History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c36.5

v3.c36.5

In 1179 A D. he took Peshawar and two years later he advanced against Lahore which was the capital of the Mahmudi Sultan Khusru. The power of the Ghaznavides was on the decline and their glory was departing. Khusru Malek sent his son as hostage and an elephant as present and he was spared this time. Muhammad Ghori thereafter turned his attention towards Sind and conquered Debal and the surrounding country upto the sea. In 1184 he again marched towards Lahore, ravaged the country, founded the town and fort of Sialkot and finally took Lahore. Khusru Malek could offer no resistance; he came forth peacefully to meet the Sultan and was made a prisoner and he was subsequently sent to Ferozkoh the capital of Ghor and thence to a fort with his son in 1191 A. D. and there put to death about 1205 A. D. This conduct and fate of the last Ghaznavide Sultan reminds one of the similar conduct and fate of the Sultan of Bijapur before Auranzjeb. Muezuddin appointed a governor in Lahore and the father of the author of the Tabakat, Kazi of the army of Hindustan a d then returned to Ghazni (E. II p. 295). Thus was substituted in the Panjab a new dynasty of rulers in place of the effete old Mahmudi dynasty and a new ambitious powerful king came to the throne of Ghazni, who had the energy and ambition, though not the greatness, of Mahmud and who fought with the Rajput kings of Northern India as neighbouring kings must always do.