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غزنویان Ghaznavian Ghaznavid Empire
963–1187
Flag
Ghaznavid Empire at its greatest extent
Capital	Ghazna (963–1021) Lahore (1021–1187)
Common languages	Persian (official/poetry) Arabic (official/poetry) Turkic (military)
Religion	Sunni Islam
Government	Empire
Sultan
• 963-977	Alptigin (first)
• 1160-1187	Malik (last)
Historical era	Medieval
• Established	963
• Disestablished	1187
Area
1029 est.	3,400,000 km (1,300,000 sq mi)
Preceded by Succeeded by Saffarid Dynasty Samanids Ghurid Dynasty Seljuk Empire
Today part of	Countries today  Afghanistan  Azerbaijan  India  Iran  Kazakhstan  Kyrgyzstan  Pakistan  Tajikistan  Turkmenistan  Uzbekistan

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Prehistoric periodBCE / BC Baradostian culture c. 36,000–18,000 Zarzian culture c. 20,000–10,000 Shulaveri–Shomu culture c. 6000–5000 Zayandeh River Culture c. 6th millennium Dalma culture c. 5th millennium
Ancient period Kura–Araxes culture 3400–2000 Helmand culture/Jiroft culture c. 3300–2200 Proto-Elamite 3200–2700 Lullubi Kingdom/Zamua c. 3100-675 Elam 2700–539 Marhaši c. 2550-2020 Oxus Civilization c. 2400–1700 Akkadian Empire 2400–2150 Kassites c. 1500–1155 Avestan period c. 1500–500 Neo-Assyrian Empire 911–609 Urartu 860–590 Mannaea 850–616 Zikirti 750-521 Saparda 720-670
Imperial period Median Empire 678–550 BC Scythian Kingdom 652–625 BC Anshanite Kingdom 635 BC–550 BC Neo-Babylonian Empire 626 BC–539 BC Sogdia c. 6th century BC–11th century AD Achaemenid Empire 550 BC–330 BC Kingdom of Armenia 331 BC–428 AD Atropatene c. 323 BC–226 AD Kingdom of Cappadocia 320s BC–17 AD Seleucid Empire 312 BC–63 BC Kingdom of Pontus 281 BC–62 BC Fratarakas 3rd-century BC–132 BC Parthian Empire 247 BC–224 AD Elymais 147 BC–224 AD Characene 141 BC–222 AD Kings of Persis 132 BC–224 AD Indo-Parthian Kingdom 19 AD–224/5 Paratarajas 125–300 Sasanian Empire 224–651 Zarmihrids 6th century–785 Qarinvandids 550s–11th century
Medieval periodCE / AD Rashidun Caliphate 632-661 Umayyad Caliphate 661–750 Abbasid Caliphate 750–1258 Dabuyids 642–760 Bavandids 651–1349 Masmughans of Damavand 651–760 Baduspanids 665–1598 Justanids 791 – 11th century Alid dynasties 864 – 14th century Tahirid dynasty 821–873 Samanid Empire 819–999 Saffarid dynasty 861–1003 Ghurid dynasty pre-879 – 1215 Sajid dynasty 889–929 Sallarid dynasty 919–1062 Ziyarid dynasty 930–1090 Ilyasids 932–968 Buyid dynasty 934–1062 Rawadid dynasty 955–1070 Hasanwayhids 959–1095 Ghaznavid dynasty 977–1186 Annazids 990/1–1117 Kakuyids 1008–1141 Nasrid dynasty 1029–1236 Shabankara 1030–1355 Seljuk Empire 1037–1194 Khwarazmian dynasty 1077–1231 Eldiguzids 1135–1225 Atabegs of Yazd 1141–1319 Salghurids 1148–1282 Hazaraspids 1155–1424 Pishkinid dynasty 1155–1231 Khorshidi dynasty 1184-1597 Qutlugh-Khanids 1223-1306 Mihrabanids 1236–1537 Kurt dynasty 1244–1396 Ilkhanate Empire 1256–1335 Chobanid dynasty 1335–1357 Muzaffarid dynasty 1335–1393 Jalayirid Sultanate 1337–1376 Sarbadars 1337–1376 Injuids 1335–1357 Afrasiyab dynasty 1349–1504 Mar'ashis 1359–1596 Timurid Empire 1370–1507 Kar-Kiya dynasty 1370s–1592 Qara Qoyunlu 1406–1468 Aq Qoyunlu 1468–1508
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Modern period Qajar Iran 1789–1925 Pahlavi Iran 1925–1979
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The Ghaznavid dynasty (Template:Lang-fa) was a Muslim Persianate dynasty of Turkic slave origin which ruled, from 975 to 1187, much of Persia, Transoxania, and the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. The dynasty was founded by Sebuktigin, upon his succession to rule Ghazna (modern-day Ghazni Province in Afghanistan) after his father-in-law, Alp Tigin, who was a break-away ex-general of the Samanids from Balk, north of the Hindu Kush in Khorasan.

