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the
GHAZNAVIDS (r.977-1186) |
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*MAP*
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Section 3, top margin C, left
margin a |
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Ghazni in its setting (Ghur, home
base of
the Ghurids, is a region to the west of Ghazni); an excellent guidebook
to Afghanistan: *N.
H. Dupree* |
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A modern satellite view of the
Afghanistan-Pakistan
border makes it clear why people sought out the Khyber Pass |
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The famous KHYBER PASS between
Kabul and
Peshawar, through which so many groups entered South Asia |
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There was ample scope in different
valleys
for Buddhism, various kinds of Muslim and Hindu practices, the
Dravidian
language Brahui, and other local cultural variations |
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In the Kabul region, the early
medieval
"Hindu Shahi" dynasty (itself of Central Asian origin) survived until
c.1026,
leaving us many of the *Salt Range
temples* |
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As the Ghaznavids prospered, their
second
capital of Lahore, like their first capital of Ghazni, became a wealthy
and sophisticated cultural center |
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The great Persian poet Firdausi
(c.940-c.1020)
presented the newly-composed Shah-namah (the Persian national epic,
which
has been called the longest poem ever written by a single author) to
his
patron, the young Mahmud Ghaznavi, c.1010-12 |
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One of the chief glories of the
Ghaznavid
court at Lahore was al-Biruni, an excellent all-round scientist,
mapmaker,
and geographer-- and the author of the invaluable "Tarikh al-Hind," or
"History of India" |
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Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh of the
Hujwiri Sufi
order came from Ghazni in 1039, and lived in Lahore till his death in
1072;
his shrine remains an important Lahore landmark |
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The famous Persian poet Sa'adi
tells an
anecdote about an idol called "Somnath," thus evoking Mahmud Ghaznavi's
most famous temple raid |
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These "gates of Somnath" were
ostentatiously
brought back by the British from Ghazni-- but turned out actually to be
the gates of Mahmud's tomb |
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Very little of GHAZNI's former
grandeur
has survived to the present-- its two once-lofty victory towers are now
little more than ruins |
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The Ghaznavids' successors, the
Ghurids,
left behind even less in their own home region of GHUR-- but they did
create
the magnificent Minar-e Jam (c.1174), a precursor of the *Qutb
Minar*; compare also the *Kalon
Minar* (c.1127) in Bukhara
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