion,
which was shared by the people of Aror, by sending his wife Lādi to
assure them that her former husband had indeed been slain and that
his head had been sent to the Caliph's viceroy, but they repudiated
her with abuse as one who had joined herself to the unclean strangers.
Fūfī was, however, at length convinced of his father's death, and
fled from Aror by night. Muhammad, on learning of his flight,
attacked the town, and the citizens, deserted by their leader, readily
submitted to him.
He appointed a governor and a judge to Aror and marched
towards Multān. On his way thither he first reached a fortress to
which Kaksa, a cousin of Dāhir, had fled from Aror. Kaksa sub-
mitted to him, was taken into his confidence and became one of his
most trusted counsellors. Continuing his march north-eastwards he
came to a fortress of which the name has been so corrupted that it
cannot be identified, but it lay on the northern bank of the Beas,
as it then flowed. It was bravely defended for seven days, but was
then deserted by its governor, a nephew of the ruler of Multān, who
took refuge in Sika, a fortress on the southern bank of the Rāvi. The
people, left to themselves, surrendered the fortress and were spared,
but the garrison, to the number of four thousand, was put to the
sword, and their wives and children were enslaved. After appointing
an Arab governor Muhammad crossed the rivers and attacked Sika,
the siege of which occupied him for seventeen days and cost him the
lives of twenty-five of his best officers and 215 men. When the
commander of the fortress fled to Multān and the place fell, he
avenged the death of his warriors by sacking it and passed on to
Multān. The Hindus were defeated in the field and driven within
the walls but held out until a deserter pointed out to Muhammad
the stream or canal which supplied the city with water, and this was
destroyed or diverted, so that the garrison was obliged to surrender.
In the great temple were discovered a golden idol and such quanti-
ties of gold that the Arabs named the city 'The House of Gold'. The
fighting men were put to the sword and their wives and children,
together with the attendants of the temple, numbering six thousand
souls in all, were enslaved, but the citizens were spared. Amir Dāūd
Nasr was appointed to the government of the city and another Arab
to that of the province, and Arabs were placed in charge of the
principal forts.
There is a conflict of authority regarding Muhammad's move-
ments after the capture of Multān in 713, which laid at his feet


## p. 7 (#43) ###############################################

ij
FATE OF MUHAMMAD B. QASIM
7
upper Sind and the lower Punjāb. According to one account he
became involved in hostilities with Har Chandra, son of Jhital, raja
of Qinnauj, not to be confounded with the great city of Kanauj in
Hindústān, and marched to meet him at Odipur, fourteen miles
southward of Alwāna, on the Ghaggar, and according to another
he returned to Aror, but his career of conquest was drawing to a
close, his sun was setting while it was yet day.
The romantic story of his death, related by some chroniclers,
has usually been repeated by European historians, but is devoid of
foundation. It is said that when the Caliph Walid sent for Suryadevi
and Parmaldevī, the daughters of Dāhir, he first selected the elder
for the honour of sharing his bed, but the damsel protested that
she was unworthy, for Muhammad had dishonoured both her and
her sister before sending them to his master. Walid, transported
with rage, wrote with his own hand an order directing that the
offender, wherever he might be when the message reached him,
should suffer himself to be sewn up in a raw hide and thus dis-
patched to the capital. When the order reached the young hero it
was at once obeyed. He caused himself to be sewn up in the hide,
the contraction of which as it dried would crush him to death,
enclosed in a box and sent to Damascus. The box was opened in
the presence of the Caliph and Suryadevi, and Walid pointed
proudly to the corpse as evidence of the obedience which he was
able to exact from his servants. Suryadevī, having read him a
homily on the duty of investigating all complaints made to him
before issuing orders on them, confessed that her accusation was
false, that Muhammad had scrupulously respected her honour and
that of her sister, but that she had had no other means of avenging
her father's death. Walid condemned both sisters to a horrible
death. We need not stop to inquire whether they were immured
alive, or whether they were dragged through the streets of Damascus
by horses until they expired. Both accounts are extant, but the end
of the young conqueror, though tragic enough, was not due to an
act of romantic and quixotic obedience to a distant and ungrateful
master.
Walid died in 715 and was succeeded by his brother Sulaiman;
to whom Hajjāj had given great offence by encouraging Walid in
the design of making his son rather than his brother his heir.
Hajjāj was beyond the reach of mortal vengeance, for he had died
before Walid, but the new Caliph's hand fell heavily on his family
and adherents. Yazid, son of Abu Kabshah, was appointed governor
of Sind and Muhammad was sent a prisoner to Mesopotamia, where


## p. 8 (#44) ###############################################

8
THE ARAB CONQUEST OF SIND
(ch.
he was imprisoned at Wāsit by Sālih. He could not have fallen into
worse hands, for Ādam, Sālih's brother, had been one of the
numerous Khāriji heretics put to death by the bigoted and brutal
Hajjāj. His murder was now expiated by the gallant young con-
queror of Sind and his relations, who were tortured to death by
Sālih's orders.
Yazid died eighteen days after his arrival in Sind, and Sulaimān
appointed Habib, son of Muhallab, to succeed him. Habīb adopted
a conciliatory policy, and allowed the princes expelled by Mu-
hammad to return to their states, so that Jai Singh, son of Dāhir,
established himself at Bahmanābåd, Aror being retained as the
capital of the viceroy, whose only warlike operation appears to have
been the reduction of a refractory tribe to obedience.
Sulaimān died, after a reign of no more than two years, in 717,
and was succeeded by his cousin, the pious and zealous 'Umar II,
to whom the toleration of idolatry, even on the fringe of his empire,
was painful. He wrote to the princes of Sind, urging them to
embrace Islam and earn the temporal as well as the eternal blessings
which would follow their acceptance of the true faith. Many, among
them Jai Singh, responded.
Junaid, governor of Sind under the Caliph Hishām (724-743),
was active and energetic, but unscrupulous. He prepared to invade
the territory of Jai Singh, now a Muslim and a feudatory of the
Caliph, but when Jai Singh protested against the aggression re-
assured him. Jai Singh responded by sending to him assurances of
his loyalty to the Caliph and the tribute due from his state.
Hostilities nevertheless broke out, and Jai Singh was defeated and
slain. Each has been accused of perfidy, but Junaid is convicted by
his subsequent conduct. When Chach, Jai Singh's brother, fled to
Mesopotamia to complain against him he did not cease to conciliate
him until they had shaken hands, and then he slew him. '
Junaid afterwards carried the Muslim arms further into India;
but the places which he captured or menaced cannot now be satis-
factorily identified. He was afterwards promoted to the viceroyalty
of the eastern provinces of the Caliphate, and was succeeded in
Sind by Tammim, son of Zaid-ul-'Utbā, a feeble ruler distinguished
chiefly by his lavish generosity, whose successor, Hakam, found
Islam languishing and the people, for the most part, relapsed into
idolatory, and was obliged to build for the Muslims two strongholds
to serve as cities of refuge, al Mahfüzah, 'the guarded,' and Man-
sūrah, long the capital of the Muhammadan provinces of Sind, lying
a few miles to the north-east of Bahmanābād. He and his lieutenant
a


