Muhammad of Ghor
Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam, also known as Muhammad of Ghor or Muhammad Ghori, was a ruler from the Ghurid dynasty based in the Ghor region of what is today central Afghanistan who ruled from 1173 to 1206. Muhammad and his elder brother Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad ruled in a dyarchy until the latter's death in 1203. Ghiyath al-Din, the senior partner, governed the western Ghurid regions from his capital at Firozkoh whereas Muhammad extended Ghurid rule eastwards into South Asia, laying the foundation of Islamic rule in South Asia, which lasted after him for nearly half a millennium under evolving Muslim dynasties.
During his early career as governor of the southern tract of Ghurid Empire, Muhammad subjugated the Oghuz Turks after a series of forays and annexed Ghazni where he was installed by Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad as an independent sovereign. Expanding the Ghurid dominion east of the Indus Delta from his base in Ghazni, Muhammad crossed the river Indus in 1175, approaching it through the Gomal Pass and captured Multan and Uch from the Carmathians within a year. Afterwards, Muhammad took his army by the way of lower Sindh, endeavouring to penetrate into present-day Gujarat through the Thar Desert. However, he was wounded and his forces were routed near Mount Abu at Kasahrada by a coalition of Rajput chiefs led by the Chaulukya king Mularaja. This setback forced him to change his route for future inroads into the Indian Plains. Hence, Muhammad pressed his forces against the Ghaznavids and uprooted them by 1186, conquering the upper Indus Plain along with most of the Punjab. After expelling the Ghaznavids from their last bastion, Muhammad secured the Khyber Pass, the traditional route of entry for invading armies into northern India.
Extending the Ghurid dominion further eastwards into the Gangetic Plain, the Ghurid forces suffered a reverse and Muhammad was wounded in an engagement with the Rajput Confederacy led by the Chahamana ruler Prithviraj Chauhan at Tarain in 1191. Muhammad returned to Khurasan. A year later he set off with a vast army of mounted archers into the Gangetic Plain and secured a decisive victory in the return engagement on the same battleground. He executed Prithviraj shortly afterwards. He limited his presence in India thereafter, deputising the political and military operations in the region to a handful of elite slave commanders who raided local Indian kingdoms and extended the Ghurid influence as far east as the Ganges Delta in Bengal and regions to the north in Bihar.
After the death of Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad in 1203, Muhammad of Ghor ascended the throne of Firozkoh as well, becoming the supreme Sultan of the Ghurid Empire. Within a year or so, Muhammad suffered a devastating defeat at Andkhud against their Turkish rivals Khwarazmians aided by timely reinforcements from the Qara Khitais, which resulted in the loss of Ghurid power across most of the Khurasan. Muhammad quelled the widespread insurrection throughout his empire after the debacle and ordered the construction of a bridge over the Oxus River to launch a full-scale invasion of Transoxiana in order to avenge his defeat at Andkhud. However, a rebellion by the Hindu Khokhars forced him to move towards the Salt Range, where he brutally crushed the Khokhar revolt during his last campaign.
On his way back, Muhammad of Ghor was assassinated, on the bank of Indus at Damyak on 15 March 1206, by the Ismāīlī emissaries while offering evening prayers. Muhammad's assassination led to the rapid decline of the Ghurids and enabled Shah Muhammad II to annex remaining Ghurid territories west of the Indus River by 1215. However, his conquests east of the Indus in the Indian subcontinent, evolved into the formidable Delhi Sultanate under his slave commander Qutbuddin Aibak.
Early life
Birth
Muhammad of Ghor was born in the Ghur region of present-day west-central Afghanistan to the Ghurid ruler Baha al-Din Sam I who ruled his ancestral realm briefly before he died in 1149, when Muhammad of Ghor was a child. His name is variously transliterated as Muizuddin Sam, Shihabuddin Ghuri, Muhammad Ghori and Muhammad of Ghor. According to the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, his birth name was "Muhammad" which is vernacularly spelt as "Hamad" by the Ghurids. During his childhood, his mother called him "Zangi" due to his dark skin tone. After his coronation in Ghazni, he styled himself as "Malik Shihabuddin" and after his occupation of Khurasan, he took the title of "Muizzuddin" or "Mu'izz al-Din".Contemporaneous accounts do not provide any real insights as to Muhammad's exact birth date, although based on the writings of Juzjani, Muhammad was younger to Ghiyath al-Din by three years and few months, who was born in 1140. Therefore, Muhammad's birth year can be dated to 1144.