Sebuktigin's son, Mahmud of Ghazni, expanded the Ghaznavid Empire by stretching it between the Oxus River (Amu Darya) to the Indus Valley and the Indian Ocean; and in the west it reached Rey and Hamadan (modern-day Iran). Due to the political and cultural influence of their predecessors - that of the Persian Samanid Empire - the originally Turkic Ghaznavid rulers had become Persianized.

Under the reign of Mas'ud I, the Ghaznavid dynasty began losing control over its western territories to the Seljuqs after the Battle of Dandanaqan, resulting in a restriction of its holdings to modern-day Afghanistan, Western Punjab and the Balochistan region. In 1151, Sultan Bahram Shah lost Ghazni to Ala'uddin Hussain of Ghor. In 1021, Sultan Mahmud appointed Malik Ayaz to the throne and made Lahore the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire.

Rise to power

Two military families arose from the Turkic slave-guards of the Samanids — the Simjurids and Ghaznavids — who ultimately proved disastrous to the Samanids. The Simjurids received an appanage in the Kohistan region of eastern Khorasan (northern Afghanistan). Alp Tigin and Abu al-Hasan Simjuri, as Samanid generals, competed with each other for the governorship of Khorasan and control of the Samanid empire by placing on the throne emirs they could dominate when 'Abd al-Malik I dies.

When the Emir died in 961 CE it created a succession crisis between 'Abd al-Malik I's brothers. A court party instigated by men of the scribal class—civilian ministers as contrasted with Turkic generals—rejected Alp Tigin's candidacy for the Samanid throne. Mansur I was installed, and Alp Tigin prudently retired to south of the Hindu Kush where he founded the Ghaznavid fortunes when he established himself at Ghazna (modern Ghazni Province) in 962 CE. The Simjurids enjoyed control of Khorasan south of the Oxus River (Amu Darya) but were hard-pressed by a third great Iranian dynasty, the Buwayhids, and were unable to survive the collapse of the Samanids and the rise of the Ghaznavids.

The struggles of the Turkic slave generals for mastery of the throne with the help of shifting allegiance from the court's ministerial leaders both demonstrated and accelerated the Samanid decline. Samanid weakness attracted into Transoxania the Qarluq Turks, who had recently converted to Islam. They occupied Bukhara in 992 to establish in Transoxania the Qarakhanid, or Ilek Khanid, dynasty. After Alp Tigin's death in 993, Ishaq ibn Alptigin followed by Sebuktigin took to the throne. Sabuktigin's son Mahmud made an agreement with the Qarakhanids whereby the Oxus River was recognized as their mutual boundary.

Domination

Sebuktigin

Sebuktigin, the son-in-law of Alp Tigin, began expanding the new kingdom by capturing Samanid and Shahi territories, which includes most of what is now Afghanistan and part of Pakistan. The 16th century Persian historian, Ferishta, records Sebuktigin's genealogy as descended from the Sassanid emperors: "Subooktu-geen, the son of Jookan, the son of Kuzil-Hukum, the son of Kuzil-Arslan, the son of Ferooz, the son of Yezdijird, king of Persia." However, modern historians believe that this was an attempt to connect himself with past history of old Persia. After the death of Sebuktigin, his son Ismail claimed the throne for a temporary period.