## p. 9 (#45) ###############################################

1)
THE 'ABBASIDS
9
‘Amru, son of the unfortunate Muhammad, laboured to recall the
people to the faith of Islam and to restore the military reputation
of the Muslims, and their successors "continued to kill the enemy,
taking whatever they could acquire and subduing the people who
rebelled. '
In 750 the ‘Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads and sent officers
to expel those who had held offices under them in the provinces.
Mansūr, who now held Sind, resisted with some success the adherents
of the new line of Caliphs, but was at length defeated and driven
into the desert, where he perished miserably of thirst. Mūsā, who
expelled him, repaired the city of Mansürah and enlarged the
mosque there.
Al-Mansūr (754-775), the second 'Abbasid Caliph, sent to Sind
Hishām, who reduced Multān, still in arms against the new dynasty,
and captured Qandāil, which may be identified with Zihrī in Balū-
chistan, about fifty-seven miles south-west of Gandāva ; and Kandhāro,
on the south-western border of the present Bahāwalpur State.
Governor was regularly appointed to succeed governor until
Bashar, son of Dāūd, rebelled against the Caliph al-Ma'mūn, who
reigned from 813 to 833, and Ghassan, who was sent to suppress his
rebellion, carried him to Baghdād, and left as his own deputy in
Sind, Mūsā, son of Yahyā, son of Khālid, son of Barmak. Mūsā
the Barmecide, an active and energetic ruler, died in 836, but before
his death ventured on a step which clearly indicated that the hold
of the Caliphs on Sind was relaxing. He nominated his son 'Amrān
as his successor, and the significance of the measure was hardly
diminished by the formality of obtaining al-Mu'tasim's recognition
of the appointment. When provincial governments in the east
begin to become hereditary they are in a fair way to becoming
kingdoms.
'Amrān made war upon the jāts, whom he defeated and subju-
gated. He also defeated and slew a fellow Muslim, Muhammad,
son of Khalil, who reigned at Qandāil, and attacked the Meds of
the sea coast of Cutch. Of them he slew three thousand and ad-
vanced as far as Adhoī, in eastern Cutch.
The later history of Islam in Sind is obscure, but the religion
flourished, and retained its dominion over idolatry. The authority
of the Caliphs in the province was virtually extinguished in 871,
when two Arab chiefs established independent principalities at
Multān and Mansurah. The former comprised the upper valley of
the united Indus as far as Aror ; the latter extended from that
town to the sea, and nearly coincided with the modern province of
>
>


## p. 10 (#46) ##############################################

10
THE AŘAB CONQUEST OF SIND ch.
Sind. Little is known of the details of the history of these dynas-
ties, but they seem to have left the administration of the country
largely in the hands of natives and to have tolerated freely the
Hindu religion. Their power was maintained by an Arab soldiery
supported by grants of land, and though they were in fact inde-
pendent they retained the fiction of subordination to the Caliphate,
for as late as the beginning of the eleventh century, when Mahmūd
of Ghazni was wasting northern India with fire and sword, the
Muslim governor of Sind professed to be the Caliph's representative.
Of the Arab conquest of Sind there is nothing more to be said.
It was a mere episode in the history of India and affected only a
small portion of the fringe of that vast country. It introduced into
one frontier tract the religion which was destined to dominate the
greater part of India for nearly five centuries, but it had none of
the far-reaching effects attributed to it by Tod in the Annals of
Rājasthān. Muhammad b. Qāsim never penetrated to Chitor in
the heart of Rajputāna ; the Caliph Walid I did not ‘render tribu-
tary all that part of India on this side the Ganges'; the invader
was never 'on the eve of carrying the war against Raja Harchund
of Kanouj' much less did he actually prosecute it ; if Hārūn-ur-
Rashid gave to his second son, al-Maʻmūn, ‘Khorassan, Zabulisthan,
Cabulisthan, Sind and Hindusthan’, he bestowed on him at least
one country which was not his to give ; nor was the whole of
northern India, as Tod maintains, convulsed by the invasion of the
Arabs. One of these, as we have seen, advanced to Adhoi in Cutch,
but no settlement was made, and the expedition was a mere raid ;
and though the first news of the irruption may have suggested
warlike preparations to the princes of Rājasthān their uneasiness
cannot have endured. The tide of Islam, having overflowed Sind
and the lower Punjab, ebbed, leaving some jetsam on the strand.
The rulers of states beyond the desert had no cause for alarm.
That was to come later, and the enemy was to be, not the Arab,
but the Turk, who was to present the faith of the Arabian prophet
in a more terrible guise than it had worn when presented by native
Arabians.


## p. 11 (#47) ##############################################

CHAPTER II
THE YAMINI DYNASTY OF GHAZNI AND LAHORE,
COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE GHAZNAVIDS
The Arabs never carried the standards of Islam far beyond the
Indus, and though the doctrines of the new faith were accepted by
many and familiar to all of the inhabitants of Sind, and Muham-
madan dynasties were ruling at Mansūra until A. D. -976 and at 1026A. D.
Multān until a later date, India in general remained untouched by
Islam until the beginning of the eleventh century, by which time the
faith had lost its political unity and the control of its destinies had
passed from the hands of the Arabian successors of Muhammad into
those of independent dynasties acknowledging the Caliph at Baghdād
merely as a spiritual head.
In the early part of the tenth century the descendants of Sāmān,
a Persian chieftain of Balkh who had accepted Islam, extended their
dominion over Transoxiana, Persia, and the greater part of the
present kingdom of Afghānistān, but their great empire wanted almost
as rapidly as it had waxed and their power gradually passed into the
hands of the Turkish slaves to whom they had been wont to entrust
the principal offices in their court and kingdom. One of these,
Alptigin, rebelled and established himself at Ghaznī, where he reign-
ed as an independent sovereign, though his successors found it
convenient, when they were in difficulties, to acknowledge the
Sāmānids, who now held their court at Bukhārā, and to court their
favour. Alptigin was succeeded in 963 by his own son Is. hāq, on
whose death in 966 Mansur I of Bukhārā acknowledged Balkātigin, a
former slave of Alptigin. Pīrāi succeeded in 972, whose reign of five
years is remarkable for the first conflict in this region between Hindus
and Muslims, the former being the aggressors. The raja of the
Punjab, whose dominions extended to the Hindu Kush and included
Kābul, was alarmed by the establishment of a Muslim kingdom to
the south of the great mountain barrier and invaded the dominion
of Ghaznī, but was defeated.
Pīrāi's rule became unpopular and he was expelled, and on
April 9, 977, Sabuktigin, a slave upon whom Alptigin had bestowed
his daughter's hand, ascended the throne at Ghazni. He found it
expedient to seek, and readily obtained, confirmation of his title
from Nūh II of Bukhārā, but thenceforward made small pretence of
subservience to a moribund dynasty.
2


