Reign of Mahmud of Ghazni
Sabuktigin’s son Mahmud took the throne of Ghazni in 998 and in three decades built an empire from north-western Iran to the Punjab and Khwarazm. Invested by the caliph with the title Yamin al-Dawla, he raided India again and again, carried the treasures of its temples to Ghazni and made his capital a centre of Persian poetry and learning: al-Biruni worked there, and Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh was presented to Mahmud’s court.
- Date
- 998 – 30 April 1030start: year known; end: exact date · duration: ≈ 32 years
- Place
- Ghazni (Ghazna)today: Ghazni, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan · Central and Northern Asia
- Participants
- Mahmud of Ghazni, Ghaznavids, Kara-Khanid Khanate, al-Biruni, Buyids
- Threads
- Central Asia and the Steppe (11th–12th c.)
- Also known as
- Mahmud of Ghazna; Mahmud Ghaznavi; Yamin al-Dawla; Battle of Katar; Ghaznavid conquest of Khwarazm; Махмуд Газнийский; Ямин ад-Даула; Газневидское завоевание Хорезма
When Sabuktigin died in 997, he left Ghazni to his son Ismail, but Mahmud, with the help of another brother, defeated Ismail at Ghazni the following year and took the throne. In 999, as the Samanid state collapsed, Mahmud took Khurasan while the Karakhanids took Bukhara, and the caliph al-Qadir granted him the title Yamin al-Dawla wa Amin al-Milla, ‘Right Hand of the State and Helper of the Religious Community’. In January 1008 he crushed a Karakhanid invasion of Khurasan near Balkh; on 3 July 1017 he defeated the Khwarazmian army, then took Gurganj and annexed Khwarazm, taking its scholars — al-Biruni among them, perhaps as captives — to Ghazni; and on 26 May 1029 he entered Rayy, which he took from the Buyids.
His renown — and his notoriety in India — rests on his raids across the Indus, seventeen by the usual count: from the defeat of the Hindu Shahi king Jayapala near Peshawar in 1001 through Multan, Nagarkot, Thanesar, Mathura and Kannauj (1018) to the sack of the temple of Somnath in 1025–1026. They brought enormous booty to Ghazni, and the Punjab remained in Ghaznavid hands until 1186. Taking Samanid Bukhara as his model, Mahmud made Ghazni a centre of learning and Persian poetry: the poet Unsuri dedicated his work to him, al-Biruni followed his campaigns and wrote his great description of India, and in 1010 Ferdowsi completed the Shahnameh, whose final version, according to Nizami Aruzi, was sent to Mahmud’s court.
Mahmud died in Ghazni on 30 April 1030, and his sons Muhammad and Mas’ud fought over the succession. Under Mahmud some 4,000 families of Turkmen had been settled in Khurasan; after his death the Seljuks crossed the Amu Darya too, and ten years later they took the western half of his empire at Dandanaqan.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Alp-Tegin in Ghazni and the rise of the Ghaznavids962 – 20 April 977 · Central and Northern AsiaMahmud inherited the realm that his father Sabuktigin had built from Ghazni
Includes
- Mahmud of Ghazni’s raid on Somnath18 October 1025 – 2 April 1026 · South Asiain 1025–1026 Mahmud led his raid on the temple of Somnath in Gujarat
Related events
- The Karakhanids take Bukhara: the fall of the Samanids23 October 999 · Central and Northern Asiain 999 Mahmud took Khurasan while the Karakhanids took Bukhara, and the Amu Darya became the frontier between them
- Battle of Dandanaqan23 May 1040 · Central and Northern Asiathe defeat cost Mahmud’s son the western half of the empire Mahmud had built
Same participants
- Al-Sufi's ‘Book of the Fixed Stars’964 · Middle East and Egyptvia Buyids
- The Karakhanids conquer Buddhist Khotanbetween 1006 and 1007 · Central and Northern Asiavia Kara-Khanid Khanate
- Ibn Sina's ‘Canon of Medicine’between 1020 and 1025 · Middle East and Egyptvia Buyids
- Al-Biruni writes his Indiabetween 1030 and 1031 · Central and Northern Asiavia al-Biruni
- The Kara-Khanid Khanate splits into western and eastern khanatesbetween 1040 and 1042 · Central and Northern Asiavia Kara-Khanid Khanate
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Coronation of Stephen I of Hungarybetween 25 December 1000 and 1 January 1001
- Christianization of Icelandbetween 999 and 1000
Eastern Europe
- The war of Vladimir’s sons (1015–1019) and the murder of Boris and Gleb15 July 1015 – 1019
- The first Rus’ coinsbetween 988 and 1000 – 1015
- St Sophia of Kyiv is foundedbetween 1011 and 1037
- The Pravda of Yaroslav, the oldest part of the Russkaya Pravdabetween 1016 and 1039
- Building of the Church of the Tithes989–996
+ 1 event
Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of Kleidion and the conquest of Bulgaria29 July 1014
Middle East and Egypt
- Al-Hakim destroys the Church of the Holy Sepulchre18 October 1009
- Ibn Sina's ‘Canon of Medicine’between 1020 and 1025
Africa
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
- K2 (Bambandyanalo) and the rise of Mapungubwec. 1000 – c. 1220
South Asia
- Rajaraja I completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur1010
- Mahmud of Ghazni’s raid on Somnath18 October 1025 – 2 April 1026
- Reign of Rajendra I Chola1014–1044
- The Kandariya Mahadeva temple is built at Khajurahobetween 1017 and 1050
- Queen Didda rules Kashmir958–1003
East Asia
- Battle of Gwiju: Goryeo routs the Khitan army10 March 1019
- Murasaki Shikibu writes The Tale of Genjic. 1000 – c. 1012
- Chanyuan Treaty: peace between the Song and the Liaobetween 19 January and 24 January 1005
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Lý Thái Tổ moves the capital to Thăng Longbetween August and September 1010
- Rajendra I’s naval expedition against Kadaram and Srivijayac. 1025
- Reign of Suryavarman I at Angkorbetween 1002 and 1010 – between 1049 and 1050
- Airlangga restores the kingdom of East Java1019–1037
- Polynesians settle the Society Islandsbetween 1025 and 1120
North America
- Pueblo II: stone pueblos and the Chaco worldc. 900 – c. 1150
- Leif Erikson reaches Vinlandc. 1000
- Classic Mimbres: the painted bowls of the Mogollonc. 1000 – between 1130 and 1150
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
Latin America
- Tula and the Toltecs: the leading city of central Mexicoc. 900 – c. 1150
- Middle Sicán: the Lambayeque culture at its height at Batán Grandec. 900 – c. 1100
- Collapse of Tiwanakuc. 1000 – c. 1150
- Rise of Chichén Itzá in northern Yucatánc. 800 – between 900 and 1000
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
+ 2 events
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Mahmud of Ghazni
- Wikipedia (English): Ghaznavid Empire
- Wikipedia (English): Al-Biruni
- Wikipedia (English): Shahnameh
- Wikipedia (Russian): Махмуд Газневи
- Wikipedia (Russian): Газневиды
- Bosworth C. E. The Ghaznavids: Their Empire in Afghanistan and Eastern Iran, 994–1040. — Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1963.
- Barthold W. Turkestan down to the Mongol Invasion. — 3rd ed. / Ed. C. E. Bosworth. — London: Luzac, 1968. — (E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Series. N. S.; 5).