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Mahmud of Ghazni محمود غزنوی
Medieval illustration of Mahmud and his court
Sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire
Reign	998 – 30 April 1030
Predecessor	Ismail of Ghazni
Successor	Muhammad of Ghazni
Born	2 November 971 Ghazni, Zabulistan, Samanid Empire
Died	30 April 1030(1030-04-30) (aged 58) Ghazni, Zabulistan, Ghaznavid Empire
Burial	Ghazni
Issue	Jalal al-Dawla Muhammad Shihab al-Dawla Masud Izz al-Dawla Abd al-Rashid Suleiman Shuja
Names Yamīn-ud-Dawla Abul-Qāṣim Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktegīn
Persian	یمین‌الدوله ابوالقاسم محمود بن سبکتگین‎
Dynasty	Ghaznavid
Father	Sabuktigin
Religion	Sunni Islam

Mahmud of Ghazni (Persian: محمود غزنوی; 2 November 971 – 30 April 1030) was the first independent ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty, ruling from 998 to 1030. At the time of his death, his kingdom had been transformed into a extensive military empire, which extended from northwestern Iran proper to the Punjab in the Indian subcontinent, Khwarazm in Transoxiana, and Makran.

Highly Persianized, Mahmud continued the bureaucratic, political, and cultural customs of his predecessors, the Samanids, which proved to establish the groundwork for a Persianate state in northern India. His capital of Ghazni evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center in the Islamic world, almost rivaling the important city of Baghdad. The capital appealed to many prominent figures, such as al-Biruni and Ferdowsi.

He was the first ruler to hold the title Sultan ("authority"), signifying the extent of his power while at the same time preserving an ideological link to the suzerainty of the Abbasid Caliphate. During his rule, he invaded and plundered parts of the Indian subcontinent (east of the Indus River) seventeen times.

Background

Mahmud was born in the town of Ghazni in the region of Zabulistan (now present-day Afghanistan) on 2 November 971. His father, Sabuktigin, was a Turkic slave commander (ghilman) who laid foundations to the Ghaznavid dynasty in Ghazni in 977, which he ruled as a subordinate of the Samanids, who ruled Khorasan and Transoxiana. Mahmud's mother was the daughter of a Iranian aristocrat from Zabulistan, and is therefore known in some sources as Mahmud-i Zavuli ("Mahmud from Zabulistan"). Not much about Mahmud's early life is known, he was school-fellow of Ahmad Maymandi, a Persian native of Zabulistan and foster brother of his.

Rise

Sabuktigin died in 997, and was succeeded by his son Ismail as the ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty. The reason behind Sabuktigin's choice to appoint Ismail as heir over the more experienced and older Mahmud is uncertain. It may due to Ismail's mother being the daughter of Sabuktigin's old master, Alptigin. Mahmud shortly revolted, and with the help of his other brother, Abu'l-Muzaffar, the governor of Bust, he defeated Ismail the following year at the battle of Ghazni and gained control over the Ghaznavid kingdom. He then appointed Abu'l-Hasan Isfaraini as his vizier.

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