History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.43

v3.c33.43

The civilization of the Samanides and their empire was inherited by the Turkish kingdom at Ghazni. The empire was extensive and included Khorasan and Mawar-ul-nahar and other territories such as Sistan, Karman, Jurjan, Ray, and Tabaristan. The duration of its rule from Ismail was one hundred and two years and sixteen days as given by Utbi in Tarikh-i-Yamini (Utbi gives the names of the kings and their periods of rule by days even), i. e. from 903 to 1005 A. D. Mahmud conquered and annexed many of their provinces especially Khorasan and Khwarism which were the centres of the civilization of this modern Persian empire. The Persian language was cultivated by the learned of these provinces which were to Persia what the provinces of Antarvedi and Kashmir in Mediæval and Deccan in modern history were to India and learned men from these two provinces always came to the court of the kings of Ghazni and even to that of the Mahomedan kings at Delhi. Persian was the ordinary language of official business at Ghazni and Delhi and Arabic was used for religious and select state records. The form of administration and names of officers were naturally borrowed from Bokhara. Curiously enough this presents an aspect much like Mediæval Hindu India where Sanskrit was tha language of state documents, Prakrit the language of the learned and a mixed jargon the language of the common people. We find in Ghazni also three languages being used, Arabic for religion, Persian for literary discourse and Turki for slaves and the army. Even Mahmud speaks in Turki to his servants (see Baihaki) whenever he has something private to say.