Mu'izz al-Din

Who he is

Name

Mu'izz al-Din (earlier Shihab al-Din) Abu'l-Muzaffar Muhammad ibn Baha al-Din Sam

Title

Sultan (al-sultan al-mu'azzam), junior partner of his brother

Since

569 AH (1173-74) at Ghazni

Born

Not pinned (a few years younger than Ghiyath al-Din)

Family

Shansabani of Ghur

Confidence

high

Juzjani; Ibn al-Athir; Iranica; Wikipedia 'Muhammad of Ghor'. No campaign of his is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200.

Overlord

His brother Ghiyath al-Din, whose name precedes his in the khutba and on the coins.

What it holds

• Ghazni, his capital, with Zabulistan (Qalat, Muqur) and Zurmat
• Kabul with Kohistan, Parwan and the Panjshir silver mines, Lamghan and Nangarhar
• Gardez and Khost; the Kurram (under Taj al-Din Yildiz, see Yildiz)
• Tiginabad (Kandahar), his first appanage in the 1160s (whether still his or his brother's in 1200 is not pinned)
• Peshawar (Purshawar) and the Khyber road, held since about 1179
• Lahore and the Punjab between the Jhelum and the Beas, taken from the last Ghaznavid, Khusraw Malik, in 1186; governor in January 1200 not pinned (Ali Karmakh, formerly governor of Multan, was left at Lahore in 1186, Juzjani)
• Sialkot, refortified in 1185-86 and given to Husayn ibn Kharmil (his tenure in 1200 not pinned)
• Multan, taken from its Ismaili rulers in 570 AH (1175) (governor in 1200 not pinned; the reports for 1203-04 name Qabacha, Amir-i Dad Hasan and Aytam)
• Uch, under Nasir al-Din Aytam (see Aytam of Uch)
• Overlordship of lower Sindh (the Sumras) since his march to Daybul in 578 AH (1182)
• Beyond the map, in India, held through his slave commanders that winter: Delhi, with Meerut, Baran, Kol (Koil, Aligarh), Hansi, Kuhram and Samana, under Qutb al-Din Aibak, his viceroy since 1192-93; Ajmer under a Muslim governor (unnamed) since Aibak drove out Hariraja about 1194-95, with Prithviraja's son Govindaraja as a tributary at Ranthambore; Kanauj and Banaras, taken after Chandawar (1194) and secured by Aibak in 1197-99, with the Gahadavala heir Harishchandra still holding out to the east; Badaun, taken by Aibak in 1197-98; Bayana (Thangir) under Baha al-Din Tughril since 1196, who blockades Gwalior from his new fort of Sultankot (Gwalior's surrender to Aibak falls about 1200; not pinned whether before or after 1 January); Tabarhind (Bathinda), held since 1189-91; Bihar, where Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji, holding the fiefs of Bhagwat and Bhiuli east of Chunar, is raiding (the sack of the monastery-fortress of Odantapuri is dated variously between about 1193 and 1200; his raid on Bengal is later).

How it was acquired

Given Tiginabad by his brother in the 1160s; Ghazni taken from the Ghuzz in 1173; the Indian and Punjab conquests as above.

Allies and rivals

Allies: his brother; his slave commanders; the Bamiyan branch. Rivals: the Rajput kings of India; the Khokhars; the Nizaris; Khwarazm and the Qara Khitai in his brother's wars.

How things stand that morning

He holds Ghazni and the east. His whereabouts that winter are not pinned: no campaign of his is recorded for 595-596 AH, and his capital is Ghazni. Northern India is being held and extended by Aibak and the other commanders in his name.

Wealth

The plunder and tribute of India; the Punjab's revenue; the Panjshir silver; the tolls of the Kabul-Khyber and Kurram roads; the horse trade into India.

Military

His Turkish slave cavalry and its commanders; Ghurid and Khalaj troops; war elephants; the forts of Ghazni, Lahore, Sialkot, Multan and Uch. Victories at Tarain (1192) and Chandawar (1194); defeated at Tarain (1191) and at Kasahrada in Gujarat (1178). No numbers given here.

Threats

• The Khokhars on the Lahore road.
• Rajput revival in India.
• The Nizaris.
• Having no son.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. Late 1200 to 597 AH (1200-01)He joins his brother in the invasion of Khurasan and leads the push west to Gurgan and Bistam, which brings their only recorded quarrel.Depends on: Tekish's death on 3 July 1200. Stopped by: Trouble in India or on the Khokhar road.
2. About 1200 (not pinned)Gwalior surrenders to Aibak.Depends on: The garrison's endurance. Stopped by: Relief from outside.

Places of note

• Ghazni: His capital, the old Ghaznavid city, burned by Ala al-Din Husayn in 1150-51 and rebuilt.

Where the sources disagree

• Many modern accounts and the campaign dossier call the arrangement a diarchy; it is, but with Ghiyath al-Din clearly senior until his death in 1203.

Evidence: His reign is well known; the governors of Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Sialkot on 1 January 1200 are not named in what was consulted.

On the map: The Punjab and Multan blocks are drawn to the Beas and the Sutlej; India beyond is outside the map's scope. Peshawar, Kabul and the Punjab roads crossed tribal hills that obeyed only loosely.

Primary sources for Ghurids

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Chronography of Bar Hebraeus, Gregory Bar Hebraeus (Abu'l-Faraj) (about 1275 to 1286). A later compilation that for 1200 relies on Michael the Syrian and Ibn al-Athir, but adds the Jacobite church's own memory of the Jazira, Mosul, Melitene and the Artuqid and Zangid courts, and carries Michael's story past 1195: the Seljuk brothers' war in Rum, the Khwarazmian and Ghurid wars in the east, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah, and the caliph al-Nasir. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• The History of the World Conqueror, Ata-Malik Juvayni (1252 to 1260). Written for the Mongols but with a long retrospective on the powers they destroyed. Read online
• The Life of Sultan Jalal al-Din Mankubirti, Shihab al-Din Muhammad al-Nasawi (about 1241, at Aleppo). A Khwarazmian secretary's life of the last Khwarazmshah. Read online
• The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. Read online
• The Crown of Glorious Deeds, Hasan Nizami (Sadr al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan Nizami of Nishapur) (begun about 1205 at Delhi, carried on to about 1217). The earliest history written in Muslim India and the only contemporary account of Qutb al-Din Aibak's campaigns. Read online
• The Nasirean Generations (a general history of the Muslim dynasties), Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (completed 1260 at Delhi). The fullest narrative of the Ghurid conquest of northern India. Read online
• The Tree of Genealogies, and the Manners of War and Bravery, Fakhr-i Mudabbir (Fakhr al-Din Muhammad ibn Mansur Mubarakshah) (the Shajara about 1206, dedicated to Qutb al-Din Aibak; the Adab al-harb in the 1220s for Iltutmish). The prose introduction to the Shajara, written within six years of 1200, praises Aibak and tells of his rise under Mu'izz al-Din of Ghur, his consecration at Lahore in 1206 and the Ghurid campaigns in Hindustan, with some notice of the Turkish peoples.

3 more in the sources library for Persia and the Eastern Islamic World.