Mahmud son Sebuktigin

In 997, Mahmud, another son of Sebuktigin, succeeded the throne, and with him Ghazni and the Ghaznavid dynasty have become perpetually associated. He completed the conquest of the Samanid and Shahi territories, including the Ismaili Kingdom of Multan, Sindh as well as some Buwayhid territory. Under him all accounts was the golden age and the height of the Ghaznavid Empire. Mahmud carried out seventeen expeditions through northern India to establish his control and set up tributary states. His raids also resulted in the looting of a great deal of plunder. From the borders of Kurdistan to Samarkand, from the Caspian Sea to the Yamuna, he established his authority.

During Mahmud's reign (997-1030), the Ghaznavids settled 4,000 Turkmen families near Farana in Khorasan. By 1027, due to the Turkmen raiding neighboring settlements, the governor of Tus, Abu l'Alarith Arslan Jadhib led military strikes against them. The Turkmen were defeated and scattered to neighboring lands. Although, as late as 1033, Ghaznavid governor Tash Farrash executed fifty Turkmen chiefs for raids into Khorasan.

The wealth brought back from the Indian expeditions to Ghazni was enormous, and contemporary historians (e.g. Abolfazl Beyhaghi, Ferdowsi) give glowing descriptions of the magnificence of the capital, as well as of the conquerors munificent support of literature. Mahmud died in 1030.

Decline

Twin sons of Mahmud

Mahmud left the empire to his son Mohammed who was mild, affectionate and soft. Mohammed was king and his brother only asked for three provinces that he had won by his sword to which his brother did not consent and result was the Mas'ud had to fight his brother and became king, blinding and prisoning Mohammed as punishment. Mas'ud was unable to preserve the empire and following a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Dandanaqan in (1040) lost all the Ghaznavid lands in Iran and Central Asia to the Seljuks and plunged the realm into a "Time of troubles".. His last act was to collect all treasures from all his forts in hope to assemble an army and rule from India but his own forces plundered the wealth and he proclaimed his blind brother as king again. The two brothers now exchanged situations; Mohammed from a prison was elevated to the throne and Mus'ud from a throne was consigned to a dungeon where he was assassinated AD 1040 after a reign of ten years. Mas'ud's son Madood was governor of Balkh and in 1040 AD, hearing of his father's death came to Ghazni to claim his kingdom. He fought with the sons of the blind Mohammed and was victorious. However, the empire soon disintegrated and most kings did not submit to Madood. In a span of 9 years 4 more kings claimed the throne of Ghazni. In the year 1058 AD, Ibrahim a great calligrapher who wrote Koran with his own pen, became king.

Ibrahim

Mas'ud's son Ibrahim who re-established a truncated empire on a firmer basis by arriving at a peace agreement with the Seljuks and a restoration of cultural and political linkages. Under Ibrahim and his successors saw a period of sustained tranquility for the empire. Shorn of its western land it was increasingly sustained by riches accrued from raids across Northern India where it faced stiff resistance from Indian rulers such as the Paramara of Malwa and the Gahadvala of Kannauj.. He ruled till year 1098 AD.

Masud

Masud became king for 16 years with no major event in his lifetime. Signs of weakness in the state became apparent when Masud III died in 1115 with internal strife between his sons ending with the ascension of Sultan Bahram Shah as a Seljuk Vassal. Bahram shah defeated his brother Arslan for throne.

Sultan Bahram Shah

Sultan Bahram Shah was the last Ghaznavid King ruling Ghazni, the first and main Ghaznavid capital, he ruled thirty five years. Ala'uddin Hussain, a Ghorid King, conquered the city of Ghazni in 1151, for the revenge of his brother Kutubbuddin's death, who was son-in-law of the king but was publicly punished and killed for a minor offense. Allauddin Ghor then razed all the city, and burned it for 7 days, after which he got famous as "Jahānsoz" (World Burner). Ghazni was restored to the Ghaznavids by the intervention of the Seljuks who came to Bahrams aid. Ghaznavid struggles with the Ghurids continued in the subsequent years as they nibbled away at Ghaznavid territory and Ghazni and Zabulistan was lost a group of Oghuz Turks before captured by the Gurids. Ghaznavid power in north western India continued until the conquest of Lahore from Khusrau Malik in 1186.

