Conquests of Mahmud Ghaznavi
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| Mahmud of Ghazni |
The Arab conquest of Sind belongs to the first phase of Islamic expansion under the Umayyad Caliphs. It was after nearly three centuries that the second phase of the conquest of the sub-continent began under the Turks. The Turkish rulers of Ghazni and later those of Ghur carried Muslim arms across Pakistan and into northern India.
Conquests of Mahmud Ghaznavi Sultan Mahmud obtained formal recognition of his sovereignty from the
Abbasid Khalifah, al-Qadir Billah, who also conferred upon him the titles of
Yamin-ud-Dawlah and Amin-ul-Millah. He undertook an expedition every year to
Hind and according to Sir Henry Elliot, led as many as seventeen expeditions.
The only permanent result of his expeditions was the conquest of the Punjab.
However, along with Muslim warriors came Muslim saints and Sufis, who
promulgated Islam in India. Shaikh Ali Hujweri, popularly known as Data Ganj Baksh, renowned sufi who
settled in Lahore, wrote the first authentic book on sufism in Persian titled
"Kashaful-Mehjub".
Alberuni Alberuni, Muslim scientist and traveller visited the sub-continent during
this period. He compared the way of life of the Muslims settled in India with
the Hindus and wrote about it in his book "Kitab-al-Hind". Alberuni thus
comments: "In all manners and usages they differ from us to such a degree as to
frighten their children with us, with our dress, and our ways and customs, and
as to declare us to be devil’s breed, and our doings as the very opposite of all
that is good and proper."