## p. 12 (#48) ##############################################

12
( ch.
THE GHAZNAVIDS
Later Muhammadan historians are prone to represent Sabuk.
tigin, who never crossed the Indus and led only two expeditions
against the Hindus, as a champion of the faith whose chief occupa-
tion was the propagation of Islam with fire and sword among the
idolators of India. In fact he was fully employed in extending the
area of his small state, which at first comprised little beyond the
immediate neighbourhood of Ghazni. In the first twelve years of his
reign he extended his frontiers to the Oxus on the north and
approximately to the present boundary between Afghānistān and
Persia on the west. Two years after his accession Jaipāl, raja of the
Punjab, again invaded the kingdom of Ghazni from the east, but
terms of peace were arranged, and in 986 Sabuktigin, whose power
had been rapidly growing, invaded his enemy's territory and carried
off inany captives and much booty. Two years later he againg attack-
ed Jaipāl and compelled him to cede Kābul and much other territory,
but these expeditions were undertaken rather as measures of reprisal
and for the purpose of securing his dominions than with any intention
of propagating the faith.
In October 994 Sabuktigīn, by aiding Nūh II of Bukhājā to expel
Abu 'Ali Sūnjūr, a rebel and a leader of the Ismāʻīlian heretics, from
Khurāsān, obtained the government of that province, to which he
appointed as his deputy, his eldest son, the famous Mahmūd.
Sabuktigin died, in August 997, near Balkh, having firmly laid the
foundations of the great empire which was to be extended and con-
solidated by his more famous son.
The nobles of Balkh, in obedience to Sabuktigin’s will, acknow.
ledged as their sovereign his younger son Ismā‘il, but a party favour-
ed the claims of the more able and energetic Mahmūd. Mahmūd
wrote to his brother demanding the cession of Ghazni and promis-
ing to retain him as governor of Balkh, but his demand was rejected,
and the two brothers, one from Nishāpūr and the other from Balkh,
marched on Ghaznī. In a battle fought near the city Ismā īl was
defeated and compelled to take refuge in the fortress, but his nobles
surrendered him to his brother, who imprison ed him for the rest of
his life.
Mahmud was born on November 1, 971, and was therefore
twenty-seven years of age when he deposed his brother and ascended
the throne in 998. His kingdom at the time of his accession com-
prised the country now known as Afghānistān, and Khurāsān, or
eastern Persia. In the following year he added to it the province
of Sīstān. After this success he sought formal recognition of his
sovereignty from the Caliph, al-Qădir Billāh, who sent him a robe


## p. 13 (#49) ##############################################

II ]
MAHMOD
13
of investment and a patent conferring on him the titles Yamin-ud-
Daulah and Amin-ul Millah, from the former of which his successors
are known to eastern historians as the Yamini dynasty. It was on
this occasion that he is said to have vowed to undertake every year
an expedition against the idolators of India, but intestine troubles
claimed his immediate attention. 'Abd-ul-Malik II, the last Sāmānid
ruler of Bukhārā, was driven from his kingdom in 999 by Abu'l-
Husain Nasr I, Ilak Khān, Kāshghar, and his brother, Abu Ibrāhīm
al-Mustansir, who had found an asylum in Gurgān, thrice attempted
to establish himself in Khurāsān, where his forefathers had held sway.
Twice he drove Nasr, Mahmūd's brother, from Nīshāpūr, only to be
expelled when Nasr returned with reinforcements, and on the third
occasion he was defeated and fled to the Ghuzz Turkmans, with whom
he took refuge.
It is difficult to follow the long series of expeditions led by
Mahmud into India in pursuance of his vow, to reconcile the
accounts of historians who contradict not only one another but them-
selves, and to identify places disguised under a script ambiguous in it-
self and mutilated by generations of ignorant scribes. The number of
these expeditions is almost invariably given as twelve, but there are
few historians who do not give accounts, more or less detailed, of
more than twelve. The first is said to have been undertaken in 999 or
1000, when Mahmud, after annexing Sīstān, crossed the Indian
frontier and plundered or annexed some towns, but the authority for
this expedition is slight, Mahmūd had at this time little leisure
for foreign aggression, and the campaign may be regarded either as
apocryphal or as a foray undertaken by some of his officers.
In September, 1001, Mahmud left Ghazni with 15,000 horse and
advanced to Peshāwar, where Jaipāl I of the Punjab was prepared to
meet him with 12,000 horse, 30,000 foot and 300 elephants. The raja
was expecting reinforcements and was in no haste to engage before
their arrival, but Mahmūd's impetuosity left him no choice, and on
November 27th the two armies advanced to the attack, discharging
clouds of arrows. Those of the Hindus did great execution, but
the Muslims had the better mark, and their arrows, as well as the
swords of their horsemen, rendered many of Jaipāls elephants unma-
nageable or useless. The Hindus could not withstand the impetuosity
of the Muslim horse and by noon were in full flight, leaving 15,000
dead on the field or slain in the pursuit. Jaipāl and fifteen of his
relations were captured, and their jewels, including a necklace of
enormous value worn by the raja, formed part of Mahmūd's plunder-


## p. 14 (#50) ##############################################

14
THE GHAZNAVIDS
(ch.
After the battle Mahmūd attacked and plundered Und', then
an important city, and Jaipāl was permitted to ransom himself for a
large sum of money and a hundred and fifty elephants, but as the
ransom was not at once forthcoming was obliged to leave hostages
for its payment. His son, Anandpāl, made good the deficiency and
the hostages were released before Mahmūd returned to Ghazni, his
soldiers speeding them on their way with a contemptuous buffet on
their hinder parts.
After Mahmud's departure Jaipāl, overwhelmed with shame and
mortification, bowed to the decision of his subjects, who refused to
acknowledge a king who had been a captive in the hands of the
Muslims, and, after designating Anandpāl as his successor, mounted
a funeral pyre and perished in the flames.
in 1002 Mahmūd was occupied in crushing a rebellion in Sīstān.
The leader of the rebels escaped death by means of a ready tongue
and when brought before his conqueror addressed him by the then
unfamiliar title of Sultān? He was pardoned and rewarded with
the government of another district, Sīstān being included in the pro-
vincial government of Khurāsān.
In his campaign against Jaipāl Mahmūd had expected aid from
Bajra, the ruler of Bhātiya, the modern Uch, who had been on friendly
terms with Sabuktigin, but he had been disappointed and in 1004
he marched from Ghazni to punish Bajra for his failure to support
him. He was stoutly opposed but defeated Bajra before Uch and
compelled him to flee for refuge to the jungles on the banks of the
Indus, where, to esca pe capture by the Muslims, he stabbed himself.
His head was carried to Mahmūd and a general massacre of his dis-
organised troops followed. Mahmūd, after plundering Uch, re-
mained there for some time, engaged in making arrangements for
the permanent annexation of the state and the conversion of its
inhabitants, and it was not until the rivers were in flood in 1005 that
he set out on his return journey. In crossing them he lost his plunder
and much of his baggage, and was attacked during his retreat by
Abu-'l-Fath Dāūd, the ruler of Multān, and suffered considerable
loss.
Dāūd was the grandson of Shaikh Hamid Lodi, who had esta-
blished himself in Multān and had always cultivated friendly rela-
1 This is the town variously called Hind, Ohind, and Waihind. It is situated
in 34° 2' N. and 72° 27' E. fifteen miles above Attock, on the west bank of the Indus.
2 According to another account the Caliph bestowed this title on Mahmūd,
who is said to have been the first prince so honoured, but this is improbable, for
Mahmūd never used it on his coins but was always content with the designation of
Amir, which seems to have been that by which the Caliph distinguished him.


