Mahmud of Ghazni (2 November 971-30 April 1030) was the Sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire from 998 to 1030, succeeding Ismail of Ghazni and preceding Muhammad of Ghazni.
Biography[]
Mahmud of Ghazni was the son of a Turkish slave soldier, Sebuktegin. After fighting in the service of the Persian Samanids, Sebuktegin rose to be the ruler of the cities of Khorasan and Ghazni. Mahmud accompanied his father on his campaigns from the age of 14. In 996, Sebuktegin died and, after a short war with his brother, Ismail, Mahmud succeeded to his father's domains. The Abbasid caliph confirmed his rule over Ghazni and Khorasan, and in return Mahmud vowed to campaign in Hindu India every year in the name of Islam. He did not quite fulfill this promise, but in 1001, he defeated Jayapala at Peshawar (now in Pakistan) and between 1000 and 1026 raided northern India at least 16 times. Although Muslim zeal justified these campaigns, plunder was the more obvious motive. Looting Hindu temples brought Mahmud untold riches, reflected in the splendor of his capital at Ghazni.
Mahmud's campaigns in India were usually timed to fit between the harvest and the monsoon rains, when his army could live off the land and move swiftly, without the hindrance of a supply train. He repeatedly defeated his main opponents, the Rajput princes, and in 1025 pushed as far south as Somnath, site of a famous temple on the coast of Gujarat. In his later years, however, Mahmud was challenged by the rising power of the Seljuk Turk, who by the time of his death in 1030 had seized the cities of Merv and Nishapur on the western edge of his empire.