Accession to the throne
The early years of both Muhammad and his brother Ghiyath al-Din were spent in constant hardship. After his campaign in Ghazni, their uncle Ala al-Din Husayn initially installed them as governors of Sanjah. However, their efficient administration of the province, made him doubtful of their loyalty and seeing a possible challenge to his own authority, he ordered his nephews to be imprisoned in the castle of Gharjistan. They were released from captivity by his son Sayf al-Din Muhammad after the death of his father in 1161. Sayf al-Din died in 1163 in a battle against the nomadic Oghuzs of Balkh.After their release from the captivity, "Tarik-i-Firishtah" states that the Ghurid siblings were reinstated in Sanjah, although the earlier account of "Tabaqat-i-Nasiri" stated that the hardship continued due to their poor financial situation. Muhammad thus took shelter in the court of his uncle Fakhruddin Masud who held the principality of Bamiyan as vassal of their uncle Alauddin Husayn.
Later, Fakhr al-Din Masud announced his own claim for the succession after Sayf al-Din's death as the elder member of the Ghurid family. Muhammad helped his brother in suppressing the revolt of Fakhr al-Din Masud who garnered a sizeable army in alliance with the chiefs of Balkh and Herat who were both executed in the battle, although Fakhr al-Din Masud was reinstated in Bamiyan in 1163. Afterwards, with the support of the remaining local Ghurid officers and "maliks", his brother succeeded Sayf al-Din to the throne in 1163 and initially placed Muhammad as a minor officer in his court, which result in him retiring to the court of Sistan where he spent a whole season. However, later Ghiyath al-Din sent an envoy to bring him back to Ghiyath al-Din who subsequently placed him in charge of the southern part of the Ghurid domains, which possibly included Istiyan and Kajuran.
During Muhammad's early campaigns as a prince, he was instructed to subdue the Oghuz tribes whose power and influence had begun to wane, although they were still controlling extensive territories. He used Kandahar as a base and raided the Oghuz territories multiple times, before he and Ghiyath al-Din defeated them decisively. They followed up their victory by conquering Ghazni in 1169 along with some other territories in what is present-day eastern Afghanistan. Muhammad's coronation took place in Ghazni in 1173 and his brother returned to Firuzkuh to take on the westwards expansion into Transoxania. Muhammad used the city of Ghazni as a launch pad for a series of lucrative forays down to the Indus Delta and beyond. In 1174, Muhammad led an expedition against the Ghuzzs of Sanquran in present-day Turkmenistan and subdued them.
In 1175, Muhammad marched from Ghazni and helped his brother with the annexation of the cities of Herat and Pushang after defeating a former general of the Seljuks. The Ghurid siblings advanced into the present-day Iran and brought Nasrid dynasty of Sistan under their sway. The Nasrid ruler Taj al-Din III Harb ibn Muhammad ibn Nasr acknowledged Ghurid suzerainty and then sent his armies several times to assist the Ghurids in their wars. Afterwards, Ghiyath al-Din captured Balkh and territories adjoining Herat in Khurasan.
Campaigns into India
Initial campaigns
The Ghurid brothers ruled as a dyarchy with the senior partner, Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad, engaged in a protracted duel with the Khwarazmians from his capital Firuzkuh situated in west-central Afghanistan, while Muhammad expanded the Ghurid domains eastwards into the Indian plains from his capital at Ghazni. The expeditions into the Indian plains and the plunder extracted from the sacking of lucrative Hindu temples in the Gangetic Plain, gave Muhammad access to a vast amount of treasure that was collected in Ghazni which, according to the chronicler Juzjani based on the authority of Muhammad's comptroller, included 60,000 kg of jewels.During the course of his early invasions, Muhammad avoided Punjab and instead focused on lands bordering the middle and lower course of the Indus. Therefore, to outflank the Ghaznavids in Punjab and to open up an alternative route to Northern India, Muhammad turned south towards Anhilwara in present-day Gujarat. Before entering Anhilwara, he laid siege to the fort of Nadol and captured it from the Naddula Chahamana ruler Kelhanadeva after a short siege. He sacked the Shiva temple in Kiradu. After marching through the dry Thar Desert south of Marwar, the Ghurid army were exhausted by the time they reached Mount Abu where they were routed in the mountainous pass of Gadararaghatta by the Solanki ruler Mularaja II. The Solanki ruler was aided by other Rajput chiefs, primarily Kelhanadeva, the Jalor Chahamana ruler Kirtipala, and the Arbuda Paramara ruler Dharavarsha. The Ghurid army suffered heavy casualties during the battle, and also in the retreat back across the desert to Ghazni. The defeat forced Muhammad to opt for the northern routes. He therefore concentrated on creating a suitable base in Punjab and northwest for further incursions into northern India.