Ghurid dynasty: Difference between revisions

Ghurid dynasty
Ghurid dynasty
before 879–1215
	Map of Ghurid territory circa 1200, at the time of joint rulers Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad and Muhammad of Ghor (respectively ruling west and east of the Hindu Kush). In the west, Ghurid territory extended to Nishapur and Merv, while Ghurid troops reached as far as Gorgan on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Eastward, the Ghurids invaded as far as Bengal.
Capital	Firozkoh; Herat; Ghazni (1170s–1215)
Common languages	Persian (court, literature)
Religion	before 1011:; Buddhism; From 1011:; Sunni Islam
Government	Hereditary monarchy
Malik/Sultan
• 9th-century–10th-century	Amir Suri (first)
• 1214–1215	Ala al-Din Ali (last)
History
• Established	before 879
• Disestablished	1215
Area
1200 est.	2,000,000 km2 (770,000 sq mi)
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Ghaznavids
	Great Seljuq Empire
	Chahamanas of Shakambhari
	Gahadavala dynasty
	Paramara dynasty
Khwarazmian Empire
Mamluk dynasty (Delhi)
Khalji dynasty of Bengal
Delhi Sultanate
Qarlughids

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Revision as of 21:12, 29 June 2022

The Ghurid dynasty (also spelled Ghorids; Persian: دودمان غوریان‎, romanized: Dudmân-e Ğurīyân; self-designation: شنسبانی, Šansabānī) was a Persianate^[16] dynasty and a clan of presumably eastern Iranian Tajik origin, which ruled from the 10th-century to 1215.^[6]^[17]^[18] The Ghurids were centered in the Ghor of present-day central Afghanistan, where they initially started out as local chiefs. They gradually converted to Sunni Islam from Buddhism^[13]^[14] after the conquest of Ghor by the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni in 1011. The dynasty ultimately overthrew the Ghaznavid Empire when Muhammad of Ghor conquered the last Ghaznavid principality of Lahore in 1186 from Khusrau Malik.

At their zenith, the Ghurid empire encompassed Khorasan in the west and reached northern India as far as Bengal in the east.^[6] Their first capital was Firozkoh in Mandesh, Ghor, which was later replaced by Herat^[9] and finally Ghazni.^[10] The Ghurids were patrons of Persian culture and heritage.^[19] Abu Ali ibn Muhammad (r. 1011–1035) was the first Muslim king of the Ghurid dynasty to construct mosques and Islamic schools in Ghor.

The Ghurids were succeeded in Khorasan and Persia by the Khwarazmian dynasty, and in northern India former Ghurid generals formed the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.

Origins

In the 19th century some European scholars, such as Mountstuart Elphinstone, favoured the idea that the Ghurid dynasty was related to today's Pashtun people^[20]^[21]^[22] but this is generally rejected by modern scholarship and, as explained by Morgenstierne in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, is for "various reasons very improbable".^[23] Some scholars state that the dynasty was of Tajik origin.^[24]^[25]^[26] Encyclopædia Iranica states: "Nor do we know anything about the ethnic stock of the Ḡūrīs in general and the Šansabānīs in particular; we can only assume that they were eastern Iranian Tajiks".^[6] Bosworth further points out that the actual name of the Ghurid family, Āl-e Šansab (Persianized: Šansabānī), is the Arabic pronunciation of the originally Middle Persian name Wišnasp.^[6]

The Ghurids originated from Ghor Province in central Afghanistan.

The historian André Wink explains in The New Cambridge History of Islam:^[27]

The Shansabānī dynasty superseded the Ghaznavids in the second half of the twelfth century. This dynasty was not of Turkish, nor even Afghan, but of eastern Persian or Tājīk origin, speaking a distinct Persian dialect of its own, like the rest of the inhabitants of the remote and isolated mountain region of Ghūr and its capital of Fīrūzkūh (in what is now central Afghanistan).

