The Ghurids sack Ghazni, 1150–1151

The Ghurids sack Ghazni

In 1150 or 1151 the Ghurid ruler Ala al-Din Husayn, avenging two brothers killed by the Ghaznavid sultan Bahram Shah, defeated him and gave Ghazni, the Ghaznavid capital, over to plunder and fire for seven days, earning the name Jahansuz, ‘the World-Burner’. The sack announced the rise of the Ghurids of central Afghanistan, who recovered Ghazni from the Oghuz in 1173 and from there conquered northern India.

Date

between 1150 and 1151exact date unknown: an interval is given

Place

Ghazni, capital of the Ghaznavidstoday: Ghazni, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan · Central and Northern Asia

Participants

Ala al-Din Husayn, Ghurids, Ghaznavids

Threads

Central Asia and the Steppe (11th–12th c.)

Also known as

Sack of Ghazni (1150); Sack of Ghazni (1151); Burning of Ghazni; Разорение Газни; Сожжение Газни

The Ghurids, chiefs of the mountain land of Ghor in central Afghanistan, had long been vassals of the Ghaznavids and the Seljuks. In the 1140s the Ghurid prince Qutb al-Din Muhammad was poisoned by the Ghaznavid sultan Bahram Shah. His brother Sayf al-Din Suri marched on Ghazni and in 1148 drove Bahram out, but Bahram came back, captured Sayf al-Din and had him crucified; a third brother, Baha al-Din Sam, died soon afterwards.

In 1150 a younger brother, Ala al-Din Husayn, took the field to avenge them. The Ghurids routed Bahram Shah at Tiginabad and again at Jush-i Ab-i Garm, and Ghazni was given over to plunder and fire for seven days and nights, with great slaughter of its people; the sack is dated to 1150 or 1151. The tombs of the Ghaznavid sultans were broken open and their remains burnt, except those of Mahmud, Mas’ud and Ibrahim, and the Ghurids also destroyed the Ghaznavid palaces at Bust. For this Ala al-Din was remembered as Jahansuz, ‘the World-Burner’.

In 1152 Ala al-Din refused tribute to Sultan Sanjar, was defeated and captured at Nab in the Hari Rud valley and spent two years in captivity. The Ghaznavids recovered Ghazni with Seljuk help but later lost it to Oghuz tribesmen, and in 1173 Ala al-Din’s nephew Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad drove them out and installed his brother Mu’izz al-Din, Muhammad of Ghor, at Ghazni. From there Mu’izz al-Din took Multan and Lahore — the last Ghaznavid principality in the Punjab fell in 1186 — and in 1192, at Tarain, opened northern India to Muslim rule.

Connections

Related events

Reign of Mahmud of Ghazni998 – 30 April 1030 · Central and Northern Asiathe Ghurids burnt the tombs of the Ghaznavid sultans but spared that of Mahmud

The minaret of Jam is raised in Ghorbetween 1174 and 1194 · Central and Northern Asiain 1173, more than two decades after Ala al-Din burnt Ghazni, his nephew Ghiyath al-Din, whose name the minaret bears, recovered the city from the Oghuz

First Battle of Tarain1191 · South Asiathe sack of Ghazni marked the rise of the Ghurids; Ghazni, which they recovered from the Oghuz in 1173, became the base from which Muhammad of Ghor led his campaigns into India

Same participants

Same place

Adjacent events in the thread

Battle of Qatwan9 September 1141 · Central and Northern Asia

The Oghuz take Sultan Sanjar prisoner1153 – between October and November 1156 · Central and Northern Asia

The Ghurids sack Ghazni

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Same participants

Same place

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Western and Central Europe

Balkans and Anatolia

Middle East and Egypt

Africa

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Sources