Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/89

 Chap. II.] SULTANS MODOOD, AND MUSAOOD II. 55

of liis Turkish followers, in Musaood's complete defeat. After endeavouring to a.d. iiu. collect the wreck of his army, he returned to Gliuznee. Here new troubles awaited him ; and, unable to repress the mutinous spirit of his troops, he began to look to India as a place of refuge, and finally withdrew to it in the hope of being able to retrieve his affairs. Anarchy now reigned uncontrolled in his ca})ital. No sooner had he crossed the Indus than his own guards attempted to plunder the treasury ; a general insui'rection of the army immediately followed, and Musaood, being formally depo.sed, his brother Mahomed, whom he had kept in prison, was restored. A sovereign deprived of sight was totally unfitted to rule in such troublous times, and he devolved the administration on his son Ahmed, one of whose first acts was to put Musaood to death in lO+O.

Modood, son of Musaood, had, as we have seen, been appointed governor of Modood Lahore, but was at Balkh when his father was murdered. Without losing a moment he hastened east with his army, and crushed his rivals. Ghuznee still lay open to the inroads of the Seljuks, but these formidable intruders had turned their attention more to the west, and Modood, who had married Toghrul Begs grand-daughter, both maintained himself in Ghuznee and recovered Transoxiana. In India advantage was taken of his absence; and the Rajah of Delhi, working on the feelings of the Hindoos, roased them to unwonted exertions. At the head of a powerful army he recovered Nagarcote, overran great part of the Punjab, and Laid siege to Lahore, which, however, made good its defence. Modood, meanwhile, was imable personally to interfere ; and died in 1 i9, without again visiting India.

He left an infant son, wiio was murdered by his uncle Abul Has.san. A Musaood u. series of usurpations, usually effected by great crimes, now took place, and no name of note occurs till 1098, when Musaood II. ascended the throne. Durins: the sixteen years of his reign, which ended with his death in 1114', he distin- guished himself more as a legislator than a warrior, though his generals carried his arms beyond the Ganges. For some years his court resided at Lahore.

On the death of Musaood II., another usurpation took j)lace in the person of his son Arslan, who, to secure the throne, imprisoned his brothers. The unnatural act did not avail him; and he was, in his turn, deposed by Behram, Behrama

reign.

the only brother who had e.scaped imprisonment. Behram's reign, which lasted thirty-four years, was not more long than brilliant, and he might have trans- mitted his power unimpaired, had he not been guilty of a crime which brought its pimishment along with it, and led to the extinction of the Gliuznee dyna.sty. It will be necessary to go back a few years in order to explain the circumstances. The territory of Ghor, situated, as has already been mentioned, among the northern ramifications of the Hindoo Koosh, is regarded by the Afghans as their original seat. At a comparatively early period it was invaded by the ^ Arabs, and a large ])ortion of its inhabitants embraced Mahometanism. When ■ the Arab dynasties were overthrown, it resumed its independence, and pi*e-

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