When the next Muslim invasion of India came in 1001, the driving force was Turkish rather than Arab. These were the Ghaznavids (GAHZ-nuh-vidz), displaced by their cousins the Seljuks. Their leader was Mahmud of Ghazni (mah-MOOD; ruled 997-1030), who subdued a large re-
A mazelike assembly of sandstone buildings survive from medieval times in the Indian city Jaisalmer. Reproduced by permission of the Corbis Corporation.
Gion in what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, and western India. Strong Hindu resistance, however, prevented him from establishing Muslim rule in most of the Indian regions he conquered.
As the Ghaznavids declined, another dynasty called the Ghurids (GUR-idz) took their place in the region. The greatest of the Ghurid rulers was Muhammad Ghuri, who destroyed the power of the Rajput kings in 1192 and built an empire based in the cities of Lahore (now in Pakistan) and Delhi (DEL-ee). Though he was assassinated in 1206, he managed to establish Muslim control over much of northern India. Adopting a practice common among the Turks, Muhammad Ghuri made use of slave soldiers, and one of these, Qutb-ud-Din Aybak (kut-bud-DEEN eye-BAHK; ruled 1206-10), became his successor. Aybak was the first independent Muslim ruler of northern India, with no ties to an outside realm, and is thus acknowledged as the founder of the Delhi Sultanate.
World History
