In the year 418 AH he marched on Balkh and sent his army across the river to aid the Khāniyya. ʿAlī ibn Tikin (1) had raided Bukhārā, leaving Qadarkhān at his wits’ end, so he appealed to Maḥmūd. Ibn Tikin fled and vanished into the wilderness.

Maḥmūd then fought the Ghuzz and captured Ibn Saljūq, their chieftain. The Ghuzz rose up, spread havoc, devoted themselves to mischief, and the common folk grew weary as evil gained the upper hand. Maḥmūd stayed for a time in Nīshāpūr; then, in 420 AH, he marched on Rayy, took it, and arrested its ruler, Majd al-Dawla ibn Būyah, a man of feeble judgment. Maḥmūd had him beaten until he produced one million dinars, crucified several Daylamite emirs, and a host of outrages and injustices followed (2).

Maḥmūd next dispatched his son Masʿūd, who seized Iṣfahān. The Sultan returned to Ghazna ill and died in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the year 421 AH. By nightfall the troops had deserted him, the banners drooped in mourning, father and child lamented him, and he settled into the darkness of the grave.

The Friday sermon was pronounced in his name in Ghūr, Khurāsān, Sind, India, the Khwārazm region, and Balkh—which counts as part of Khurāsān—as well as in Jürjān, Ṭabaristān, Rayy, the Jibāl, Iṣfahān, Ādharbayjān, Hamadān, and Armenia.

He honoured his commanders and comrades, but when he took offence he acted at once. Tireless, he could scarcely remain seated.

On one occasion he set out with fifty thousand cavalry, two hundred elephants, and forty thousand jamāza (swift baggage camels) carrying the army’s equipment (3).

He revered the Caliph, humbled himself before his majesty, and would forward to him qintārs of gold. He was an implacable foe of the Qarmaṭians, the Ismāʿīlīs, and the mutakallimūn (speculative theologians), on account of a certain innovation attributed to him—so it was said—and he would grow angry.