The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.8

v3.c20.8

Mahmūd was born on November 1, 971, and was therefore twenty-seven years of age when he deposed his brother and ascended the throne in 998. His kingdom at the time of his accession comprised the country now known as Afghānistān, and Khurāsān, or eastern Persia. In the following year he added to it the province of Sīstān. After this success he sought formal recognition of his sovereignty from the Caliph, al-Qādir Billāh, who sent him a robe of investment and a patent conferring on him the titles Yamīn-ud-Daulah and Amīn-ul Millah, from the former of which his successors are known to eastern historians as the Yamīnī dynasty. It was on this occasion that he is said to have vowed to undertake every year an expedition against the idolators of India, but intestine troubles claimed his immediate attention. ‘Abd-ul-Malik II, the last Sāmānid ruler of Bukhārā, was driven from his kingdom in 999 by Abu’l-Husain Nasr I, Īlak Khān, of Kāshghar, and his brother, Abu Ibrāhīm al-Mustansir, who had found an asylum in Gurgān, thrice attempted to establish himself in Khurāsān, where his forefathers had held sway. Twice he drove Nasr, Mahmūd’s brother, from Nīshāpūr, only to be expelled when Nasr returned with reinforcements, and on the third occasion he was defeated and fled to the Ghuzz Turkmans, with whom he took refuge.