When the Ghurids started to distinguish themselves through their conquests, courtiers and genealogists (such as Fakhr-i Mudabbir and al-Juzjani) forged a fictive genealogy which connected the Ghurids with the Iranian past. They traced the Ghurid family back to the mythical Arab tyrant Zahhak, mentioned in the medieval Persian epic Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings"), whose family had reportedly settled in Ghur after the Iranian hero Fereydun had ended Zahhak's thousand-year tyranny.^[12]^[6]

Ghur remained primarily populated by Buddhists until the 11th century. It was then Islamised and gave rise to the Ghurids.^{[lower-alpha 1]}^[13]

Language

The Ghurids' native language was apparently different from their court language, Persian. Abu'l-Fadl Bayhaqi, the famous historian of the Ghaznavid era, wrote on page 117 in his book Tarikh-i Bayhaqi: "Sultan Mas'ud I of Ghazni left for Ghoristan and sent his learned companion with two people from Ghor as interpreters between this person and the people of that region." However, like the Samanids and Ghaznavids, the Ghurids were great patrons of Persian literature, poetry, and culture, and promoted these in their courts as their own. Modern-day authors refer to them as the "Persianized Ghurids".^[28] Wink describes the tongue of the Ghurids as a "distinct Persian dialect".^[27]

There is nothing to confirm the recent conclusion that the inhabitants of Ghor were originally Pashto-speaking, and claims of the existence of "Pashto poetry", such as Pata Khazana, from the Ghurid period are unsubstantiated.^[29]^[23]

History

Early history

Jam Minaret

The Minaret of Jam in Ghor Province of Afghanistan, established by the Ghurids and finished in 1174/75 CE. Inscription on the Minaret, showing the name and titles of Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad (1163–1202 CE).

A certain Ghurid prince named Amir Banji was the ruler of Ghor and ancestor of the medieval Ghurid rulers. His rule was legitimized by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. Before the mid-12th century, the Ghurids had been bound to the Ghaznavids and Seljuks for about 150 years. Beginning in the mid-12th century, Ghor expressed its independence from the Ghaznavid Empire. In 1149 the Ghaznavid ruler Bahram-Shah of Ghazna poisoned a local Ghurid leader, Qutb al-Din Muhammad, who had taken refuge in the city of Ghazni after having a quarrel with his brother Sayf al-Din Suri. In revenge, Sayf marched towards Ghazni and defeated Bahram-Shah. However, one year later, Bahram returned and scored a decisive victory against Sayf, who was shortly captured and crucified at Pul-i Yak Taq. Baha al-Din Sam I, another brother of Sayf, set out to avenge the death of his two brothers, but died of natural causes before he could reach Ghazni. Ala al-Din Husayn, one of the youngest of Sayf's brothers and newly crowned Ghurid king, also set out to avenge the death of his two brothers. He managed to defeat Bahram-Shah, and then had Ghazni sacked; the city burned for seven days and seven nights. It earned him the title of Jahānsūz, meaning "the world burner".^[30] The Ghaznavids retook the city with Seljuq help, but lost it to Oghuz Turks.^[30]

In 1152, Ala al-Din Husayn refused to pay tribute to the Seljuks and instead marched an army from Firozkoh but was defeated and captured at Nab by Sultan Ahmed Sanjar.^[31] Ala al-Din Husayn remained a prisoner for two years, until he was released in return for a heavy ransom to the Seljuqs. Meanwhile, a rival of Ala al-Din named Husayn ibn Nasir al-Din Muhammad al-Madini had seized Firozkoh, but was murdered at the right moment when Ala al-Din returned to reclaim his ancestral domain. Ala al-Din spent the rest of his reign expanding the domains of his kingdom; he managed to conquer Garchistan, Tukharistan, and Bamiyan, and later gave Bamiyan and Tukharistan to Fakhr al-Din Masud, starting the Bamiyan branch of the Ghurids. Ala al-Din died in 1161, and was succeeded by his son Sayf al-Din Muhammad, who died two years later in a battle.

The Ghurids at their zenith

Fortress and Ghurid arch of Qala-e-Bost as printed on an Afghan banknote.

Sayf al-Din Muhammad was succeeded by his cousin Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad, who was the son of Baha al-Din Sam I, and proved himself to be a capable king. Right after Ghiyath's ascension, he, with the aid of his loyal brother Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad, killed a rival Ghurid chief named Abu'l Abbas. Ghiyath then defeated his uncle Fakhr al-Din Masud who claimed the Ghurid throne and had allied with the Seljuq governor of Herat and Balkh.^[32]

In 1173, Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad reconquered the city of Ghazni and assisted his brother Ghiyath in his contest with the Khwarezmid Empire for the lordship of Khorasan.

