The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.9

v3.c20.9

It is difficult to follow the long series of expeditions led by Mahmūd into India in pursuance of his vow, to reconcile the accounts of historians who contradict not only one another but themselves, and to identify places disguised under a script ambiguous in itself and mutilated by generations of ignorant scribes. The number of these expeditions is almost invariably given as twelve, but there are few historians who do not give accounts, more or less detailed, of more than twelve. The first is said to have been undertaken in 999 or 1000, when Mahmūd, after annexing Sīstān, crossed the Indian frontier and plundered or annexed some towns, but the authority for this expedition is slight, Mahmūd had at this time little leisure for foreign aggression, and the campaign may be regarded either as apocryphal or as a foray undertaken by some of his officers.