Military and tactics

The Ghaznavid army was made up of Turks, including 1,000s of native Afghans who were trained and assembled from the area south of the Hindu Kush in what is now Afghanistan. During the rule of Sultan Mahmud, a new larger military training center was established in Bost (now Lashkar Gah). This area was known for blacksmiths where war weapons were made. After capturing and conquering the Punjab region, the Ghaznavids began to employ Hindu Indians in its army.

Like the other dynasties that rose out of the remains of the Abbasid Caliphate, the Ghaznavid administrative traditions and military practice came from the Abbasids. There were, however, unique changes adopted that met the demands of the geographic situation of the Ghaznavid dynasty. Due to their access to the Indus-Ganges plains the Ghaznavids, during the 11th and 12th centuries, developed the first Muslim army to use war elephants in battle. The elephants were protected by armor plating on their fronts. The use of these elephants in other regions that the Ghaznavids fought in, particularly in Central Asia, to which the elephant was a foreign weapon.

State and culture

According to Clifford Edmund Bosworth:

"The Ghaznavid sultans were ethnically Turkish, but the sources, all in Arabic or Persian, do not allow us to estimate the persistence of Turkish practices and ways of thought amongst them. Yet given the fact that the essential basis of the Ghaznavids’ military support always remained their Turkish soldiery, there must always have been a need to stay attuned to their troops’ needs and aspirations; also, there are indications of the persistence of some Turkish literary culture under the early Ghaznavids (Köprülüzade, pp. 56-57). The sources do make it clear, however, that the sultans’ exercise of political power and the administrative apparatus which gave it shape came very speedily to be within the Perso-Islamic tradition of statecraft and monarchical rule, with the ruler as a distant figure, buttressed by divine favor, ruling over a mass of traders, artisans, peasants, etc., whose prime duty was obedience in all respects but above all in the payment of taxes. The fact that the personnel of the bureaucracy which directed the day-to-day running of the state, and which raised the revenue to support the sultans’ life-style and to finance the professional army, were Persians who carried on the administrative traditions of the Samanids, only strengthened this conception of secular power.

"Persianisation of the state apparatus was accompanied by the Persianisation of high culture at the Ghaznavid court. Ferdowsī sought Maḥmūd’s beneficence towards the end of his life, but Maḥmūd and Masʿūd are most notably known as the patrons of Persian poets with a simple, lyrical style like ʿOnṣorī, Farroḵī, and Manučehrī (Rypka, Hist. Iran. Lit., pp. 173-77; Clinton; Moayyad). The level of literary creativity was just as high under Ebrāhīm and his successors up to Bahrāmšāh, with such poets as Abu’l-Faraj Rūnī, Sanāʾī, ʿOṯmān Moḵtārī, Masʿūd-e Saʿd-e Salmān, and Sayyed Ḥasan Ḡaznavī (Rypka, Hist. Iran. Lit., pp. 196-97; Bosworth, Later Ghaznavids, pp. 75-77, 107-10). We know from the biographical dictionaries of poets (taḏkera-ye šoʿarā) that the court in Lahore of Ḵosrow Malek had an array of fine poets, none of whose dīvāns has unfortunately survived, and the translator into elegant Persian prose of Ebn Moqaffaʿ’s Kalīla wa Demna, namely Abu’l-Maʿālī Naṣr-Allāh b. Moḥammad, served the sultan for a while as his chief secretary (Bosworth, Later Ghaznavids, pp. 127-28). The Ghaznavids thus present the phenomenon of a dynasty of Turkish slave origin which became culturally Persianised to a perceptibly higher degree than other contemporary dynasties of Turkish origin such as Saljuqs and Qarakhanids."

Persian literary culture enjoyed a renaissance under the Ghaznavids during the 11th century. The Ghaznavid court was so renown for its patronizing of Persian literature, that the poet Farrukhi traveled from his home province to work for them. The poet Unsuri's short collection of poetry was dedicated to Sultan Mahmud and his brothers Nasr and Yaqub. Another poet of the Ghaznavid court, Manuchehri, wrote numerous poems to the merits and advantages of drinking wine.

Sultan Mahmud, modeling the Samanid Bukhara as a cultural center, made Ghazni into a center of learning, even inviting Ferdowsi and al-Biruni. He even attempted to persuade Avicenna but was refused. Mahmud preferred that his fame and glory be publicized in Persian and hundreds of poets assembled at his court. He brought whole libraries from Rayy and Isfahan to Ghazni and even demanded that the Khwarizmshah court send its men of learning to Ghazni. Due to his invasion of Rayy and Isfahan, Persian literary production was inaugurated in Azerbaijan and Iraq.

