Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/61

INDIA INVADED FKOM AFGHANISTAN 35 fertile districts of the Panjab, triumphed over the Indian raja Jaipal, reduced him to temporary subjec- tion and repeated the victorious inroad more than once. The way pointed out by Sabuktagin was followed by his son Mahmud of Ghazni, with true Mohammedan zeal and with still greater results, in a dozen or more suc- cessive invasions, and we have a good account of the various campaigns, written by an Arab historian Utbi, who was secretary to Sultan Mahmud up to the time of Mahmud 's death in 1030 A. D. Sir Henry Elliot translated selections from this Arabic chronicle, en- titled " Tarikh-i Yamini," and extracts from his ver- sion are here given to recount the history of these holy wars waged against Hindustan by two famous rulers of Afghanistan, as viewed through the eyes of a Mo- hammedan annalist. 1 Sabuktagin, the ruler of Ghazni, in Afghanistan made frequent expeditions into Hindustan in the prose- cution of holy wars, and he conquered forts there upon lofty hills, in order to seize the treasures they contained, and expelled their garrisons. He took all the property in their treasuries, and captured cities in Hind, which had up to that time been tenanted only by infidels, and not trodden by the camels and horses of Mussul- mans. When Jaipal, the king of Hind, ascertained the calamity which had befallen him, and learned how Sabuktagin was taking different parts of the territory into his own possession and injuring all who opposed him in his projects of ambition, the deepest grief seized