## p. 15 (#51) ##############################################

11 ]
DEFEAT OF ANANDPAL
15
tions with Sabuktigin, but his grandson had embraced the doctrines
of the Ismāʻili sect, and was therefore as abominable in Mahmūd's
eyes as any idolator in India. In the autumn of 1005 Mahmud
had marched against him, and in order to avoid the passage of
the rivers in their lower waters marched by way of Und, in the
dominions of Anandpā), of whose subservience he was assured.
Anandpāl, however, opposed his advance, but was defeated and
fied into Kashmir, and Mahmūd pursued his way through the
Punjab, plundering the country as he advanced.
The defeat of Anandpāl and Mahmūd's triumphal and devas-
tating progress overcame the resolution of Dāūd, who shut himself
up in Multān, and when Mahmúd prepared to form the siege of
the city offered as the price of peace a yearly tribute of 20,000
golden dirhams and abjuration of his heretical doctrines. The
invasion of his northern province by the Turks of Transoxiana
under Abu'l-Husain Nasr I of Bukhārā obliged Mahmūd to accept
these terms, and he returned with all speed towards the Oxus, ap.
pointing as governor of Ond, by which place he marched, Sukhpāl,
a grandson of Jaipāl, who, having been taken prisoner with his
grandfather, had accepted Islam, and was now known as Nawāsa
Shāh. We are not concerned with the details of Mahmūd's cam-
paign against the Ilak Khān, who was defeated and driven across
the Oxus, but it is an interesting fact that a corps of Indians formed
part of the victorious army.
On his return towards Ghazni in 1007 Mahmūd learnt that
Nawāsa Shāh had apostatised, was expelling the subordinate Muslim
officers from the district committed to his charge, and purposed to
rule it either as an independent sovereign or as the vassal of his
uncle, Anandpal. He marched at once towards Ond and ordered
those of his officers whose fiefs lay near that district to attack the
renegade. They captured Nawāsa Shāh and the treasure which he
had amassed and carried him before Mahmūd, who confiscated his
wealth and imprisoned him in a fortress for the remainder of his life.
In the following year Mahmūd resolved further to chastise
Anandpāl for his opposition to the passage of the Muslim army
through his dominions on its way to Multān, and in the autumn of
1008 marched to Peshāwar. Anandpāl, who had been aware of his
intention, had appealed for aid to other Hindu rajas, and one his-
torian mentions the rajas of Ujjain, Gwalior, Kālinjar, Kanauj,
Delhi, and Ajmer as having either marched in person or sent troops
to his assistance. The number and consequence of his allies are
perhaps exaggerated, but it is evident from Mahmūd's excessive


## p. 16 (#52) ##############################################

16
[ CH.
THE GHAZNAVIDS
caution that Anandpāl had received a considerable accession of
strength and that the army which he led into the field was a very
different force from that which Mahmud had so easily brushed aside
on his way to Multān. Among the most valuable of Anandpāl's
auxiliaries were the wild and warlike Khokars from the lower hills
of Kashmir.
The Hindu army was encamped between Und and Peshāwar,
and Mahmūd lay in camp before it for forty days without venturing
to attack it, although each day's delay brought it fresh reinforce-
ments and the only inconvenience which it suffered arose from the
difficulty of provisioning so great a force. This was alleviated by
the devotion of the men's wives, who sold their jewels to enable
their husbands to keep the field.
Mahmūd protected his flanks with entrenchments and instead
of following his usual impetuous tactics strove to entice the enemy
to attack him in his own strong position. In this he succeeded and
the Hindus attacked on December 31. A force of 30,000 Khokars,
bareheaded and barefooted and armed with strange weapons,
charged both his flanks simultaneously, passed over his trenches,
and did such execution among his troops that he was meditating a
retreat when a fortunate accident decided the day in his favour.
Anandpāl's elephant took fright and bore his rider from the field
and the Hindus, believing their leader's flight to be intentional,
broke and fled. The battle was now at an end and the pursuit
began. The Muslims pursued their enemy for a great distance,
slaying 8000 and taking thirty elephants and much other plunder.
The dispersal of this great army opened the way for a raid into
India and Mahmūd marched towards the fortress of Nagarkot,
or Kāngra, famous for its wealth. So little had his victory and
subsequent advance been expected that the fortress had been left
without a garrison, and was occupied only by the Brāhmans and
servants of the temple, who appeared on the walls and offered to
surrender. After some parleying the gates were opened to Mahmud
on the third day after his arrival, and the booty which fell into his
hands is said to have amounted to 700,000 golden dīnārs, besides
large quantities of vessels of gold and silver and of unworked gold
and silver, and jewels. With this plunder he returned to Ghazni
and exhibited it, piled on carpets in the courtyard of his palace, to
the wondering eyes of his subjects.
A year later he marched to Ghūr", a small district in the hills
between Ghazni and Herāt, which had hitherto remained inde-
? Usually written Ghor but Ghūr is correct.


## p. 16 (#53) ##############################################

The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III
Map 1

84
68
72
76
60
84
88
2
. Cher
36
KARKQTAS
Perashur
. Ghazi
Und
KINGDOM
Jbelum
Cbenab
GAZYNT
Ravi
Kangra
Lāhoro
Beas
Multās
Sutlej
Bhatinda
Thanekar
Brabmeputra
Indus
Ganges
Jumna
Hādsi
TOMARAS
DELHi Bhraa
CHAUHĀNS
Budtok
Muttrad
Sambhar
Ajudhya
PRATIHARAS
Gwalior
Manajstis
Bepants
PAWARS
CHANDELS
Anhilvara
KĀLACHURTS
Ujjain
KACAHYABASS
25
Luni
Chimbel
Prayas
. Odantapuri
(Bihar)
PĀLAS
KER
Tropic of
Cancer
Beyt Shankhadhar
Dwarka
(Sanath)\CHĀLOKYAS
Narbade
Mabaned
(SOLANKIS)
Tapti
Deogin Pengenga
YADAVAS
dapio ?
Godavari
Bbime Kaliyani
CHĀLŪRKAS
o
Warangal
KALINGAS
KÁKATĪYAS
Krisbro
Tungobada
Pennt
Dtārayatipura)
Н.
Kort
с
10
Madura
INDIA
in 1022
The boundary of the Kingdom of Ghazni is shown
thus:-
10 Contries and Proples sous . . . CHAUHANS
Tow. . .
Parashür
Riven. . .
Mehānodi
Scalos
30 99 100 909
English Miles
100
2_100 200 300
Kilometres
YANDYAR
68
72
76
BO
84
89