He was alleged by contemporary historians to have exacted revenge for his great-grandfather Muhammad ibn Suri. After the death of his brother Ghiyath on 13 March 1203^[33], he became the successor of his empire and ruled until his assassination in 1206 near Jhelum by Ismāʿīlīs whom he tryannized during his lifetime.^[34]^[35]

Conquest of India and Bengal

*The last stand of Rajputs*, depicting the Second Battle of Tarain in 1192

Template:South Asia in 1175 Northern India and Bengal were conquered by Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad, whose capital was in Ghazni (conquered in 1148 CE), while his elder brother Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad ruled the western part of the Empire.^[36]^[37] In 1175, Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad captured Multan from its Ismaili Muslim community, and also took Uch by 1176.^[37]

In 1178, he turned south and marched through the waterless desert of Rajputana, his armies got exhausted in their march and were routed in the hilly pass of Gadararaghatta by a coalition of Rajput chiefs, which forced him to change his route for further inroads into India.^[38]^[39] He then annexed, with general Qutbu l-Din Aibak, the last Ghaznavid principality of the Punjab, with their capital in Lahore in 1186.^[40]^[41]

In 1191, the Ghurid were defeated in the First Battle of Tarain against the Rajput confederacy of Prithviraja III, but Mu'izz returned a year later with an army of mounted archers and routed the Rajput forces on same battlefield and executed Prithviraja shortly afterwards.^[42] In 1193, Delhi was conquered by the Turkic general of the Ghurid army Qutbu l-Din Aibak.^[41]^[37] In 1194, Mu'izz returned to India and crossed Jamuna with an army of 50,000 horses and defeated the forces of Jayachandra, who was killed in the battle. After the battle, Kashi (Benaras) was razed and several temples were destroyed.^[43]

In 1202-1203 CE, Qutbu l-Din Aibak, now Ghurid governor of Delhi, invaded the Chandela kingdom in the Ganges Valley.^[44] The Ghurids toppled local dynasties and destroyed Hindu temples during their advance across northern India, in place constructing mosques on the same sites.^[37]

Around 1203, Bakhtiyar Khalji, another Turkic general of the Ghurid Empire, led the Muslim conquests of the eastern Indian regions of Bihar and Bengal, also on behalf of Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad.^[36] In Bihar, he is said to have destroyed Buddhist centers of learning such as Nalanda University, greatly contributing to the decline of pre-Islamic Indic scholarship.^[45]^[46] In Bengal, he sacked the ancient city of Nudiya in central Bengal, and established an Islamic government in the former Sena capital of Lakhnauti in 1205.^[36]^[47]^[48]^[49]

Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad placed his faithful Turkic generals, rather than his own Ghurid brethens, in position of authority over local tributary kings, throughout the conquered Indian lands.^[37] After the death of Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad in early 1206, his territories fragmented into smaller Sultanates led by his former Mamluk generals. Taj-ud-Din Yildoz became the ruler of Ghazni. Nasir-ud-Din Qabacha became Sultan of Multan. Qutb ud-Din Aibak became Sultan of Delhi.^[50] Bakhtiyar Khilji became Sultan of Bengal, but was soon assassinated and succeeded by several Khalji rulers, until Bengal was incorporated into the Delhi Sultanate in 1227.^[51]^[52] Between 1206 and 1228 the various Turkic rulers and their successors rivaled from preeminence until the Sultan of Delhi Iltutmish prevailed, marking the advent of the Mamluk dynasty, the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate which would rule most of India for more than three centuries.^[37]

Decline and fall

After the death of Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad in 1206, a confused struggle then ensued among the remaining Ghūrid leaders, and the Khwarezmians were able to take over the western part of the Ghūrid empire in about 1215.^[37] Though the Ghūrids' empire was short-lived, Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad's conquests strengthened the foundations of Muslim rule in India. On his death, and major defeats from Khwarazmian Empire and loss of Ghor and Ghazni, the capital was transferred to Delhi recognizing Khwarazmian rule on north and central Afghanistan. Ghorids continued their rule on much of the Indian subcontinent, Sisitan region of Iran and south of Afghanistan.^[53]

Cultural influences

The Ghurids were great patrons of Persian culture and literature and lay the basis for a Persianized state in the Indian subcontinent.^[6]^[54] However, most of the literature produced during the Ghurid era has been lost. They also transferred Iranian architecture to India.^[55] According to Amir Khusrau (died 1325), the Indians learned Persian because of the influence of the "Ghurids and Turks."^[56] The notion of Persian kingship served as the basis for the imperial formation, political and cultural unity of the Ghurids.^[16]

Out of the Ghurid state grew the Delhi Sultanate which established the Persian language as the official court language of the region – a status it retained until the late Mughal era in the 19th century.

