Muntakhab al-tawarikh 4.1.1

4.1.1

When Subuktigin, in the month of Sha'ban 387 H., while on the road to Ghaznin, receiving the summons of the Almighty responded “Here am I,” he appointed his young son Isma‘il as his successor. When this news reached Mahmud who was the elder son of Subuktigin, he wrote a letter of condolence to his brother and sought a peaceful solution of the difficulty on the following terms: That Isma‘il should give up Ghaznin to Mahmud, receiving in its stead the governorship of Balkh: Isma‘il refused these terms, and eventually war was declared between the brothers. Mahmud was victorious, and after defeating Isma‘il, kept him closely besieged in Ghaznin for a space of six months, at the expiration of which time certain of their friends intervened and made peace between them. Isma‘il then came and had an interview with Mahmud, and the sovereignty devolved upon Yaminu-d-Daulat Mahmud. After this a quarrel arose between Mahmud and Mansur ibn-Nuh Samani and also his brother ‘Abdu-l-Malik ibn-Nuh. Eventually Mahmud got the upper hand. The Amirs of ‘Abdu-l-Malik also, Faiq and Baktuzun, who engaged in contest with Mahmud, were defeated by him, and the sovereignty of the whole of Khurasan, of Ghaznin, and the frontiers of Hindustan came into the hands of Mahmud. Mahmud’s mother was the daughter of the ruler of Zabul [that is to say Qandahar] accordingly, he is called Mahmud Zabuli—as Firdausi says