## p. 16 (#54) ##############################################



## p. 17 (#55) ##############################################

in ]
DEFEAT OF BHÎMPĂL
iz
a
pendent under its Tājik or Persian rulers, defeated its prince,
Muhammad bin Sūrī, and reduced him to the position of a vassal.
This expedition, though not directly connected with the history of
India is interesting in view of the subsequent relations between the
princes of Ghūr and those of Ghaznī. The former exterminated the
latter and achieved what they had never even attempted-the perma-
nent subjugation of northern India.
Later in 1010 Mahmud again invaded India. There are some
discrepancies regarding his objective, which the later historians, who
confound this expedition with that of 1014, describe as Thānesar. He
probably intended to reach Delhi but he was met at Tarāori, about
seven miles north of Karnāl, by a large Hindu army, which he defeat-
ed and from which he took much plunder, with which he returned
to Ghazni.
In 1011 he visited Multān, where his authority was not yet
firmly established, brought the province under more efficient control,
and extinguished the still glowing embers of heresy.
Meanwhile Anandpāl had died and had been succeeded by his
son, Jaipāl II, who made the fortress of Nandana? his chief stronghold,
and in 1013 Mahmūd invaded India to attack him. On hearing of
Mahmūd's advance he retired into the mountains, leaving his son Nidar
Bhimpāl, or Bhimpāl the Fearless, to defend his kingdom. The accounts
of the campaign are strangely at variance with one another. Accord.
ing to one Bhimpäl was besieged in Nandana and forced to surrender
while according to another he ventured to meet Mahmūd in the
open field, and was with difficulty defeated. Defeated, however, he
was, and Mahmúd turned into the hills in the hope of capturing him,
but captured only his baggage. Large numbers of the natives of the
country, guilty of no crime but that of following the religion of their
fathers, were carried off to Ghazni as slaves, and the remarks of one
historian probably reflect contemporary Muslim opinion on this
practice : 'Slaves were so plentiful that they became very cheap and
men of respectability in their native land were degraded to the
position of slaves of common shopkeepers. But this is the goodness
of God, who bestows honour on His own religion and degrades
infidelity. ' An officer named Sārugh was appointed governor of
Nandana and held that position at the time of Mahmûd's death.
Mahmud was next attracted by the wealth of the sacred city of
Thānesar, between Ambāla and Karnāl, and in 1014 marched from
Ghazni. When Jaipāl heard of his intention he sent a mission to
1 Situated in 30° 43' N. and 73° 17' E.
C. H. I. II.
2


## p. 18 (#56) ##############################################

18
THE GHAZNAVIDS
[CH.
Ghazni, offering to send him fiſty elephants annually if he would
spare so sacred a place, but Mahmud rejected the offer and required
of Jaipāl a free passage through his territory. Jaipāl perforce assented,
but warned Bijayapāl, the Towār raja of Delhi, of the approach of
the invader, thus enabling him to summon others to his assistance.
Mahmúd marched with such rapidity through the Punjab as to
forestall Bijayapāl's preparations, and found the shrine at Thānesar
undefended. He entered it without encountering serious opposi-
tion', plundered it of its vast treasures, and destroyed its idols,
except the principal object of worship, which was sent to Ghazni
to be buried in a public thoroughfare, where it might be trodden
underfoot by the people. After this easy success Mahmūd wished to
march on Delhi, but was over-ruled by his advisers, who were averse
from advancing so far into India until the annexation of the Punjab
should have furnished a base of operations within its borders.
In 1015 Mahmūd invaded Kashmir and besieged Lohkot or
Loharkot, but the weather was so inclement and the garrison so
constantly received reinforcements that he was compelled to raise
the siege and retire. This was his first serious reverse in India.
His army lost its way in the unfamiliar highlands and its retreat
was interrupted by flooded valleys, but at length, after much toil, it
debouched into the open country and returned to Ghazni in
disorder.
In 1016 and 1017 Mahmūd was occupied in Khvārazm and in
the northern provinces of his empire, and it was not until 1018
that he was able again to turn his attention to India. He now
prepared to penetrate further into the country than on any former
occasion, and to plunder the rich temples of Hindustan proper.
With an army of 100,000 horse raised in his own dominions and
20,000 volunteers from Turkistān, Transoxiana, and the confines of
Khūrāsān, soldiers of fortune eager to share in the rich spoils of
India, he marched from Ghazni in September, before the rainy
season in India was well past, and, guided by the Lohara raja of
Kashmir, crossed with some difficulty the Indus and the rivers of
the Punjab. On December 2 he crossed the Jumna and pursued his
march southwards. Avoiding Delhi, he followed the eastern bank
of the Jumna until he reached Baran, the modern Bulandshahr,
1 According to al-'Utbi, one of the earliest authorities, the Hindus had
assembled, and it was only after overcoming a desperate resistance that Mahmūd
entered the shrine, but al-'Utbi's topography is faulty, and he appears to be con.
founding this expedition with another.


## p. 19 (#57) ##############################################

11)
CAPTURE OF KÁNAUI
19
the first strong place which lay in his path. Hardat, the governor,
fied from the fortress and left the garrison to make what terms
they might with the invader. They propitiated him by the sur-
render of a great quantity of treasure and thirty elephants, and he
passed thence to Mahāban, on the eastern bank of the Jumna. Kul
Chandra, the governor of this place, drew up his forces and made
some attempt to withstand the Muslims but his army was put to
flight and he first slew his wife and son and then committed suicide.
Besides much other spoil eighty elephants were taken by Mahmud
at Mahāban, and he crossed the river in order to attack Muttra, the
reputed birthplace of Krishna and one of the most sacred shrines in
India. The city, though fortified and belonging to Bijayapāl, the
raja of Delhi, undefended, and Mahmūd entered it and plundered it
without hindrance. His hand was not stayed by his admiration of
its marble palaces and temples, unsparingly expressed in the dispatch
in which he announced his success, and the temples were rilled and,
as far as time permitted, destroyed. The plunder taken was enor-
mous, but it is difficult to believe stories of a sapphire weighing over
sixteen pounds and a half and of five idols of pure gold, over five
yards in height, though the quantity of gold taken may very well
have been over 548 pounds, as is recorded.
Mahmûd continued his march and on December 20 arrived be-
ſore Kanauj, the capital of Rāhtor Rājputs, whose raja, Jaichand,
terrified by the numbers, the discipline and achievements of the in-
vading army, withdrew from his strong city, the ramparts of which
were covered by seven detached forts, and left it open to Mahmūd,
who occupied both the city and the forts. The raja returned and
preserved his city from destruction by making submission to the
conqueror and surrendering eighty-five elephants, much treasure and
a large quantity of jewels.
From Kanauj Mahmūd marched to Manaich, afterwards known
as Zafarābād, near Jaunpur. The fortress was strongly garrisoned
and well furnished with supplies, but a vigorous siege of fifteen days
reduced the defenders to such despair that they performed the rite of
jauhar, first slaying their wives and children and then rushing out to
perish on the swords of the enemy.
>
1 This Hindi word signifies taking one's own life' and is applied to a rite
performed by Rajputs when reduced to the last extremity. First the women and
children are destroyed, or destroy themselves, usually by fire, and the men, arrayed
in saffron robes, rush on the enemy sword in hand and fight until all are slain.
Instances of the performance of this rite, the object of which is to preserve the
honour of the women from violation by the enemy, are common in Indian history.
2-2


