54 ISLAM AT WAR
In the century following Muhammad’s death, the Muslims had ravaged
the Punjab and conquered the Sind. These were mere raids, and the con-
quest of Sind was but a sliver of the great subcontinent. Subaktagin, emir
of Ghazni, and son-in-law of Alptigin launched the first major invasion
of India. The old general’s plans were coming to fruition.
The invasion spurred a hurried Indian effort to unite the Rajput states,
but it was too late, and Subaktagin, at the head of the Muslim army,was
upon them.
There is a story that Jaipal, Hindu king of Lahore, infuriated by Afghan
raids into his territory, sent an army to punish the raiders. Subaktagin met
and defeated them and demanded a ransom for the release of the captured
Hindus. Jaipal agreed, offering fifty elephants and a vast sum of gold, to
be paid as he returned home. However, his nobles chided him, one saying
that it was wrong to give ransom to a barbarian and another saying that
it was wrong to break his word, even if given to a foreigner. King Jaipal
listened to neither, nor did he send the ransom. In due course, Subaktagin’s
vengeful army descended upon his kingdom and began the first of the
great Ghaznavid conquests. It is such a good story that it really should be
true.
The Peshwar quickly became the advanced base of the Islamic army as
it moved east into historically Indian territory. This base would serve the
Ghaznavids well over the years to come.
It was Subaktagin’s son, Mahmud—known as Mahmud of Ghazni—
who pushed the eastern boundary of his father’s kingdom from Persia in
the west to the Ganges on the east. He led Islamic armies no less than
seventeen times into India. Thirteen of these campaigns subdued the Pun-
jab, one the Kashmir valley, and one each against the three great cities—
Kanauj, Gwalior, and Somnath. InA.D. 1001 he defeated Raja Jaipal and
took him prisoner. Not willing to submit peacefully, Anangpal, son of
Jaipal, raised an army to free his country from Muslim control. He built
his great force with a coalition of Rajput allies from the farthest corners
of Hindustan. A decisive battle fought in the valley of Peshawar was won
by Mahmud and his Turkish horsemen. The Punjab has, since that day,
been Muslim, except for a short period when it fell under the Sikh rule.
The Sultan Mahmud was a masterful tactician and strategist, as was the
norm among the warlords of the time. In 1008, he was confronted by a
league of Hindu princes led by Anangpal, the son of his old foe King
Jaipal. So large was the enemy force, that Mahmud felt it best to erect
defensive positions, although the great strength of his army was in the
ferocious charge of its cavalry. The sultan realized that it would be best
to let the enemy tire itself on his works before the counterstroke. Equally,