The Ghaznavids continued to develop historical writing in Persian that had been initiated by their predecessors, the Samanids. The historian Abul-Fazl Bayhaqi's, Tarikh-e Beyhaqi, written in the later half of the 11th century is an example.

Although the Ghaznavids were of Turkic origin and their military leaders were generally of the same stock, as a result of the original involvement of Sebuktigin and Mahmud in Samanid affairs and in the Samanid cultural environment, the dynasty became thoroughly Persianized, so that in practice one cannot consider their rule over Iran one of foreign domination. They also copied their administrative system from the Samanids. In terms of cultural championship and the support of Persian poets, they were far more Persian than the ethnically Iranian Buyids rivals, whose support of Arabic letters in preference to Persian is well known.

Historian Bosworth explains: "In fact with the adoption of Persian administrative and cultural ways the Ghaznavids threw off their original Turkish steppe background and became largely integrated with the Perso-Islamic tradition." As a result, Ghazni developed into a great centre of Arabic learning.

With Sultan Mahmud's invasions of northern India, Persian culture was established at Lahore, which later produced the famous poet, Masud Sa'd Salman. Lahore, under the Ghaznavid rule in the 11th century, attracted Persian scholars from Khorasan, India and Central Asia and became a major Persian cultural centre.

The Persian culture, established by the Ghaznavids in Ghazna and Eastern Afghanistan, survived the Ghurid invasion in the 12th century and endured until the invasion of the Mongols.

Legacy

The Ghaznavid empire grew to cover much of present-day Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwest India. The Ghaznavid rulers are generally credited with spreading Islam into the Indian subcontinent. In addition to the wealth accumulated through raiding Indian cities, and exacting tribute from Indian rajas, the Ghaznavids also benefited from their position as an intermediary along the trade routes between China and the Mediterranean. They were, however, unable to hold power for long and by 1040 the Seljuks had taken over their Persian domains and a century later the Ghurids took over their remaining sub-continental lands.

List of rulers

See also

• Historic states represented in Turkish presidential seal
• History of Afghanistan
• List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

