Ghaznavid Empire: Map & History

Military and tactics

The core of the Ghaznavid army was primarily made up of Turks, as well as thousands of native Afghans who were trained and assembled from the area south of the Hindu Kush in what is now Afghanistan. During the rule of Sultan Mahmud, a new, larger military training center was established in Bost (now Lashkar Gah). This area was known for blacksmiths where war weapons were made. After capturing and conquering the Punjab region, the Ghaznavids began to employ Hindus in their army.

The Indian soldiers, whom Romila Thapar presumed to be Hindus, were one of the components of the army with their commander called sipahsalar-i-Hinduwan and lived in their own quarter of Ghazna practicing their own religion. Indian soldiers under their commander Suvendhray remained loyal to Mahmud.

State and culture

Although the dynasty was of Central Asian Turkic origin, it was thoroughly Persianised in terms of language, culture, literature and habits and has been regarded as a "Persian dynasty". The official religion of Ghaznavids was Sunni Islam and Hanafi law of school (fiqh).

The Ghaznavid sultans were ethnically Turkish, but the sources, all in Arabic or Persian, do not allow us to estimate the persistence of Turkish practices and ways of thought amongst them.

Decline

Mahmud left the empire to his son Mohammed, who was mild, affectionate and soft. His brother, Mas'ud, asked for three provinces that he had won by his sword, but his brother did not consent. Mas'ud had to fight his brother, and he became king, blinding and imprisoning Mohammed as punishment. Mas'ud was unable to preserve the empire and following a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Dandanaqan in 1040, he lost all the Ghaznavid lands in Persia and Central Asia to the Seljuks, plunging the realm into a "time of troubles". His last act was to collect all his treasures from his forts in hope of assembling an army and ruling from India, but his own forces plundered the wealth and he proclaimed his blind brother as king again.

Legacy

At its height, the Ghaznavid empire grew from the Oxus to the Indus Valley and was ruled from 977 to 1186. The history of the empire, Tarikh Yamini, was written by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Jabbar al-Utbi, who documented the Ghaznavid's achievements, including regaining lost territory from their rivals, the Kara-Khanids, in present-day Iran and Afghanistan.

In addition to the wealth accumulated through raiding Indian cities, and exacting tribute from Indian rajas, the Ghaznavids also benefited from their position as an intermediary along the trade routes between China and the Mediterranean. The Ghaznavid rulers are generally credited with spreading Islam into the Indian subcontinent.