Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/79

 DECLINE OF GHAZNAVLDS 51 tling permanently in the Afghan country. There was more attractive land to the west, and a dynasty that had spread its dividing branches to the Mediterranean and Damascus was not likely to be enamoured of the crags and glades beneath the Hindu Kush. So long as the kings of Ghazni preserved an attitude of decorous deference, there was little fear of Seljuk aggression. Nor was there much danger of reprisals from the side of India. An army of eighty thousand Hindus did indeed seize Lahore in 1043; but the enemy hastily withdrew on the approach of the forces of Ghazni. The terror of Mahmud's campaigns had left too crushing an impression to permit the Indians to dream of seri- ous retaliation. The Panjab remained a Moslem prov- ince, and a century later became the last refuge of Mahmud's descendants. The force that uprooted the Ghaznavids came neither from the east nor from the west. It grew up in their midst. In the rugged hills of Ghor, between Ghazni and Herat, stood the castle of Firoz-kuh, the " Hill of Victory," where a bold race of Afghan high- landers followed the banner of the chief of Sur. The castle had submitted to Mahmud in 1010, but the con- queror left the native chief in tributary possession, and the Suri horsemen eagerly took the Sultan's pay and fought in his campaigns against the infidels. These fiery hillmen respected the great soldier, but for his weak successors they cared little, and feared them less. A conflict was brought about by the death of one of the Suri chiefs at the hands of Bahrain Shah. The high-