—the unbelievers cried, “This is the doing of the god Sūmanāt!”

The Sultan then advanced to the city of Anhalwara. Its king escaped to an island, and the Muslims devastated the city, leveling it to the ground. A further month’s march of roadless wastes still separated them from the idol, so they pressed on until they reached Dabuluwara, two days short of their objective. That town was taken by storm, its many idols smashed, and it was famous for its abundant fruit.

On the fourteenth of Dhū al-Qaʿda they arrived at Sūmanāt itself. The town possessed a powerful sea-front fortress; the siege began, scaling-ladders were set in place, and the defenders retreated to the idol and implored it for aid. The crisis deepened as they imagined that the idol was angry with them. It stood inside a vast, impregnable temple whose doors were veiled with silk hangings. Ornaments and jewels beyond description covered the image; lamps burned around it night and day; and on its head rested a crown of immeasurable value that left onlookers thunderstruck. At its festival nearly one hundred thousand unbelievers would gather. Set upon a throne of exquisite decoration five cubits high, the idol itself measured ten cubits, and it possessed a treasury filled with rarities and gold beyond reckoning.

Maḥmūd distributed most of this wealth among his troops, then struck the idol with pickaxes until it toppled lifeless to the ground. A faction maintained that the image was actually Manāt and that, in the time of Prophethood, it had moved of its own accord from the coast of Jeddah to this spot so that it might be visited and receive pilgrimage in rivalry with the Kaaba.

When the unbelievers saw the idol lying humiliated, they were overwhelmed with grief and astonishment. It was then burned until it turned to lime, and fire was hurled into the palaces of the citadel, killing fifty thousand. Maḥmūd next set out to capture King Bahīm; they entered by boat, but he fled. The Sultan took several other forts and cities, and then returned to Ghazna, entering it on the eighth of Ṣafar in the year 417 AH. The surrounding kings submitted to him, and his absence had lasted one hundred and sixty-three days (1).