Mahmud of Ghazni

Seventeen times, one ruler crossed into India. He never once stayed to govern it.

This article covers Mahmud of Ghazni: the raids and the sack of Somnath. It also covers a less-discussed side of his reign, the Persian court he built at Ghazni with the same wealth.

1. The Seventeen Raids into India

1.1 What were these raids actually aimed at?

Mahmud of Ghazni raided India seventeen times between 1000 and 1027 CE. That is the traditional count used in most textbooks. His raids sought plunder, not permanent territory. Conquered regions usually went back to local rulers as tributaries, not direct Ghaznavid rule.

1.2 How big a part of his career were the Indian raids, really?

Indian raids were only part of a much larger military career. Across his 32-year reign, Mahmud led 35 major and 11 minor campaigns in total, including many in Central Asia. Almost everything historians know about the Indian raids comes from Persian and Arabic chroniclers, not independent Indian records. That gap makes the confident number “seventeen” harder to fully verify than it looks in summary form.

1.3 What official recognition did Mahmud actually receive?

• The title Yamin-ud-Daula: granted by the Abbasid Caliph al-Qadir Billah, giving Mahmud religious legitimacy alongside his military power.
• The title Sultan: Mahmud is widely considered the first regional ruler to formally adopt it, in place of earlier titles like “Amir.”
• His court chronicler: Al-Utbi recorded Mahmud’s campaigns in a work known as the Tarikh-i-Yamini.

During the siege of the Chandela fortress of Kalinjar, ruler Vidyadhara avoided outright defeat through negotiation rather than battle. That is one sign Mahmud’s campaigns did not always end in decisive conquest.

2. The Sack of Somnath, 1025 CE

2.1 What actually happened at Somnath?

Mahmud left Ghazni on 18 October 1025 with a large cavalry force. Chroniclers report around 30,000 horsemen plus irregular infantry, marching toward the Somnath temple in Gujarat. He reached Somnath in early January 1026 and stormed the temple after a short siege. Chroniclers say Mahmud personally broke the temple’s Shiva Linga and looted its treasury.

2.2 How reliable are the numbers historians usually cite?

Contemporary Muslim chroniclers put the defenders’ deaths at around 50,000, and the plunder at a huge sum in gold and jewels. No independent Hindu source from the period confirms these exact figures. Historian Romila Thapar has pointed out that Hindu sources stay silent on the raid. She also notes a pilgrim’s account from 1038 CE describes visiting Somnath without mentioning any damage.

What’s beyond real dispute: the raid happened, the temple was looted, and it became the most-cited symbol of Mahmud’s India campaigns. Even so, it is remembered very differently across Indian and Pakistani history writing. See ArtnCulture0124 — Somnath Temple for the temple’s full history across its many rebuildings.

3. Al-Biruni and Ghazni as a Persian Capital

3.1 What scholarship grew out of Mahmud’s campaigns?

Mahmud patronised the scholar Al-Biruni, who accompanied his campaigns and studied India closely. Al-Biruni’s resulting work, the Kitab-al-Hind, remains a major source on Indian society, science, and philosophy of the period. It was written in Arabic, and only later translated into Persian.

3.2 How did the same plunder fund a cultural capital?

Mahmud’s raids funded something else entirely: he turned Ghazni into one of the major cultural centres of the Islamic world, rivalling Baghdad in his own time. After conquering Ray and Isfahan, Mahmud brought their libraries back to Ghazni. He gathered scholars, poets, and architects at his court. He even asked the Khwarizmshah’s court to send its own scholars. His court poets included Unsuri, Asjadi, and Farrukhi, all major names in early Persian literature.

3.3 What is the real story behind Ferdowsi and the Shahnameh?

The poet Ferdowsi is closely linked to Mahmud’s court. But the real story is more complicated than popular legend suggests. Ferdowsi began his epic Shahnameh under earlier Samanid patronage, not Mahmud’s. He revised parts of it later to honour the Ghaznavid dynasty. He then presented the finished epic to Mahmud, around 1010 CE.

A famous story claims Mahmud underpaid Ferdowsi for the epic, sending a lesser reward than promised. It also claims Ferdowsi wrote a bitter satire against him in return. Modern scholars treat this story with caution. Some details, like Ferdowsi’s journey to Ghazni, are plausible. Much of it, though, cannot be independently confirmed.

4. What the PYQs Keep Testing

4.1 What was the UPSC CSP 2022 trap on Somnath?

UPSC CSP 2022 asked which statements about Somnath Temple were correct. The correct pair: it is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines, and Al-Biruni described it. The trap: the 1951 Pran Pratishtha was done by President Rajendra Prasad, not Radhakrishnan. Source: UPSC CSP 2022, General Studies Paper I. See Q96.

4.2 What did CDS (II) 2020 ask about the Kitab-ul-Hind?

CDS (II) 2020 asked which language Al-Biruni’s Kitab-ul-Hind was written in. The answer is Arabic, not Persian, Urdu, or Turkish. It was only later translated into Persian. Source: CDS (II) 2020, General Knowledge (see Q73).