The monarch of Ghaznavids, the conqueror of India (B. November 2nd, 971, Bukhara – D. 1030, Ghazni).
His full name was Yemin el-Devlet Abdülkasım Mahmud ibn Sebük Tigin. His father
was Sebük Tegin, who was the founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty, and his mother
was daughter of a noble family from Zabulistan, where is situated on a region
between Iran and Afghanistan. He
was in his youth when he started serving in state affairs. He showed himself with
his courage and intelligence in the battles that he attended with his father. Although
his younger brother Ismail succeeded his father after his father’s death,
Sultan Mahmud took over the country from his brother by going to Ghazni and
declared his sultanate (998). He captured the cities of Bukhara,
Khorasan, Herat, Belh, Bust and Kabul that had been held by Samanids. He
strengthened his sultanate by firstly fighting against and then making peace
with Shiite Buwaihids (932-1062) that were prevailed in Iran and Iraq. He sent the shafii scholar Ebû
Hamid İsfahanî to the caliph of Abbasids in Baghdad. Caliph El Kadir (991-1030) welcomed
the ambassador of Mahmud of Ghazni with pleasure. He gave the new sultan the titles
of “Yemînü’d-Devle”, “Velî” Emîrü’l-Mü’minîn” and “Emîrü’l-Mille” by sending him
hil’at (clothing), crown and flag, which were the symbols of sultanate, with
the “Ahid” of the countries that he had.
After having taken the sultanate in his hands, Sultan
Mahmud took the complete control of the countries called Khorasan, today’s Afghanistan and Baluchistan,
respectively. By fighting Ilikhan of Transoxiana and then Kadir Han, he
expanded the borders beyond Ceyhun as far as Khorezm. He took the castles and
the cities of Rey, Isfahan, Kazvin, Sâve,
Zencan, Ebher on the region of Iran
and Iraq
from Shiite Buwaihids and punished those who were in destructive activities. He
had Rafidah and the books of the philosophical ideologies destroyed and made
the followers of those destructive studies watched.
After having secured his country's northern front, Mahmud
of Ghazni, remaining loyal to his oath and his promise he swore when he
ascended to the throne, decided to start the Indian campaigns. By launching the
first Indian campaign in September 1000, he organized seventeen major campaigns
on India
until 1027. In his first campaign he returned by capturing a few castles, which
held by Indians, located on the region of Lamgan in the east of Kabul. He started his
second campaign against Jayapala the Raja of Vayhand. The Ghaznavid army won
the battle fought near Peshawar
on November 27th, 1001. Jayapala was captured as a prisoner with his
sons, grandsons and commanders. In 1004 he moved against Beji Ray, the raja of Bhatia
region. In that campaign he seized all regions of Bhatia Principality. Sultan
Mahmud made his fourth campaign on Multan.
Ebu’l-Feth, who was informed that the Ghaznavid army had been coming, escaped
to an island on Indus
River by leaving the city.
Sultan Mahmud, who seized Multan,
punished the Qarmatians there. In 1008, after Suhpal, the new governor of Multan, changed his
religion to the Mongol religion leaving Islam, Sultan Mahmud started his fifth
Indian campaign despite the harsh winter conditions. Winning the battle in Multan front, he had Suhpal arrested and left the ruling
of Multan and its
surroundings to one of his commanders Tegin Hazin and returned to Ghazni. In
the same year, Sultan Mahmud, who took action upon hearing that the rajas
(feudal lords that are dependent on the king) of Northwest India and Punjab
started to work in order to stop the expansion of Islam, won the battle in
Vayhand plain by suffering heavy losses. With that battle, the forces of Indian
rajas were crushed and Panjabi route became secured for the Muslim Turkish
armies. Sultan Mahmud captured Narayanpur in October 1009, where was a great trade
center. In the campaign he made in 1010, he conquered Multan completely. He crushed the Qarmatians
heavily, who had oppressed the Muslims. In his ninth Indian campaign in 1014,
he moved toward Kashmir after the conquest of the castle of Nandana.
Kashmiri forces were put to rout twice. This victory had huge repercussions in India, and
Islam spread up to the most remote places.
Mahmud of Ghazni made his tenth campaign on the city of Thanesar, where was
deemed as sacred by Indians and there were many temples and idols. Sultan, who
entered the city without any resistance, had all the idols broken. He, bringing
the famous idol named "Chakra Swami" to Ghazni, showed it to the
public. That victory let Hindus know Muslims and as a result many people were
introduced with Islam. Although Mahmud of Ghazni besieged the Lohagarh Fort that
was located on the way to Kashmir in the year
of 1015, he returned without obtaining any result due to harsh winter. The
Indian world was afraid of Sultan Mahmud so much, wherever he went for a
campaign, his fame went there before him and the cities surrendered because
they were afraid. Mahmud of Ghazni made his twelfth campaign on Kanave, where
was rich and prosperous, and captured the castle of Sirsava.
