Mas'ud I of Ghazni

The Ghaznavid Empire extends by 1030 from Ray in the west to Samarkand in the northeast, and from the Caspian Sea to the Yamuna.

Although his raids have carried his forces across the South Asia, only a portion of Punjab and Sindh in modern-day Pakistan come under his semi-permanent rule; Kashmir, the Doab, Rajasthan and Gujarat remain under the control of the local Rajput dynasties.

The booty brought back to Ghazni is enormous, and contemporary historians (e.g.

Abolfazl Beyhaghi, Ferdowsi) give descriptions of the magnificence of the capital, as well as of the conqueror's munificent support of literature.

He has transformed Ghazni, the first center of Persian literature, into one of the leading cities of Central Asia, patronizing scholars, establishing colleges, laying out gardens, and building mosques, palaces, and caravansaries.

He has patronized Ferdowsi to write the Shahnameh; and, after his expedition across the Gangetic plains in 1017, of Al-Biruni to compose his Tarikh Al-Hind in order to understand the Indians and their beliefs.

During his rule, universities have been founded to study various subjects such as mathematics, religion, the humanities, and medicine.

Islam is the main religion of his kingdom.

Persian, spoken in the empire, is made to the official language.

Sultan Mahmud, who had contracted malaria during his last invasion, dies in Ghazni at the age of fifty-nine on April 30, 1030.

The medical complication from malaria had caused lethal tuberculosis.

The Ghaznavid Empire will be ruled by his successors for one hundred and fifty-seven years.

Mohammad Ghaznavi, the younger of a set of twins, ascends the throne upon the death of his father Mahmud in 1030.

His uncle Yusuf Sebüktigin initially supported his coronation but later forms a confederacy supporting Mas'ud, the elder twin.

Mas'ud had proved himself a capable general during his father's time, annexing the provinces of Joorjistan, Tuburistan and the Persian portion for his father.

He had been appointed governor of Rayy, Isfahan, Balkh and Herat.

Upon his father's death, he gathers his supporters at Nishapur, where his captured brother is delivered to him, after which he is blinded and imprisoned.

Mas'ud I of Ghazni enters Tabaristan via Gorgan in 1034-35, marching an army to Amol to collect tribute.

Mas'ud sacks Amol for four days and later burns it to the ground.

The apical ancestor of the Seljuqs, a clan of Oghuz Turks moving from the steppes east of the Aral Sea, was their beg, Seljuq, who was reputed to have served in the Khazar army, under whom, circa 950, they had migrated to Khwarezm, near the city of Jend, where they converted to Islam.

The Seljuqs had been allied with the Persian Samanid Shahs against the Kara-khanids.

The Samanids had fallen to the Kara-khanids in Transoxania (992/999), however, whereafter the Ghaznavids had arisen.

The Seljuqs had become involved in this power struggle in the region before establishing their own independent base.

Tughril is the grandson of Seljuq and brother of Chaghri, under whom the Seljuqs wrest an empire from the Ghaznavids.

Very little is known of Chaghri and Tughril's lives until 1025.

Both were raised by their grandfather Seljuq until they were fifteen and fought with Ali Tigin Bughra Khan, a minor Kara-Khanid noble, against Mahmud of Ghazni.

Initially, the Seljuqs had been repulsed by Mahmud and had retired to Khwarezm, but from 1035 to 1037, Chaghri and Tughril have fought against his son and successor Mas'ud I of Ghazni.

In 1037 Tughril and Chaghri lead them in the peaceful takeover of Merv—the Ghaznavid sultan is extremely unpopular in the city.

Later, the Seljuqs repeatedly raid and trade territory with his successors across Khorasan and Balkh and even sack Ghazni in 1037.

The Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud had deposed ithe Buyid emir Majd al-Dawla had in 1029.

Mas'ud I, the son of the Ghaznavid sultan, who wishes to liberate the Abbasids from Buyid control, had proceeded further into western Iran, where he had defeated various rulers, including Muhammad, who had fled to Ahvaz to seek help from the Buyids, but he had quickly made peace with the Ghaznavids and returned as their vassal, having accepted to pay an annual tribute of two hundred thousand dinars.

The Ghaznavids, however, are not able to control those of their conquests that are distant from Ghazni, without trouble.

Muhammad had managed to briefly take Ray from the Ghaznavids in 1030.

In 1035, Mas'ud I again defeats Muhammad, who fled to once again fled to the Buyids in Ahvaz, whence he later flees to northwestern Iran to begin recruiting a powerful force of Turkmens in order to gain his lost regions.

Muhammad, along with his forces, once again occupies Rey in 1037 and 1038.

Muhammad had begun constructing massive defensive walls around Isfahan, which later saves it from the Turkmen nomads who sack and plunder some places in west and central Iran in 1038/39, …

…including the city of Hamadan.

Chaghri and Tughril have fought against the Ghaznavids between 1038 and 1040, usually with hit and run maneuvers.

When the Seljuq leaders begin raising an army, they are seen as a threat to the Ghaznavid territories.

Following the looting of border cities by Seljuq raids, Sultan Mas'ud I decides to expel the Seljuqs from his territories.

Tughril had suggested to continue with the hit and run operations, but Chagri, who commands the Seljuq army, prefers to fight.

During the march of Sultan Mas'ud's army to Sarakhs, the Seljuq raiders harass the Ghaznavid army with hit-and-run tactics.

Seljuq raiders also destroye the supply lines of the Ghaznavids, cutting them off from the nearby water wells.

The discipline and morale of the Ghaznavid army drops precipitously.

Finally, on May 23, 1040, around twenty thousand Seljuq soldiers engage in battle with an estimated fifty thousand Ghaznavid soldiers in Dandanaqan, between Merv and Sarakhs; the Seljuqs are victorious.

They soon occupy Khorasan and the cities of the area, encountering little resistance.

A kurultai is held after the battle, by which the nascent empire is divided between the two brothers.

While Tughril reigns in the west (comprising modern western Iran, Azerbaijan and Iraq), Chaghri reigns in eastern Iran, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan.

Lahore appears as the capital of the Punjab for the first time under Anandapala—the Hindu Shahi king who is referred to as the ruler of (hakim i lahur)—after leaving the earlier capital of Waihind.

Few references to Lahore remain from before its capture by Sultan Mahmud of Ghaznavi in the eleventh century.

The sultan had taken Lahore after a long siege and battle in which the city had been torched and depopulated.

In 1021, Sultan Mahmud had appointed Malik Ayaz to the throne and made Lahore the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire.

As the first Muslim governor of Lahore, Ayaz has rebuilt and repopulated the city.

He has added many important features, such as city gates and a masonry fort, built in 1037–1040 on the ruins of the previous one, which had been demolished in the fighting.

The present Lahore Fort stands on the same location.

Under Ayaz's rule, the city has become a cultural and academic center, renowned for poetry.

The tomb of Malik Ayaz can still be seen in the city’s Rang Mahal commercial area.

Muhammad dies in September 1041 while campaigning in Kurdistan against the Annazids.

His eldest son Faramurz succeeds him in Isfahan, while …

…his younger son Garshasp I gains Hamadan.

However, they have a difficult task in protecting these regions from the expansionist Seljuqs, who have become neighbors with the Kakuyids.