There was a strong Turkic presence among the Ghurids, since Turk slave-soldiers formed the vanguard of the Ghurid armies.^[57] There was intense amalgamation between these various ethnic groups: "a notable admixture of Tajik, Persian, Turkish and indigenous Afghan ethnicities therefore characterized the Shansabanis".^[57] At least until the end of the 13th century when they ruled the Mamluk Sultanate in India, the Turks in the Ghurid realm maintained their ethnical characteristics, continuing to use Turkish as their main language, rather than Persian, and persisting in their rude and bellicose ways as "men of the sword", in opposition to the Persian "men of the pen".^[58]

The two mausoleums of Chisht (the western was built in 1167)
The eastern mausoleum of Chisht (built in 1194)
Ornamental bands on the Minaret of Jam, bearing the 19th Sura of the Koran
Ruins of the Shah-i Mashhad madrasa (built in 1176)
Ghurid arch in Qala-e-Bost

List of rulers

Coinage	Titular Name(s)	Personal Name	Reign
	Malik ملک	Amir Suri امیر سوری	9th-century – 10th-century
	Malik ملک	Muhammad ibn Suri محمد بن سوری	10th-century – 1011
As vassals of the Ghaznavid Empire
	Malik ملک	Abu Ali ibn Muhammad ابوعلی بن محمد	1011–1035
	Malik ملک	Abbas ibn Shith عباس بن شیث	1035 – 1060
	Malik ملک	Muhammad ibn Abbas محمد بن عباس	1060 – 1080
	Malik ملک	Qutb al-din Hasan قطب‌ الدین حسن	1080 – 1100
As vassals of the Seljuk Empire
	Abul-Muluk ابولملک	Izz al-Din Husayn عز الدین حسین	1100–1146
	Malik ملک	Sayf al-Din Suri سیف‌ الدین سوری	1146–1149
	Malik ملک	Baha al-Din Sam I بهاء الدین سام	1149
	Malik ملک Sultan al-Muazzam سلطان المعظم	Ala al-Din Husayn علاء الدین حسین	1149–1161
	Malik ملک	Sayf al-Din Muhammad سیف‌ الدین محمد	1161–1163
	Sultan Abul-Fateh سلطان ابوالفتح	Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad غیاث‌ الدین محمد	1163–1203
	Sultan Shahāb-ud-din Muhammad Ghori سلطان شهاب‌ الدین محمد غوری	Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad معز الدین محمد	1203–1206
As vassals of the Khwarazmian Empire
	Sultan سلطان	Ghiyath al-Din Mahmud غیاث‌ الدین محمود	1206–1212
	Sultan سلطان	Baha al-Din Sam III بهاء الدین سام	1212–1213
	Sultan سلطان	Ala al-Din Atsiz علاء الدین دراست	1213–1214
	Sultan سلطان	Ala al-Din Ali علاء الدین علی	1214–1215
Khwarazmian conquest

Bamiyan Branch

Coinage	Titular Name(s)	Personal Name	Reign
	Malik ملک	Fakhr al-Din Masud فخرالدین مسعود	1152–1163
	Malik ملک	Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Masud شمس‌ الدین محمد بن مسعود	1163–1192
	Malik ملک	Abbas ibn Muhammad عباس بن محمد	1192
	Malik ملک Abul-Mu'ayyid ابوالمؤید	Baha al-Din Sam II بهاء الدین سام	1192–1206
As vassal of the Khwarazmian Empire
	Malik ملک	Jalal al-Din Ali جلال‌ الدین علی	1206–1215
Khwarazmian conquest

Green shaded row signifies Ghurid vassalage under the Khwarazmian dynasty.

