BOOK .V. and his son Ahmed, whom he totally defeated. Both of those princes, with all their relatives, fell into his hands, and he put them all to death, except one, whom he spared on account of the respect he had shown to his father, Masáúd, while the A. D. 1040, rest were insulting him in his misfortunes. He A. H. 432. was soon after opposed by his own brother, who set up his standard in the east of the Panjáb, and to whom his troops were deserting in bodies, when he was relieved from this danger by the sudden death of the pretender, and was enabled to turn his attention to the affairs of the west. After the defeat of Masáúd the whole kingdom of Ghazni lay open to the invader; but the views of the Seljúks were not limited to that conquest. They met at Níshapúr, crowned Tóghral Bég king, and divided the country conquered and to be conquered into four provinces, to be held under his authority. A. D. 1041, Their principal force was turned towards the west; and A'bu Alí, to whom Herát, Sistán, and Ghór were assigned, was not strong enough singly to bear down the opposition of the Ghaznevites.* From this cause Módúd was able not only to maintain himself in Ghazni, but to recover Transoxiana; and as he was married to the daughter of Jáker Bey (called by the Mussulmans, Dáúd), the brother of Tóghral and father of A'lp Arslán, he appeared to be in a favourable position towards the conquerors who had so lately threatened the existence of his monarchy. A. H. 433. * De Guignes, vol. ii. p. 190. CHAP. IV. A. H. 435. While he was thus successful in the west, the rája of Delhi took advantage of his absence to recover Tanésar, Hánsi, and all his father's conquests beyond the Satlaj; and encouraged by this unusual success, he declared that the god of Nagarcót had appeared to him in a dream, and invited him to his temple, which he was destined to deliver. Though Nagarcót was now better guarded than when it fell into the hands of Mahmúd, such was the spirit excited among the Hindús, that they entered the Panjáb in numbers, were joined by zealots from all parts, and ere long found themselves masters of the temple. The rája contrived A. D. 1043, that the image supposed to have been demolished should be found miraculously preserved: the oracle of the temple was revived and was consulted by innumerable votaries; while the Hindús, aroused by the Divine interposition in their favour, took up arms throughout the whole of the Panjáb, and were soon in a condition to lay siege to Láhór. The Mahometans, driven to their last retreat, and indignant at the thoughts of yielding to those whom they had so often defeated, defended the place with the utmost obstinacy; no relief appeared from Ghazni, and after a siege of seven months, they were reduced to extremity; but even then they took a manly resolution, and, swearing to stand by each other to the last, they rushed out on the Hindús, who little expected such an effort, and drove them from their lines, of which they took possession. The Hindús had probably already BOOK begun to lose heart from the length of the siege; V. and now, fancying that all was to begin again, and that succours must soon arrive from beyond the Indus, they raised the siege and withdrew. Their alarms were groundless. Módúd was again engaged in hostilities with the "ever restless" Seljúks, and was, besides, in danger from revolts of his own subjects. He had also engaged to assist Yeheia, prince of Ghór, in recovering his territory from A'bu Alí (whether the Seljúk, or a prince of the same name of the Ghóri's own family, does not appear); and when he had succeeded, by means of his alliance, he perfidiously put the prince of A. D. 1046, Ghór to death, and rendered the country tributary, and in some shape dependent, on himself. A. H. 438. A. H. 440. At length he found time to send an officer to A. D. 1048, recover his affairs in Láhór. This chief began his operations prosperously, and was succeeding, by a mixture of force and conciliation, in restoring the royal authority, when he was recalled, in consequence of the enmity of the ministers, and put to death by their intrigues. Before Módúd knew the extent to which his confidence had been betrayed, A. D 1049, he was taken ill himself, and died at Ghazni, after a reign of nine years. A. H. 441. Sultán Abul Hasan. On the death of Módúd an attempt was made to set up his infant son, but was crushed by his brother Abul Hasan. The new king's dominions IV. were limited to Ghazni and the neighbourhood; CHAP. Ali Bin Rabia, the general who had set up the infant, fled to India, and not only secured the territories which had been possessed by Módúd on both sides of the Indus, but recovered Multán, where the Afgháns had asserted their independence, and some of the nearest parts of Sind, which they appear to have conquered. In the west, also, the whole country was in arms in favour of Abul Rashíd, the king's uncle, who, in the course of time, advanced on Ghazni, and deposed Abul Hasan, after he had reigned two years. Sultán Abul Rashid. Ali Bin A. D. 1051, The new reign began auspiciously. Ali Bin Rabia was induced to return to his allegiance; and the Hindús must, by this time, have abandoned their attempt on the Panjáb, as one of Abul Rashid's first acts was the recovery of Nagarcót. But his prospects were soon clouded by the revolt of a chief named Tógral in Sístán, Abul Rashid hurried to oppose him, leaving the bulk of his army in India. His force proved unequal to that of the rebels, and he was compelled to shut himself up in Ghazni, where he was taken and put to death, with nine princes of the blood royal, before he had completed the second year of his reign. Tógral seized on the vacant throne, but was assassinated within forty days; and the army, having now returned from India, thought only of con A. H. 443. V. BOOK tinuing the crown in the line of Sebektegín. Three princes of his house were discovered imprisoned in a distant fort; and no one of them having a superiority of title to the others, it was determined to settle the succession by lot. The chance fell on Farokhzád, who was forthwith raised to the throne. A. D. 1052, A. H. 444. A. D. 1058, A. H. 450. Sultán Farokhzád. Farokhzad had a longer and, in some respects, a more prosperous reign than his predecessor. During the six years that he sat on the throne he gained such advantages over the Seljúks in the declining years of Jáker Bey Dáúd, that he looked forward to recovering the whole of Khorásán; and though his career was checked by the rising genius of Alp Arslán, he remained on a footing of honourable equality with his competitor, till he was assassinated by some slaves while in the bath. Sultán I'brahim. He was succeeded by his brother I'brahím. The new king had, from his youth, been remarkable for his devotion and for the sanctity of his manners. His first act was to make peace with the Seljúks, renouncing all claim to the territories which they had conquered from his family. He next turned his attention to internal reforms, extended the fast of the Rámzán to three months, and strictly enforced the observance of it for this in |