CHAPTER V AN ACCOUNT OF THE TEMPLE OF SOMNATH BY THE PEKSIAN GEOGRAPHER KAZVINI About 1263 A. D. THE famous temple at Somnath, with its celebrated idol which was destroyed by Mahnmd of Ghazni, " the Image-Breaker/' when he sacked the city in 1025 - 1026 A. D., has been alluded to several times in the Mohammedan section of this History. An account of the wonders of the temple and the optical delusion in connection with the idol is given by the Persian geog- rapher Zakariyah Kazvini, who wrote, however, in Ara- bic, about the year 1263 A. D. Kazvini, though not a traveller himself, drew upon the works of travellers for his geographical materials, and he gives the follow- ing interesting account of the famous Somnath shrine, over whose destruction, two centuries before, he re- joices with the Moslem joy that hailed the downfall of a house of idols. ' Somnath is a celebrated city of India, situated on the shore of the sea and washed by its waves. Among 200