Footnotes

1. Ghaznavids, E. K. Rowson, Encyclopedia of Arabic literature, Vol.1, Ed. Julie Scott Meisami, Paul Starkey, (Routledge, 1998), 251.
2. C.E. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids:994-1040, (Edinburgh University Press, 1963), 134.
3. J. Meri (Hg.), Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, "Ghaznavids", London u.a. 2006, p. 294: "... The Ghaznavids inherited Samanid administrative, political, and cultural traditions and laid the foundations for a Persianate state in northern India. ..."
4. Sydney Nettleton Fisher and William Ochsenwald, The Middle East: a history: Volume 1, (McGraw-Hill, 1997);" "Forced to flee from the Samanid domain, he captured Ghaznah and in 961 established the famed Persianate Sunnite Ghaznavid empire of Afghanistan and the Punjab in India".
5. Meisami, Julie Scott, Persian historiography to the end of the twelfth century, (Edinburgh University Press, 1999), 143.Nizam al-Mulk also attempted to organise the Saljuq administration according to the Persianate Ghaznavid model..
6. Islamic Central Asia: an anthology of historical sources, Ed. Scott Cameron Levi and Ron Sela, (Indiana University Press, 2010), 83;The Ghaznavids were a dynasty of Turkic slave-soldiers...
7. "Ghaznavid Dynasty" Encyclopædia Britannica
8. Jonathan M. Bloom, Sheila Blair, The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture, Oxford University Press, 2009, Vol.2, p.163, Online Edition, Turkish dominated mamluk regiments...dynasty of mamluk origin (the GHAZNAVID line) carved out an empire...
9. ^ C.E. Bosworth: The Ghaznavids. Edinburgh, 1963
10. C.E. Bosworth, "Ghaznavids" in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition 2006
11. ^ C.E. Bosworth, "Ghaznavids", in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition; Brill, Leiden; 2006/2007
12. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, "Ghaznavid Dynasty", Online Edition 2007
13. M.A. Amir-Moezzi, "Shahrbanu", Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition: "... here one might bear in mind that non-Persian dynasties such as the Ghaznavids, Saljuqs and Ilkhanids were rapidly to adopt the Persian language and have their origins traced back to the ancient kings of Persia rather than to Turkish heroes or Muslim saints ..."
14. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Iran: Islamic Period - Ghaznavids, E. Yarshater
15. B. Spuler, "The Disintegration of the Caliphate in the East", in the Cambridge History of Islam, Vol. IA: The Central islamic Lands from Pre-Islamic Times to the First World War, ed. by P.M. Holt, Ann K.S. Lambton, and Bernard Lewis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970). pg 147: One of the effects of the renaissance of the Persian spirit evoked by this work was that the Ghaznavids were also Persianized and thereby became a Persian dynasty.
16. Anatoly M Khazanov, André Wink, "Nomads in the Sedentary World", Routledge, 2padhte padhte to pagla jayega aadmi, A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Blackwell Publishing, 1998. pg 370: "Though Turkic in origin and, apparently in speech, Alp Tegin, Sebuk Tegin and Mahmud were all thoroughly Persianized"
17. Robert L. Canfield, Turko-Persia in historical perspective, Cambridge University Press, 1991. pg 8: "The Ghaznavids (989-1149) were essentially Persianized Turks who in manner of the pre-Islamic Persians encouraged the development of high culture"
18. John Perry. Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 5, (2001), pp. 193-200. THE HISTORICAL ROLE OF TURKISH IN RELATION TO PERSIAN OF IRAN. Excerpt: "We should distinguish two complementary ways in which the advent of the Turks affected the language map of Iran. First, since the Turkish-speaking rulers of most Iranian polities from the Ghaznavids and Seljuks onward were already iranized and patronized Persian literature in their domains, the expansion of Turk-ruled empires served to expand the territorial domain of written Persian into the conquered areas, notably Anatolia and Central and South Asia. Secondly, the influx of massive Turkish-speaking populations (culminating with the rank and file of the Mongol armies) and their settlement in large areas of Iran (particularly in Azerbaijan and the northwest), progressively turkicized local speakers of Persian, Kurdish and other Iranian languages."(John Perry. Iran & the Caucasus, Vol. 5, (2001), pp. 193-200. THE HISTORICAL ROLE OF TURKISH IN RELATION TO PERSIAN OF IRAN)
19. Truths and Lies: Irony and Intrigue in the Tārīkh-i Bayhaqī, Soheila Amirsoleimani, Iranian Studies, Vol. 32, No. 2, The Uses of Guile: Literary and Historical Moments (Spring, 1999), 243.
20. Ghaznawids, B. Spuler, The Encyclopia of Islam, Vol II, Ed. B.Lewis, C. Pellat and J. Schacht, (Brill, 1991), 1051.
21. The Development of Persian Culture under the Early Ghaznavids, C.E.Bosworth, Iran, Vol. 6, (1968), 40.
22. John Clark Marshman. The history of India ... to the accession of the Mogul dynasty, page 94
23. C.E. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids:994-1040, (Edinburgh University Press, 1963), 224.
24. C.E. Bosworth, 225.
25. ^ Encyclopedia Iranica, "Ghaznavids", Edmund Bosworth, Online Edition 2007
26. Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor (1987). E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936. Vol. 2. BRILL. p. 151. ISBN 90-04-08265-4. Retrieved 24 September 2010. {{cite book}}: More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)
27. "Afghan and Afghanistan". Abdul Hai Habibi. alamahabibi.com. 1969. Retrieved 2012-07-01.
28. Lewis, Bernard. The World of Islam. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd,. p. 205. ISBN 0-500-27624-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
29. C.E. Bosworth, "Ghaznavids" in Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition 2012.
30. The Development of Persian Culture under the Early Ghaznavids, C.E.Bosworth, Iran, Vol. 6, (1968), 44.
31. Jocelyn Sharlet, Patronage and Poetry in the Islamic World: Social Mobility and Status in the Medieval Middle East and Central Asia, (Tauris Academic Studies, 2011), 46.
32. Ghaznavids, E.K.Rowson, Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, Vol.1, Ed. Julie Scott Meisami and Paul Starkey, (Routledge, 1998), 251.
33. Jocelyn Sharlet, Patronage and Poetry in the Islamic World: Social Mobility and Status in the Medieval Middle East and Central Asia, 27.
34. Jocelyn Sharlet, Patronage and Poetry in the Islamic World: Social Mobility and Status in the Medieval Middle East and Central Asia, 52.
35. The Theme of Wine-Drinking and the Concept of the Beloved in Early Persian Poetry, E. Yarshater, Studia Islamica, No. 13 (1960), 44.
36. Brian Spooner and William L. Hanaway, Literacy in the Persianate World: Writing and the Social Order, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), 284.
37. Hail to Heydarbaba: A Comparative View of Popular Turkish & Classical Persian Poetical Languages, Hamid Notghi and Gholam-Reza Sabri-Tabrizi, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2 (1994), 244.
38. C.E. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids:994–1040, (Edinburgh University Press, 1963), 132.
39. The Institution of Persian Literature and the Genealogy of Bahar's "Stylistics", Wali Ahmadi, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Nov., 2004), 146.
40. The Past in Service of the Present: Two Views of History in Medieval Persia, J. S. Meisami, Poetics Today, Vol. 14, No. 2, Cultural Processes in Muslim and Arab Societies: Medieval and Early Modern Periods (Summer, 1993), 247.
41. The Development of a Literary Canon in Medieval Persian Chronicles: The Triumph of Etiquette, E. A. Poliakova, Iranian Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2/3 (Spring - Summer, 1984), 241.
42. >The Development of Persian Culture under the Early Ghaznavids, C.E. Bosworth, Iran, Vol. 6, (1968), 36.
43. Encyclopedia Iranica, Iran, EHSAN YARSHATER, Online Edition 2008, ()
44. Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The new Islamic dynasties: a chronological and genealogical manual, Edition: 2, Published by Edinburgh University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7486-2137-7, p. 297
45. C.E. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids 994-1040, (Edinburgh University Press, 1963), 134.
46. Ghaznavids, Homyra Ziad, Medieval Islamic Civilization, Ed. Josef W.Meri, (Routledge, 2006), 294.
47. Muzaffar Alam, Françoise Delvoye Nalini and Marc Gaborieau, The making of Indo-Persian Culture: Indian and French Studies, (Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 2000), 24.
48. Brian Spooner and William L. Hanaway, Literacy in the Persianate World: Writing and the Social Order, 284.
49. The Development of Persian Culture under the Early Ghaznavids, C.E.Bosworth, Iran, Vol. 6, (1968), 39.

