CHAP. II. GHAZNI *9* CHAPTER II. GHAZNl. CONTENTS. Tomb of Mahmud Gates of Somnath Minars on the Plain CHRONOLOGY. Sabuktigin, founder . . A.D. 975 Mahmud 997 MasMd 1031 'Abdu-/-Rashid . . . . A.D. 1048 Ibrahim 1059 Shihabu-d-Din (Ghuri dynasty ) 1 203 TOWARDS the latter part of the gth century the power of the Khalifs of Baghdad was sinking into that state of rapid decline which is the fate of all Eastern dynasties. During the reign of Al Mo'tamid, A.D. 870-891, Egypt became independent, and the northern province of Bukhara threw off the yoke under the governor appointed by the Khalifah Nasr Ahmad, a grandson of Saman, a Tartar chief, who declared and main- tained his independence, and so formed the Samani dynasty. After the dynasty had existed about a century, Sabuktigtn, a Turkish slave belonging to a general of one of the last of the Samanian kings, rendered himself also independent of his master, and established himself in Ghaznt, of which he was governor, founding the well-known dynasty of Ghaznavides. His son and successor, Mahmud, A.D. 997-1030, is one of the best-known kings in Indian History owing to his brilliant campaigns in India, and more especially that in which he destroyed the celebrated temple of Somnath. On his return from an earlier campaign, in which he had sacked the town of Mathura, we learn from Ferishta that the king ordered a magnificent mosque to be built of marble and granite, afterwards known by the name of the Celestial Bride. Near it he founded a university. When the nobility of Ghaznt perceived the taste of their king in architecture, they also endeavoured to vie with one another in the magnificence of their palaces, as well as in the public buildings which were
