History of Turks

History of Turks

The arrival of Turks

By defeating the small kingdoms of Rajput kings, Turks built their empire in the subsequent years. The establishment of Turks' rule, whose religion was Islam, was not completely unexpected. Arabs had made failed attempts to capture Sindh regions from the beginning of 8th century. Still, Sindh region was always under the constant threat of Turks attack. Turks belong to a nomadic tribe of Mangolia, a part of central Asia, who had accepted Islam. Alaptigin, who belonged to this tribe, established his independent state in 963 C.E. in 'Ghazni' region of Afghanistan. The battles between Turks and Rajputs started from his period.

Mohammed Ghazni: 

Ghazni ascended throne after Alaptigin in 999 C.E. Mohammed Ghazni invaded India seventeen times. The famous Somanatha Temple and the temples of Saurashtara were destroyed during his invasions. Though, all the Rajput kingdoms of the western India were battered by these invasions, they failed to face Turks with unity. Mohammed succeeded in his invasions due to the political and military weaknesses of Rajputs. Mohammed invaded seventeen times and carried away enormous amount of golden ornaments and wealth to Ghazni. Though he did not build empire in India, his invasions showed the way to future Turk invasions into India. Similarly, the valour of Rajputs, who had become weak with internal rivalries, also got displayed.

Mohammed Ghori

A Turk dynasty of Shansbhani of Ghor region of Afganistancame to prominence and ended the rule of Ghazn dynasty. Ghiyasuddin Mohammed Ghor of this dynasty ascended the throne. He sent his younger brother Mujaheedin Mohammed to establish Turk rule in India. He is called as Mohammed Ghori by the historians. He started his first invasion by besieging Multan. He wanted to recapture the places of Sindh that were under the rule of Mohammed Ghazni. He invaded Anilwada of Gujarath and got defeated there. This defeat made Mohammed to change his plan and he attacked Peshwar and conquered it. Then, Khusro Mallik of Lahore surrendered. By keeping Lahore as his centre, Mohammed attacked the plains of India. This attack was naturally resisted by the ruler of Delhi, Prithivraj Chouhan lll. He defeated Mohammed at Terrain in 1191 C.E.

Mohammed returned to Ghor and again faced Prithivraj Chouhan III at Terrain in 1192 C.E. This time he had made a lot of preparations. In this battle, the archers of Turks succeeded. The quicker cavalry of Turks dispersed the Rajput army with slow moving elephants. Govindrao and Bhola who were instrumental in the Rajput victory during first Terrian battle were killed. Prithivraj Chouhan was imprisoned. Prithviraj continued to rule for a while after his surrender. Mohammed appointed his slaves to take care of the areas won by him in India. He got murdered on his way back to Ghori.

Political Implications

 The victory of Ghoris had many major political implications. The political system consisting of small kingdoms vanished. A centralised rule of Sultan who had immense power at Delhi came into existence. As a result, the entire northern India came under one rule after Harsha.The system of administration was different from Rajputs. The Sultan had the absolute power of either appointing or dismissing all officials. The military administration was also clearly unlike the previous one. Soldiers were appointed directly by the Sultans. Soldiers remained loyal directly to the Sultan himself. With the establishment of the rule of Sultans, India got reconnected with the outer world, which had remained cut off from 8th century onwards.