MAHMUD, son of Sabaktagin, commonly called of Ghazni, was a brave, experienced, prudent sovereign, distinguished in war and as a civil administrator. He ruled from A.D. 997 to A.D. 1030, in which period -he extended his dominions from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Aral, and from the mountains of Kurdistan to the banks of the Sutlej. He was the greatest sovereign of his time, and is considered by Mu hammadans among the greatest of any age. He was athletic and well-proportioned, but scarred with smallpox ; prudent, active, and enterprising, zealous in the encouragement of literature and art to a degree which has not yet been surpassed. The poets Dakiki, Ansari, and Fardusi were at tracted to his court. He founded at Ghazni the mosque called the Celestial Bride, which was the wonder of the cast, and the nobility imitated his taste for architectural display. Such were the multitudes of slaves he brought from India, a purchaser could not be found for them at 4s. 7d. a head. At that time the northern part of India seems to have been under the sway of four rulers, one at Dehli under the Chauhan, one at Kanouj under the Ralitor ; 3Iewar was under the Gehlot, and Anhilwara under the Chaim and Solanki. The Dehli rule extended to the Indus in the west, and the Himalaya to the north; Kanouj eastwards to Benares, with part of Bundelkliand ; and Mewar and .Auliilwara consisted probably of the present Mewar and Malwa, and thence to the Lower Indus and the sea.
Mahmud put aside his elder brother Ismail in A.D. 997. In A.D. 1001 (Aar. 391) he made his first campaign against the Hindus of India. He left Ghazni with 10,000 chosen horse, and on the 27th November, near Peshawur, defeated and took prisoner raja Jaipal 1. of Lahore, afterwards stormed Batinda, and returned to Ghazni rich with plunder. Jaipal, on his return from cap tivity, immolated himself on a pyre which he had ordered to be constructed.
Mahmud's second expedition was against the raja of Bhattia, south of Multan, who, being driven from a well-defended entrenchment, and then from his own fortress, at last destroyed himself in the thickets of the Indus, where he had fled for concealment, and where many of his followers fell in endeavouring to revenge his death.
His third expedition was to reduce his depend ent, time Afghan chief of Multan, Abul Fattah Lodi, who had formed a close alliance with Anang Pal. Anang Pal interposed his army between those of Mahmud and Abul Fattah, but was routed near Peshawur, and 3fahmud invested Multan, but after seven days' siege he accepted the submission of the chief. Taking advantage of Mahmud's occupation near the Indus, Elik Khan sent an army to invade the Ghaznavi dominions of Herat and Balkh, but Mahmud left his capital under Suk Pal, is converted Hindu, met Elik Khan near Balkh, drove the Tartars with prodigious slaughter from the field of battle, and Elik Khan escaped across time Oxus with a few attendants. In the ineantime Suk Pal had renounced Muhammadanism, and revolted, but Mahmud came unexpectedly on him, took him prisoner, and confined him for life.
His fourth expedition (A.n. 1008, am. 399) was formed to punish Anang Pal's combining with Abul Fattah Lodi. Anang Pal had induced the rajas of Gwalior, Ujjain, Kalinjar, Kanouj, Dehli, and Ajmir to enter into a confederacy, and their united forces advanced into the Pamijab. Hindu women sold their jewels, melted down their gold ornaments, and sent their contributions from a distance to furnish resources for this holy war. Mahmud formed an entrenched camp, but the Gliakkar overthrew his guards, and cut down 3000 or 4000 of his army. The elephant of Anang Pal, however, unable to withstand the archers, fled from the field, his army gave way, and Mahniud sent in pursuit 10,000 chosen men, who killed great numbers of the enemy before they reached a place of safety. Mahmud then advanced on Nagarkot, a fortified temple on a mountain connected with the lower range of the Himalaya, and ho carried off from it to Ghazni 700,000 gold dinar, 700 man of gold and silver plate, 200 man of pure gold in ingots, 2000 man of unwrought silver, and 20 man of various jewels, pearls, corals, diamonds, and rubies.