Ghurid family tree

Ghurid dynasty family tree

Notes

↑ The rise to power of the Ghurids at Ghur, a small isolated area located in the mountain vastness between the Ghaznavid empire and the Seljukids, was an unusual and unexpected development. The area was so remote that till the 11th century, it had remained a pagan enclave surrounded by Muslim principalities. It was converted to Islam in the early part of the 11th century after Mahmud raided it, and left teachers to instruct the Ghurids in the precepts of Islam. Even then it is believed that a variety of Mahayana Buddhism persisted in the area till the end of the century^[13]

References

↑ Schwartzberg, Joseph E. (1978). A Historical Atlas of South Asia. Oxford University Press, Digital South Asia Library. p. 147, Map "g".
↑ Eaton 2019, p. 38.
↑ Thomas, David C. (15 May 2018). The Ebb and Flow of the Ghūrid Empire. Sydney University Press. p. 26, Figure I:2. ISBN 978-1-74332-542-1.
↑ Schmidt, Karl J. (20 May 2015). An Atlas and Survey of South Asian History. Routledge. p. 37, Map 16.2. ISBN 978-1-317-47681-8.
↑ History of Civilizations of Central Asia. UNESCO. 1 January 1998. ISBN 978-92-3-103467-1. In 1201 Ghurid troops entered Khurasan and captured Nishapur, Merv, Sarakhs and Tus, reaching as far as Gurgan and Bistam. Kuhistan, a stronghold of the Ismailis, was plundered and all Khurasan was brought temporarily under Ghurid control
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 ^6.2 ^6.3 ^6.4 ^6.5 ^6.6 Bosworth 2001b, pp. 586–590.
↑ Turkish History and Culture in India: Identity, Art and Transregional Connections. BRILL. 17 August 2020. p. 237. ISBN 978-90-04-43736-4. In 1205, Bakhtīyar Khilji sacked Nudiya, the pre-eminent city of western Bengal and established an Islamic government at Laukhnauti, the capital of the predecessor Sena dynasty. On this occasion, commemorative coins were struck in gold and silver in the name of Muhammad b. Sām }}
↑ Auer 2021, p. 6.
↑ ^9.0 ^9.1 Firuzkuh: the summer capital of the Ghurids, by David Thomas, pg. 18.
↑ ^10.0 ^10.1 The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture: Three-volume set, by Jonathan Bloom, Sheila Blair, pg. 108.
↑ The Development of Persian Culture under the Early Ghaznavids, C.E. Bosworth, Iran, Vol. 6, (1968), 35;;"Like the Ghaznavids whom they supplanted, the Ghurids had their court poets, and these wrote in Persian"
↑ ^12.0 ^12.1 O'Neal 2015.
↑ ^13.0 ^13.1 ^13.2 ^13.3 Satish Chandra, Medieval India:From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206-1526), Part 1, (Har-Anand Publications, 2006), 22.
↑ ^14.0 ^14.1 The Ghurids, K.A. Nizami, History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol.4, Part 1, ed. M.S. Asimov and C.E. Bosworth, (Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1999), 178.
↑ Bang, Peter Fibiger; Bayly, C. A.; Scheidel, Walter (2 December 2020). The Oxford World History of Empire: Volume One: The Imperial Experience. Oxford University Press. pp. 92–94. ISBN 978-0-19-977311-4.
↑ ^16.0 ^16.1 Auer 2021, p. 12.
↑ Flood, Finbarr B. (20 March 2018). Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval "Hindu-Muslim" Encounter. Princeton University Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-691-18074-8.
↑ Avari, Burjor (2013). Islamic Civilization in South Asia: A History of Muslim Power and Presence in the Indian Subcontinent. Routledge. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-415-58061-8.
↑ Finbarr Barry Flood, Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval "Hindu-Muslim" Encounter, (Princeton University Press, 2009), 13.
↑ Elphinstone, Mountstuart. The History of India. Vol. 1. J. Murray, 1841. Web. 29 Apr. 2010. Link: "...the prevalent and apparently the correct opinion is, that both they and their subjects were Afghans. " & "In the time of Sultan Mahmud it was held, as has been observed, by a prince whom Ferishta calls Mohammed Soory (or Sur) Afghan." p.598-599
↑ A short history of India: and of the frontier states of Afghanistan, Nipal, and Burma, Wheeler, James Talboys, (LINK): "The next conqueror after Mahmud who made a name in India, was Muhammad Ghori, the Afghan."