## p. 20 (#58) ##############################################

20
(CH
THE GHAŻNAVIDS
After plundering Manaich, Mahmud attacked Asni, a fortress in
the immediate neighbourhood, defended by deep ditches and a dense
jungle, that is to say an enclosure of quickset bamboos, similar to
that which now surrounds the city of Rāmpur in Rohilkhand and
forms an impenetrable obstacle. Asni was the stronghold of a
powerful chief named either Chandpāl or Chandāl Bor, who had
recently been at war with Jaichand. On hearing of Mahmūd's ap-
proach he fled, leaving his capital a prey to the invader.
From Asni Mahmud inarched westwards to a town which ap-
pears in Muslim chronicles as Sharva and may perhaps be identified
with Seūnza on the Ken, between Kālinjar and Banda or Sriswagarh
on the Pahūj not far from Kūnch. This town was the residence of
another Jaichand, who is said to have been long at enmity with
Jaichand of Kanauj and even now held his foe's son in captivity.
Jaichand of Kanauj, who wished to terminate the strife and had sent
his son Bhimpal to arrange marriage between his sister and Jaichand
of Sharva, wrote to the latter dissuading him from rashly attempting
to measure his strength against that of the invader, and Jaichand of
Sharva followed this advice and left his capital, taking with him into
the forest in which he took refuge the greater part of his army and
his elephants. Mahmūd, not content with the plunder of Sharva,
pursued him by difficult and stony tracks into the forest, suddenly
attacked him shortly before midnight on January 5, 1019, and de-
feated him. Jaichand's elephants were captured, specie and jewels
rewarded the exertions of the victors, and captives were so numerous
that slaves could be purchased in the camp at prices ranging from
two to ten dirhams.
After this victory, the last exploit of a most laborious and ad-
venturous campaign, Mahmūd returned to Ghazni, and the booty
was counted. It is impossible to reconcile the conflicting accounts
of the enormous quantity of treasure taken, but the plunder in.
cluded over 380 elephants and 53,000 human captives. Of these
poor wretches many were sold to foreign merchants, so that Indian
slaves became plentiful in Transoxiana, 'Iraq and Khurāsān, 'and
the fair, the dark, and rich and the poor were commingled in one
common servitude. '
It was after this most successful raid that Mahmūd founded at
Ghazni the great Friday mosquel known as 'the Bride of Heaven'
1 In a Muslim city cach quarter has its mosque for the daily prayers, but it is
the duty of the faithful to assemble on Fridays at a central mosque in order that
the whole congregation may make a united act of worship. This mosque is known
as the Masjid. ;-Jåmi', 'the mosque which gathers all together. ' The expression
'Friday mosque' is not a literal translation, but is a convenient English equivalent.


## p. 21 (#59) ##############################################

11 ]
DEFEAT OF NANDA
21
and the college which was attached to it. His example was eagerly
followed by his nobles, who had been enriched by the spoils of India
and were amply supplied with servile labour ; and mosques, colleges,
caravanserais, and hospices sprang up on every side.
The date of Mahmūd's next expedition is given by some histo-
rians as 1019, but those authorities are to be preferred which place
it in 1021. Its occasion was the formation of a confederacy, headed
by Nanda, raja of Kālinjar, for the purpose of punishing Jaichand
of Kanauj for his pusillanimity and ready submission to the invader.
Nanda led the army to Kanauj and defeated and slew Jaichand,
whose death Mahmūd resolved to avenge, and an army greater
than any which he had hitherto led into India was assembled at
Ghaznī for the purpose. Jaipāl II, who had tamely acquiesced in
Mahmūd's passage through the Punjab, was now dead, or had
abdicated the throne, and had been succeeded by his more spirited
son, Bhimpāl the Fearless, who joined the Hindu confederacy but,
instead of rashly opposing Mahmud on his western frontier where
he would have been beyond the reach of help from his allies, with-
drew to the banks of the Jumna, where they might have supported
him. Here Mahmud found him encamped, and hesitated to attempt
the
passage
of the swollen river in the face of his army, but eight
Muslim officers, apparently without their king's permission or
knowledge, suddenly crossed the river with their contingents,
surprised the Hindus and put them to flight. The eight officers
continued to advance and occupied a city which cannot now be
identified', and Mahmūd, whose way was cleared before him, crossed
the Jumna and the Ganges, and found Nanda awaiting him on the
banks of the Sai with an army of 36,000 horse, 105,000 foot, and
6 40 elephants. Before this host Mahmül's heart failed him for a
moment, and he repented of having left Ghaznī, but prayer restored
his courage and he prepared for battle on the following day. In
the night, however, Nanda was unaccountably stricken with panic
and fled with a few attendants, leaving his army, his camp and his
baggage at the mercy of the invader. The confusion which prevailed
among the Hindus on the discovery of Nanda's Aight was at first
suspected by Mahmud to be a stratagem to induce him to attack,
but having ascertained that it was genuine he permitted his army
to plunder the camp, and a vast quantity of booty was collected
without a blow. Of Nanda's elephants 580 were taken and Mahmūd,
1 Professor Dowson has suggested that it was Bārī, in the present state of
Dholpur, but the identification is unconvincing.