When he arrived before the castle
of Baran (Bulandshahr),
Raja Hardat welcomed the Sultan and informed him that he became Muslim and handed
over the city. Mahmud Han continued the campaign and captured all cities
between the rivers Yamuna and Ganges. On December
20th, 1018 he conquered his main objective Kanave.
Sultan Mahmud, organizing campaigns on Kalinjar in 1020,
on Kashmir in 1021 and on Kalinjar again in 1022,
brought those lands under his command. He launched the sixteenth and the most
famous campaign on Somnat. Sultan mobilized an army of thirty thousand horsemen
and thousands of volunteers on October 18th, 1025 and captured
Somnat on January 8th. After entering the temple, he ordered the
muezzin to go up to the temple and recite the azan and had all the idols
broken. According to the rumor, the share of Sultan, the fifth of the all
bounty that was gotten from the temple, was twenty million dinars. On the
seventeenth campaign he punished Hafif, who was the ruler of Mansura.
Mahmud of Ghazni
was a scholar besides his conquests and he used to give great importance to the
science and arts. Every day in the palace of the Sultan, there were continuous scientific
discussions with the scholars and poets. Sultan also attended most of those
meetings himself. There were many books dedicated to the name of Sultan Mahmud
and presented to him. For instance, “Shahnameh”
of Ferdowsi was one of those books. Mahmud of Ghazni, who had made a great
effort for training of Ahl al-Sunnah scholars, was hard against Rafidah and the
people of bid’ah (the one who brings out a word or a belief which is not in the
religion), and very soft against right sect and the people of right sect… After
thirty three years of successful and just reigning, he died in Ghazni in 1030
and was buried there in a tomb that was built in his name.
Sultan Mahmud, who was one of the greatest rulers that
was raised by the Turkish-Islamic world, spent forty five years of his life on battlefields.
He struggled with the subversive movements of Rafidah-Batiniyya that spread in
the Muslim countries by the intensive propagandas of Egyptian Fatimid Empire
(909-1171) and pagan Berehmens (idolaters) in India. He defeated Berehmens
everywhere. On the other hand, even though he banned the ideologies of Rafidah by
following them firmly and destroyed their destructive and divisive works, he could
not annihilate their works. Nevertheless, Mahmud of Ghazni was the person who
spread Islam throughout India...
Sultan Mahmud had the ability to conduct the large armies; therefore he had
superior talent of commanding. He was a military genius regarding applying
different battle systems according to every kind of climate and natural
conditions, providing materials, training army units. He used well-trained
archer divisions against Indians, in the campaigns on Transoxania, Khorezm and Buwaihids,
these countries used elephants that the armies of Mahmud of Ghazni did not dare
to fight.
Mahmud of Ghazni
was a ruler that made every effort for treating the country’s wounds. He was a
master at evaluating events correctly. His army consisted of “Hassa”, which was
formed by sultan’s own troops, and men that were specially trained, and
“Volunteers” in which a large part of
the fighting force was formed of volunteers and that took their shares from the
bounties. Although Sultan Mahmud gathered ghazis from Muslim countries by his officers, in the times of campaigns many
participants that came from everywhere of the country formed a huge crowd. With
this system, the zealous Muslims that desired to wage jihad in the Middle East and non-workers those who could have been
harmful for the social structure, reached new opportunities by being mobilized
to the different areas. As a result of the campaigns on India,
Ghaznavids got rich by expanding the borders.
The city of Ghazni
was decorated with architectural works such as parks, gardens, triumphal
columns, mosques. Ulu Mosque in Ghazni is one of those buildings. Also in his
reign, the big cities like Belh and Nishapur became the most well-groomed and
the most beautiful cities of the era.
Mahmud of Ghazni was also a poet who had a Divan. During his reign, he protected
and supported the poets and artists and encouraged them to do art works. The
world-famous Ferdowsi’s “Shahnamah” dedicated
to Mahmud of Ghazni. The official language of Ghaznavids was Turkish and Farsi.
Since Mahmud of Ghazni wrote poems in Farsi, he protected the poets that wrote
in Farsi, hosted them in his palace and thus he served to the development of
Farsi language. Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, whose wars, character and morality were
written in the immortal "Shahnamah",
was one of the greatest Turkish statesmen. When he died in 1030, he left behind
a vast empire of five million square kilometers. Historians noted that Sultan
Mahmud of Ghazni died of tuberculosis.
REFERENCE:
Büyük Larousse Ansiklopedisi (s. 7673, 1986), Erdoğan Merçil / Gazneliler
Devleti Tarihi (1989), M.
Hanefi Paşabıyık / Valilikten İmparatorluğa Gazneliler (2002), TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi (c. 27, s. 362,
2003), İhsan Işık / Ünlü Devlet Adamları (Türkiye
Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 1, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People
(2013).
