Muhammad of Ghor - Ghurid-Ghaznavid Struggles

Ghurid-Ghaznavid Struggles

Shahabuddin Ghori is credited with the decimation of the Ghaznavids, his ancestral enemies.

In alliance with the Hindu Raja of Jammu Vijaya Dev, he attacked Lahore in 1187, which was held by his ancestral enemy, the descendent of Mahmud of Ghazni, and made him prisoner. Mahmud of Ghazni's line of Sultans and Governors became extinguished.

Mahmud Ghazni had attacked Ghor and the King Amir Suri, an ancestor of Shahabuddin Ghori, died taking poison after being taken prisoner. Various sources including Ferishta and Siraj attest to these events.

In the following year AH 401 (AD 1010), Mahmood led his army towards Ghor.

According to Minhaj us Siraj, Amir Suri was captured by Mahmud of Ghazni, taken prisoner along with his son, and taken to Ghazni, where Amir Suri died.

Soor, being made prisoner was brought to the king, but having taken poison, which he always kept under his ring, he died in a few hours; his country was annexed to the dominions of Ghizny.

A little over a hundred years after Mahmud, one of his successors to the throne of Ghazni fell into a blood feud with the ruler of Ghor, southeast of Herat. In reprisal Ghazni was sacked by the prince of Ghor a fellow Muslim in 1150, and burned for seven days and nights. All the magnificent Mahmudi palaces and halls were destroyed and plunder, devastation and, and slaughter were continuous. It might be a historian reporting one of Mahmud's own murderous Indian raids. The Ghori victor earned the title of Jahansoze, the world burner. The bells ring again: the perpetrations of the northern foreigners were not essentially anti-Hindu. They could be quite merciless with Muslim rivals as well, for that was a part of their way of life. Ghazni now fell to a Turkman tribe which was in its turn ousted by the nephew of Jahansoze in 1173. The latter gave it to his brother later to be known as Muhammad of Ghori.

Muhammad of Ghori launched expeditions into India, first capturing Multan from a fellow Muslim chief in 1175–76. Three years later he invaded Gujarat and was roundly defeated by the Hindu King. Another three years later, and Shahabuddin Ghori was back to take Peshawar and Sialkot in 1181. Now in alliance with the Hindu Raja of Jammu Vijaya Dev, he attacked Lahore in 1187, which was held by his ancestral enemy, the descendant of Mahmud of Ghazni, and made him prisoner. Mahmud of Ghazni's line of Sultans and Governors became extinguished.