History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s1.1

v3.c33.s1.1

The Turkish kingdom at Ghazni which later under Mahmud became so powerful as to engulf not only Khorasan and Khwarism in the west but the whole of the Panjab in the east was first founded, as stated above, by Alptagin, a Turkish general under Mansur king of Bokhara. The history of Mahmud resembles so completely the history of Shivaji that the similarity extends back even to the history of his father and grandfather. Like Maloji, the acquirer of the original Jaghir the centre of Bhosla power, Alptagin was the founder of the small principality of Ghazni. He was first the Hajib of Amir Abdul Malik, father of Mansur and subsequently governor of Khorasan. Having opposed the accession of Mansur, he had to leave the kingdom and he went towards India and seized Ghazni and established his rule there. His slave was Sabuktagin who filled the same position as his master at Bokhara and he gave him his daughter in marriage, Sabuktagin naturally acknowledged the soveriegnty of Mansur though Ghazni was his separate acquisition in the same way as Shahaji acknowledged the suzerainty of the Bijapur Darbar though his Jaghir of Poona and Supa was his own acquisition from the Nizamshahi now no more. Sabuktagin acquired great power and influence in the court of Bokhara in consequence of his efficient army composed of Turks, Afghans and others which he maintained in the same way as Shahaji whose army was always a valuable asset of the Bijapur Darbar. And Sabuktagin fought the battles of the Samanides against their enemies as Shahaji did those of Bijapur. Extensive additional territories were assigned to Sabuktagin as to Shahaji. Indeed they were both almost kings though nominally sardars of the suzerain power at Bokhara or Bijapur. Both laid the foundations and evolved the necessary ingredients of an independent kingdom, though they never aspired to independence in their own life and left that glory to their sons Mahmud and Shivaji.