Further reading

• OCLC 3601436 Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (1963) The Ghaznavids: Their Empire in Afghanistan and Eastern Iran 994–1040 Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh,
• Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (1977) The Later Ghaznavids: Splendour and Decay, The Dynasty in Afghanistan and Northern India 1040–1186 Columbia University Press, New York, ISBN 0-231-04428-3
• M. Ismail Marcinkowski (2003) Persian Historiography and Geography: Bertold Spuler on Major Works Produced in Iran, the Caucasus, Central Asia, India and Early Ottoman Turkey Pustaka Nasional, Singapore, ISBN 9971-77-488-7

External links

• Coins of Ghaznavid Rulers
• Mahmud of Ghazna Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth Edition)
• Mahmud Encyclopædia Britannica (Online Edition)
• Ghaznavid Dynasty Encyclopædia Britannica (Online Edition)
• Ghaznavids and Ghurids Encyclopædia Britannica (Online Edition)
• Mahmud Ghaznavi's 17 invasions of India
• The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Periodby Sir H. M. Elliot; Edited by John Dowson; London Trubner Company 1867–1877 Elliot, Sir H. M., Edited by Dowson, John. The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Periodpublished by London Trubner Company 1867–1877. (Online Copy: - Online version posted by: The Packard Humanities Institute; Persian Texts in translation)
• Afghan secrets revealed on Google Earth

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

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• History of Iran
• States and territories established in 963
• History of the Turkic peoples
• Turkic dynasties
• Ghaznavid Empire
• 1187 disestablishments
• Dynasties of Afghanistan
• History of Pakistan
• Empires and kingdoms of India
• History of Ghazni Province