The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c30.s1.2.1

v3.c30.s1.2.1

Thrice conquered by the Arabs in the eighth and ninth centuries, Multān never again reverted into Indian hands. For a hundred years (a.d. 879–980) it was the capital of an independent Arab State, and from the Arabs it passed in turn to the Karmatians, the Ghaznavids, a second time to the Karmatians, and then to the Ghūrids; after which it was incorporated in the principality of Nāsir-ud-dīn Qabācha and was finally annexed by Iltutmish. From that time onwards it remained feudatory to Delhi, reasserting its independence only between the years 1457 and 1525, when the Langāhs were in power. During these several centuries of continuous Muslim rule, many monuments of note must have been erected in the city. As early, indeed, as A.D. 712 a mosque with minarets is said to have been built by Muhammad ibn Qāsim, and in 985 we hear of the far-famed temple of Āditya, the Sun-God, being demolished by the Karmatians and of another mosque being reared on its ruins. But of these early structures no vestige is now left, and, strangely enough, Multān does not possess a single mosque that can be referred to pre-Mughul times. Such monuments—they are only five in number—as are reputed to have been founded before 1526, are all tombs of saints, and two out of the five have been so extensively renovated as to be little more than mere semblances of their former selves, while a third—the shrine of Shāh Yūsuf Gardīzī, said to date from A.D. 1152—has been wholly reconstructed and modernised.