Twilight of the Sultanate c19.s3.43

c19.s3.43

He calls Peshawar by its Hindu name Parushawar, and gives a large number of references to Gandhara—the Peshawar Valley—and talks of Indian Kings in Afghanistan, but their capital in his time was Vaihind.³² Thus the accounts of Ibn Haukal (ninth century), 'Utbī and Alberunī (eleventh century) leave no doubt that the Eastern Afghanistan had not been Islamised till the end of the tenth century. Mahmūd Ghaznī had to fight against the infidel Afghans in the Sulaiman mountains.³³ In the battle between Muhammad Ghorī and Prithvirāj "the Afghans are represented as fighting on both sides which probably indicates that they were not yet completely converted to Islam".³⁴ In view of these facts the story of the conversion of Qais and his companions as early as the days of the Prophet stands discredited.³⁵