## p. 22 (#60) ##############################################

22
[CH.
THE GHAZNAVIDS
who was apprehensive of disturbances in the Punjab, returned, con-
tent with this victory, to Ghaznī.
Later in the same year he led an expedition into two districts
disguised in Persian histories under the names of Qirāt and Nür and
said to have been situated between the boundaries of India and
Turkistan. The most probable conjecture identifies them with the
districts of Dir, Swāt, and Bajaur. The enterprise was successful
and the command of the last named district having been bestowed
upon 'Ali bin Qadr, a Saljuq Turk, Mahmud again invaded Kashmir
and besieged Loharkot, but abandoned the siege after a month and
retired from Kashmir. He did not return at once to Ghazni, but
marched into the Punjab to chastise Bhimpāl for having joined the
confederacy of the rajas of Hindūstān. The army, instead of
besieging Lahore, dispersed throughout the neighbouring country
in order to subsist upon it and to prevent supplies from reaching
the capital, and Bhimpāl was reduced to such straits that he fled
and sought an asylum with the Chauhan raja of Ajmer. His flight
marks the formal annexation of the Punjab by Mahmūd, who may
henceforth be regarded as an Indian ruler. Less than a century
and a half after his death the Indian province of his great empire
became the kingdom and the sole refuge of his descendants.
In the autumn of 1022 Mahmūd again invaded Hindūstān in
order to inflict further punishment on Nanda of Kālinjar. He
marched through the Doāb, crossed the Jumna below Delhi, and
was attracted by the strong fortress of Gwalior, to which he laid
siege but, finding that the operation was likely to be protracted,
permitted the Kachhwāha raja to compound for a formal submission
by a gift of no more than thirty-five elephants, and pursued his way
towards his real objective, Kālinjar, to the reduction of which he
was prepared to devote more time. After a protracted siege Nanda
was permitted to redeem his stronghold for three hundred elephants
which, instead of being formally delivered, were mischievously driven
in a body towards the Muslim camp, in the hope that they would
throw it into confusion ; but the Turks had by now some experience
of elephants, and caught and managed them. According to a possibly
mythical account of the event, their success compelled the unwilling
admiration of Nanda, who addressed to Mahmud an encomiastic
poem which was so highly praised by learned Hindus in the Muslim
camp that its author was rewarded with the government of fifteen
ortresses, a grant probably as hollow as the flattery which had
earned it. After this composition with Nanda, Mahmūd returned to
Ghazni with his spoils,
1
1


## p. 23 (#61) ##############################################

11 ]
SOMNĀTH
23
In 1023 he was occupied in Transoxiana and in the following year
set out on his most famous expedition into India. There is a con-
flict of authority on the subject of the date of his departure from
Ghaznī, but he appears to have left his capital on October 17, 1024,
at the head of his own army and a body of 30,000 composed, as on
a former occasion, of volunteers from Turkistān and other countries,
attracted by the hope of booty.
It is said that the impudent vaunts of the Brāhmans attached
to the wealthy religious establishment of Somnāth, on the coast of
Kāthīāwār suggested to Mahmūd the desirability of striking a blow
at this centre of Hinduism. The wealth and importance of the
shrine far exceeded those of any temple which he had yet attacked.
One thousand Brāhmans daily attended the temple, three hundred
barbers were maintained to serve the pilgrims visiting it, and three
hundred and fifty of the unfortunate women whom the Hindus
dedicate nominally to the service of their gods and actually to the
appetites of their priests danced continually before the idol, which
was a huge lingam or phallus. These priests and attendants were
supported from the endowments of the temple, which are said to
have consisted of the revenues of. 10,000 villages, the idol was washed
daily with water brought from the Ganges, 750 miles distant, and
the jewels of the temple were famed throughout the length and
breadth of India.
The Brāhmans attached to this famous shrine boasted that
their master Shiva, the moon-lord, was the most powerful of all the
gods and that it was only owing to his displeasure with other gods
that the invader had been permitted to plunder and pollute their
shrines. This provocative vaunt suggested to Mahmūd the des-
truction of the temple of Somnāth as the readiest means to a
wholesale conversion of the idolators.
He reached Multān on November 20 and decided to march
across the great desert of India to Ajmer. In his arduous under-
taking he made elaborate preparations. Each trooper was ordered
to carry with him fodder, water and food for several days, and
Mahmud supplemented individual efforts by loading his own estab-
lishment of 30,000 camels with water and supplies for the desert
march. These precautions enabled his army to cross the desert
without mishap, and on its reaching Ajmer, or rather the Chauhān
capital of Sāmbhar, for the modern city of Ajmer was not then
built, the raja fled and the invaders plundered the city and slew
many Hindus, but did not attempt the reduction of the fortress.
From Sāmbhar the army marched towards Anhiļvāra, now known


## p. 24 (#62) ##############################################

24
THE GHAZNAVIDS
[CH.
as Pātan, in Gujarāt, capturing on its way an unnamed fortress
which furnished it with water and supplies. Mahmud, on arriving
at Anhilvāra early in January, 1025, discovered that the raja,
Bhimdeo, and most of the inhabitants had fled, and the army,
having plundered the supplies left in the city, continued its march
to Somnāth. On his way thither Mahmud captured several small
forts and in the desert of Kāthīāwār encountered a force of 20,000,
apparently part of Bhimdeo's army, which he defeated and dis-
persed. Two days' march from Somnāth stood the town of Dewalwāra,
the inhabitants of which, secure in the protection of the god, had
refused to seek safety in flight and paid for this misplaced confidence
with their lives.
On reaching Somnāth the Muslims perceived the Hindus in
large numbers on the walls, and were greeted with jeers and threats.
On the following day they advanced to the assault and, having driven
the Hindus from the walls with well directed showers of arrows,
placed their scaling ladders and effected a lodgement on the
rampart. Many Hindus fell in the street-fighting which followed but
by dusk the Muslims had not established themselves sufficiently to
justify their remaining in the town during the night, and withdrew
to renew the attack on the following morning. They then drove the
defenders, with terrible slaughter, through the streets towards the
temple. From time to time bands of Hindus entered the temple
and after passionate prayers for the moon-lord's aid sallied forth to
fight and to die. At length a few survivors fled towards the sea and
attempted to escape in boats, but Mahmūd had foreseen this and
his soldiers, provided with boats, pursued and destroyed them.
When the work of blood was finished Mahmud entered the
temple, the gloom of which was relieved by the light from costly
lamps which flickered on the fifty-six polished pillars supporting
the roof, on the gems which adorned the idol, and on a huge golden
chain, the bells attached to which summoned to their duties the
relays of attendant priests. As the eyes of the conqueror fell upon
the hewn stone, three yards in height above the pavement, which
had received the adoration of generations of Hindus, he raised his
mace in pious zeal and dealt it a heavy blow. Some historians
relate that when he commanded that the idol should be shattered
the Brāhmans offered to redeem it with an enormous sum of money,
and that their prayers were seconded by the arguments of his
courtiers who urged that the destruction of one idol would not
extinguish idolatry and that the money might be employed for


