The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.5

v3.c20.5

Later Muhammadan historians are prone to represent Sabuktigīn, who never crossed the Indus and led only two expeditions against the Hindus, as a champion of the faith whose chief occupation was the propagation of Islam with fire and sword among the idolators of India. In fact he was fully employed in extending the area of his small state, which at first comprised little beyond the immediate neighbourhood of Ghaznī. In the first twelve years of his reign he extended his frontiers to the Oxus on the north and approximately to the present boundary between Afghānistān and Persia on the west. Two years after his accession Jaipāl, raja of the Punjab, again invaded the kingdom of Ghaznī from the east, but terms of peace were arranged, and in 986 Sabuktigīn, whose power had been rapidly growing, invaded his enemy’s territory and carried off many captives and much booty. Two years later he again attacked Jaipāl and compelled him to cede Kābul and much other territory, but these expeditions were undertaken rather as measures of reprisal and for the purpose of securing his dominions than with any intention of propagating the faith.