The Ghaznavids (Their Empire in Afghanistan and Eastern India 994-1040)

About the Book

This book deals with the origins and early history of the dynasty of Turkish slave origin which in the first half of the eleventh century AD, became a mighty power controlling lands from western Persiato the Panjab and from' what is now the northern Uzbekistan Republic to the shores of the Indian Ocean in Baluchistan and Sind. The book is based on the original Persian and Arabic sources for the period, and describes the process by which, from a Turkish steppe background, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna and his son Mas'ud assembled by force of arms the most powerful empire known in the Islamic world since the disintegration of the Baghdad caliphate. Much- of the Sultans' energy was devoted to the exploitation of India, with its rich temple treasures and reserves of slave manpower, and Mahmud in particular achieved a great contemporary reputation as a hammer of pagans and heretics, before the attacks of a new wave of Turkish invaders from Central Asia, the Ozhuz, overran the western provinces of their empire by 1040.

About the Author

Prof. C.E. Bosworth F.BA is Emeritus Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Manchester and a former President of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. His many books cover the fields of the history of the Iranian world and Central Asia and the history, literature and culture of the Arab world.

Preface

The genesis of this book was in a doctoral thesis, The transition from Ghaznavid to Seljuq power in the Islamic East, submitted to Edinburgh University in 1961. I must acknowledge with deep gratitude much help and encouragement over a period of several years from the Rev Dr W. Montgomery Watt and Mr J. R. Walsh of Edinburgh. It was from the latter that I first acquired a specific interest in the eastern Iranian world, a field whose study I have since found highly rewarding. Dr J. A. Boyle of Manchester has kindly made certain suggestions, in particular, on the correct forms of some Turkish names. The libraries of the Universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh and Durham, and that of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, have been most helpful over the lending and pro- curing of books, and the Suleymaniye Umumi Katubhane in Istanbul and the India Office Library in London have provided microfilms of manuscripts in their possession. Finally, my thanks are due to the Edinburgh University Press for their publication of the book and to the printers for their skilful handling of a fairly difficult manuscript.

Contents