↑ Balfour, Edward. The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia, Commercial Industrial, and Scientific: Products of the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms, Useful Arts and Manufactures. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1885. Web. 29 Apr. 2010. Link: "IZ-ud-DIN Husain, the founder of the Ghori dynaasty, was a native of Afghansitan. The origin of the house of Ghor has, however, been much discussed, – the prevailing opinion being that both they and their subjects were an Afghan race. " p.392
↑ ^23.0 ^23.1 M. Longworth Dames; G. Morgenstierne; R. Ghirshman (1999). "AFGHĀNISTĀN". Encyclopaedia of Islam (CD-ROM Edition v. 1.0 ed.). Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV. "... there is no evidence for assuming that the inhabitants of Ghūr were originally Pashto-speaking (cf. Dames, in E I1). If we are to believe the Paṭa Khazāna (see below, iii), the legendary Amīr Karōṝ, grandson of Shansab, (8th century) was a Pashto poet, but this for various reasons is very improbable ..."
↑ Encyclopaedia of Islam, "Ghurids", C.E. Bosworth, Online Edition, 2006: "... The Shansabānīs were, like the rest of the Ghūrīs, of eastern Iranian Tājik stock ..."
↑ Wink 2020, p. 78.
↑ Cynthia Talbot, The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Chauhan and the Indian Past, 1200-2000, (Cambridge University Press, 2016), 36.
↑ ^27.0 ^27.1 Template:New Cambridge History of Islam
↑ Flood, Finbarr Barry (3 May 2009). Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval "Hindu-Muslim" Encounter. Princeton University Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-691-12594-7.
↑ Encyclopaedia of Islam, "Ghurids", C.E. Bosworth, Online Edition, 2006: "... There is nothing to confirm the recent surmise that the Ghūids were Pashto-speaking [...] the Paṭa Khazāna "Treasury of secrets", claims to include Pashto poetry from the Ghūid period, but the significance of this work has not yet been evaluated ..."
↑ ^30.0 ^30.1 Bosworth 2001a, pp. 578–583.
↑ Ghurids, C.E. Bosworth, Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol.2, Ed. Bernard Lewis, C. Pellat and J. Schacht, (E.J.Brill, 1991), 1100.
↑ Bosworth 1968, p. 163.
↑ Mohammad Habib (1992). "THE ASIATIC ENVIRONMENT". In Mohammad Habib; Khaliq Ahmad Nizami (eds.). A Comprehensive History of India: The Delhi Sultanat (A.D. 1206-1526). Vol. 5 (Second ed.). The Indian History Congress / People's Publishing House. p. 44. OCLC 31870180. At this juncture Sultan Ghiyasuddin Ghuri died at Herat on 27 Jamadi I.A H 599 (13 March A.D 1203)
↑ C. E. Bosworth (1968), THE POLITICAL AND DYNASTIC HISTORY OF THE IRANIAN WORLD (A.D. 1000–1217), Cambridge University Press, p. 168, ISBN 978-0-521-06936-6, The suppression of revolot in the Punjab occupied Mu'izz al-Din's closing months, for on the way back to Ghaza he was assasinated, allegedly by emmisaries of the Isma'ils whom he had often persecuted during his life time (602/1206)
↑ Chandra 2007, p. 73:"Muizzuddin led his last campaign into India in 1206 in order to deal with the Khokhar rebellion. He resorted to large-scale slaughter of the Khokhars and cowed them down. On his way back to Ghazni, he was killed by a Muslim fanatic belonging to a rival sect"
↑ ^36.0 ^36.1 ^36.2 Turkish History and Culture in India: Identity, Art and Transregional Connections. BRILL. 17 August 2020. p. 237. ISBN 978-90-04-43736-4.
↑ ^37.0 ^37.1 ^37.2 ^37.3 ^37.4 ^37.5 ^37.6 Eaton 2019, pp. 39–45.
↑ Asoke Kumar Majumdar 1956, pp. 131-132.
↑ Chandra 2007, p. 68: "In 1173, Shahabuddin, Muhammad (1173-1206 (also known as Muizzuddin Muhammad bin Sam) ascended the throne at Ghazni, while his elder brother was ruling at Ghur. Proceeding by way of the Gomal pass, Muizzuddin Muhammad conquered Multan and Uchch. In 1178, he attempted to penetrate into Gujarat by marching across the Rajputana desert. But the Gujarat ruler completely routed him in a battle near Mount Abu, and Muizzuddin Muhammad was lucky in escaping alive. He now realised the necessity of creating a suitable base in the Punjab before venturing upon the conquest of India. Accordingly he launched a campaign against the Ghaznavid possessions in the Punjab. By 1190, Muizzuddin Muhammad had conquered Peshawar, Lahore and Sialkot,and was poised fora thrust towards Delhi and the Gangetic doab"
↑ Bosworth 2001a.
