The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.63

v3.c20.63

Some European historians, ignorant of the principles of oriental abuse and of the Islamic law of legitimacy have asserted, on the authority of the satire which Firdausī, after his disappointment, fulminated against his patron, that Mahmūd was a bastard, but Firdausī’s charge against him is only that his mother was not of noble birth. He seems to have been the son of a concubine or handmaiden, but by the law of Islam the son of a concubine or handmaiden is as legitimate as the son of a regularly married wife.