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II ]
SACK OF SOMNĀTH
25
>
pious purposes. To both Mahmūd replied that he would be a
breaker, not a seller of idols, and the work of destruction went
forward. When the idol was broken asunder gems worth more
than a hundred times the ransom offered by the Brāhmans were
found concealed in a cavity within it and Mahmūd's iconoclastic
zeal was materially rewarded ; but this story appears to be an
embellishment, by later historians, of the earlier chronicles. Of the
fragments of the idol two were sent to Ghazni to form steps at the
entrance of the great mosque and the royal palace, and two are
said to have been sent to Mecca and Medina, where they were
placed in public streets to be trodden underfoot.
Mahmūd was now informed that Bhimdeo of Anhilvāra had
taken reſuge in the island of Beyt Shankhodhar, at the north-
western extremity of the peninsular of Kāthīāwār, and pursued him
thither. If the chroniclers are to be credited it was possible in those
days to reach the island on horseback at low tide for native guides
are said to have pointed out the passage to Mahmud and to have
warned him that he and his troops would perish if the tide, or the
wind rose while they were attempting it. Mahmūd nevertheless
led his army across and Bhimdeo was so dismayed by his determi-
nation and intrepidity that he fled from the fortress in a mean
disguise and left it at the mercy of the invaders, who slew all the
males in the town and enslaved the women, among whom, accord-
ing to one authority, were some of the ladies of Bhimdeo's family.
From Beyt Shankhodhar Mahmud returned to Anhilvāra, where
he halted for some time to refresh his troops. It is difficult to believe
that the climate and situation of the city and the reputed existence
of gold mines in its neighbourhood induced Mahmūd seriously to
propose that the court should be transferred thither. The historian
responsible for this statement adds that Mahmud's proposal was
successfully combated by his counsellors, who impressed upon him
the impossibility of controlling from Anhilvāra the turbulent pro-
vince of Khurāsān, the acquisition and retention of which had been
so difficult and so costly; and Mahmúd prepared to return to Ghazni.
The line of retreat chosen was through the desert of Sind to Multān,
for Mahmūd was loth to risk his booty in a battle with the raja of
1 The stronghold is variously styled in Persian texts Kandana, Khandana, and
Khandaba, in which some resemblance to the last two syllables of the name of the
island can be traced, but the Persian script, being easily corruptible by ignorant or
careless scribes, is ill-suited for the preservation of the correct forms of proper names,
and it is the description of Bhimdeo's rețreat that enables us to identify it with Beyt
Shankhodhar,


## p. 26 (#64) ##############################################

26
(CH.
THE GHAZNAVIDS
Sāmbhar, who had closed with a great army the line by which he
had advanced.
The army suffered much in its retreat, first through the arid
desert of Sind and next through the Sind-Sāgar Doāb, where it was
so harassed and delayed by the Jāts of that region that it was not
until the spring of 1026 that it reached Ghazni.
Mahmūd's vanity was flattered after his return by the receipt
of complimentary letters from the Caliph al-Qadir Billāh conferring
fresh titles on him, distinguishing his sons in the same manner, and
formally recognizing him as ruler of Khurāsān, Hindūstān, Sīstān,
and Khvārazm, the whole of which great empire, with the exception
of India, where he held only one province, actually acknowledged
his sway:
In the autumn of this year Mahmūd made his last incursion into
India, a punitive expedition against the Jāts who had harassed his
retreat. He marched to Multān and there prepared a fleet of 1400
boats, each armed with an iron spike projecting from the prow
and similar spikes projecting from the gunwale on either side and
carrying a crew of twenty men armed with bows and arrows and
hand grenades of naphtha. The Jāts launched four, or, according
to some authorities, eight thousand boats and attacked the Muslims,
but their boats were pierced or capsized by the spikes and the
victory was so complete that the Jāts, almost to a man, were drown-
ed or slain. The Muslims then disembarked on the islands where
the Jāts had placed their wives and families for safety and carried
off the women and children as slaves.
The remainder of Mahmūd's reign was occupied by the suppres-
sion of the Saljūq Turks, whom he had incautiously encouraged too
far and by the annexation of western Persia. He died at Ghazni
on April 21, 1030.
It is only in a limited sense that Mahmūd can be described as
an Indian sovereign, for it was not until the later years of his reign
that he annexed and occupied the Punjab, the only Indian province
which he held, but he was the first to carry the banner of Islam
into the heart of India and to tread the path in which so many follow-
ed him. He founded an Indian dynasty, for the later kings of his
house, stripped of all their possessions in Persia, Transoxiana, and
Afghānistān, were fain to content themselves with the kingdom of
the Punjab, which had been but an insignificant province of his great
empire.
To Muslim historians Mahmúd is one of the greatest of the
champions of Islam. How far his Indian raiềs and massacres were


## p. 27 (#65) ##############################################

nI ]
MASODI
27
inspired by a desire of propagating his faith, for which purpose they
were ill adapted, and how far by avarice, must remain uncertain,
for Mahmūd's character was complex. Though zealous for Islam
he maintained a large body of Hindu troops, and there is no reason
to believe that conversion was a condition of their service. The
avarice most conspicuously displayed in his review of his riches
before his death and in his undignified lamentations over the pros-
pect of leaving them gave way to lavishness where his religion
or his reputation was concerned. His patronage of architecture
adorned Ghazni with many a noble building and his no less munifi-
cent patronage of letters made his court the home of Firdausi,
'Asāirī, Asadi of Tūs, Minūchihri of Balkh, 'Unsuri, 'Asjadi of Marv,
Farrukhi, Daqiqi; and many other poets of less note.
of less note. His treatment
of the first-named poet, whom he paid for his great epic in silver
instead of the promised gold, is remembered to his discredit, though
it was probably due less to his niggardliness than to a courtier's
jealousy.
Some European historians, ignorant of the principles of oriental
abuse and of the Islamic law of legitimacy have asserted, on the
authority of the satire which Firdausī, after his disappointment,
fulminated against his patron, that Mahmūd was a bastard, but
Firdausi's charge against him is only that his mother was not of
noble birth. He seems to have been the son of a concubine or hand.
maiden, but by the law of Islam the son of a concubine or handmaiden
is as legitimate as the son of a regularly married wiſe.
The story of the contest between Mahmūd's two sons is a mere
repetition of that of the contest between Mahmud and his brother
Ismāʻīl. Mas'ūd, the abler of the two, was at Hamadān when his
father died, and at once set out for Ghaznī, where a party of the
nobles had, in obedience to Mahmūd's will, acknowledged
Muhammad as their sovereign. Masʼūd was joined during his
advance by several of the leading nobles, including Ayāz, Mahmūd's
favourite slave and confidential adviser, and on October 4 those
who had hitherto supported Muhammad perceived that his cause
was lost, imprisoned him, and joined his brother, who had reached
Herat, but their tardy submission availed them little, and they were
either executed or imprisoned for life. The unfortunate Muhammad
was blinded, and was carried by Masóūd to Balkh, which for a time
became the royal residence.
Mas'ud never attempted to emulate his father's activity, but
history now sheds more light on the administration of the Indian
province of the empire. The government of the Punjab had been


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28
[CH.
THE GHAZNAVIDS
SO
entrusted by Mahmúd to a Turkish officer named Ariyāruq, whom
Mas'ud summoned to Balkh. He was charged with oppression and
extortion, with preventing his victims from having access to their
sovereign, and with retaining with treasonable intent a large part
of the revenue.