↑ ^41.0 ^41.1 Eaton, Richard M. (1993). The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760. Berkeley · Los Angeles · London: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS. p. Chapter 1-2.
↑ Hermann Kulke; Dietmar Rothermund (2004). A History of India. Psychology Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0-415-32919-4. "The first battle of Tarain was won by the Rajput confederacy led by Prithviraj Chauhan of Ajmer. But when Muhammad of Ghur returned the following year with 10,000 archers on horseback he vanquished Prithviraj and his army
↑ Chandra 2007, p. 71: "In 1194, Muizzuddin returned to India. He crossed the Jamuna with 50,000 cavalry and moved towards Kanauj. A hotly contested battle between Muizzuddin and Jaichandra was fought at Chandawar near Kanauj. We are told that Jaichandra had almost carried the day when he was killed by an arrow, and his army was totally defcated. Muizzuddin now moved on to Banaras which was ravaged, a large number of temples there being destroyed"
↑ Sisirkumar Mitra 1977, pp. 123-126.
↑ Roy, Himanshu (30 August 2021). Political Thought in Indic Civilization. SAGE Publishing India. p. 6. ISBN 978-93-5479-159-8. After the arrival of Islam, the universities such as Nalanda and Vikramshila were no longer existent. The destruction of Nalanda by Bakhtiyar Khalji was the last nail in this pre-Islamic Indic university, which had survived three major destructions
↑ Koh, Tommy; Singh, Hernaikh (25 November 2020). India On Our Minds: Essays By Tharman Shanmugaratnam And 50 Singaporean Friends Of India. World Scientific. p. 91. ISBN 978-981-12-2453-9.
↑ Majumdar, R. C. (1973). History of Mediaeval Bengal. Calcutta: G. Bharadwaj & Co. pp. 1–2. OCLC 1031074. Tradition gives him credit for the conquest of Bengal but as a matter of fact he could not subjugate the greater part of Bengal ... All that Bakhtyār can justly take credit for is that by his conquest of Western and a part of Northern Bengal he laid the foundation of the Muslim State in Bengal. The historians of the 13th century never attributed the conquest of the whole of Bengal to Bakhtyār.
↑ Mehta, Jaswant Lal (1986) [First published 1979]. Advanced Study in the History of Medieval India. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Sterling Publishers. pp. 81–82. ISBN 978-81-207-0617-0. OCLC 883279992. The Turkish arms penetrated into Bihar and Bengal, through the enterprising efforts of Ikhtiyaruddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji ... he started plundering raids into Bihar and, within four or five years, occupied a large part of it ... Nadia was sacked by the Turks and a few districts of Bengal (Malda, Dinajpur, Murshidabad and Birbhum) were occupied by them ... Bathtiyar Khalji could not retain his hold over Nadia and made Lakhnauti or Gaur as his capital.
↑ Thakur, Amrendra Kumar (1992). India and the Afghans: A study of a neglected region, 1370-1576 A.D. p. 148. ISBN 9788185078687.
↑ K. A. Nizami (1992). "The Early Turkish Sultans of Delhi". In Mohammad Habib; Khaliq Ahmad Nizami (eds.). A Comprehensive History of India: The Delhi Sultanat (A.D. 1206-1526). Vol. 5 (Second ed.). The Indian History Congress / People's Publishing House. p. 201. OCLC 31870180.
↑ Nafziger, George F.; Walton, Mark W. (2003). Islam at War: A History. Praeger Publishers. p. 56. ISBN 9780275981013.
↑ Chandra, Satish (2004). Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206-1526) - Part One. Har-Anand Publications. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-81-241-1064-5.
↑ Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press 2002
↑ Persian Literature in the Safavid Period, Z. Safa, The Cambridge history of Iran: The Timurid and Safavid periods, Vol.6, Ed. Peter Jackson and Laurence Lockhart,(Cambridge University Press, 1986), 951;"...Ghurids and Ghurid mamluks, all of whom established centres in India where poets and writers received ample encouragement.".
↑ Hambly & Asher 1994, pp. 242–250.
↑ Auer 2021, p. 30.
↑ ^57.0 ^57.1 Avari, Burjor (2013). Islamic Civilization in South Asia: A History of Muslim Power and Presence in the Indian Subcontinent. Routledge. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-415-58061-8.
↑ Eaton 2019, pp. 48–49.

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