This book deals with the origins and early history of the dynasty of Turkish slave origin which in the first half of the eleventh century AD, became a mighty power controlling lands from western Persiato the Panjab and from' what is now the northern Uzbekistan Republic to the shores of the Indian Ocean in Baluchistan and Sind. The book is based on the original Persian and Arabic sources for the period, and describes the process by which, from a Turkish steppe background, Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna and his son Mas'ud assembled by force of arms the most powerful empire known in the Islamic world since the disintegration of the Baghdad caliphate. Much- of the Sultans' energy was devoted to the exploitation of India, with its rich temple treasures and reserves of slave manpower, and Mahmud in particular achieved a great contemporary reputation as a hammer of pagans and heretics, before the attacks of a new wave of Turkish invaders from Central Asia, the Ozhuz, overran the western provinces of their empire by 1040.
Author
Clifford Edmund Bosworth FBA is an English historian and orientalist, specializing in Arabic and Iranian studies. He received his B.A. degree from Oxford University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Edinburgh University. He held permanent posts at St. Andrews University, Manchester University, and the Center for the Humanities at Princeton University. He is the author of 100s articles in academic journals and composite volumes. His other contributions include nearly 200 articles in the Encyclopaedia of Islam and some 100 articles in the Encyclopædia Iranica, as well as articles for Encyclopædia Britannica and Encyclopedia Americana. He's currently a visiting professor at the University of Exeter, where he has held the post since 2004. His book The Islamic dynasties has been translated to Arabic and Persian. He is the chief editor of the Encyclopaedia of Islam and a consulting editor of Encyclopaedia Iranica.
