Mahmud of Ghazni

(971-1030)

   On succeeding his father, Subuktigin (977-998), on the throne in 998, he obtained recognition of his sovereignty by the Abbasid caliph, impelling him to perceive himself in the role of a religious warrior. Between 1000 and 1026, Mahmud carried out 17 plundering raids in India, including the one in which the Somanath temple on the seashore in Kathiawar was de-stroyed (1025). The wealth plundered by Mahmud in India was used for his military campaigns in Central Asia and Persia. Hindu soldiers recruited from among defeated Indians were used in some of these campaigns. He neither established his direct rule in any part of India beyond the Punjab nor did he try to convert defeated Hindu chiefs and their subjects to Islam. There were many among the contempo-rary Islamic elite, including the famous Abu Rehan Alberuni, who did not approve of Mahmud's plundering raids into India.