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PersonAD 971 – 1030

Mahmud of Ghazni

Also called: Mahmud Ghaznavi, Yamin al-Dawla Mahmud

Ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty (r. 998–1030) whose some seventeen raids into northern India opened the way for Islamic power in the subcontinent

Son of Sebüktigin, a Turkic slave general of the Samanids, he became ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty in 998. In the west he took Khorasan in eastern Iran, and in the east he raided northern India again and again, carrying temple treasure back to Ghazni. Upholding the authority of the Abbasid caliph, he posed as champion of Sunni Islam, and the poet Ferdowsi and the scholar al-Biruni were at his court; Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh was dedicated to him.

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1 related event

  1. 1
    1001 – 1027Ghaznavid Invasions of Indiacommander

    From 1001 Mahmud of the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty of Afghanistan repeatedly invaded northern India, opening the way for Islamic power in the subcontinent.

Themes this person appears in

  • Turkic-Islamic Empires and Other Civilizations1000 – 1533

    From the Ghaznavid raids on India to the Mughal Empire and Suleiman I — five centuries in which Turkic-led Islamic empires took western Asia and India, while Africa, Southeast Asia and the Americas raised civilisations of their own