and secured authority, adopting the honorific “Leader of the State” in 441 AH. Barakah’s rule proved short-lived; he died at the close of 443 AH. After him king Abū al-Maʿālī Quraysh ibn Badrān ibn Muqallid took power, released his uncle, and put him to the sword in cold blood in Rajab 444 AH. (1)
Others, however, maintain that he died a natural death.
Quraysh then consolidated his position, joined al-Basāsīrī, and plundered the Caliphal palace. The plague carried him off in 453 AH while he was still in his middle years. His son Sharaf al-Dawlah Muslim ibn Quraysh succeeded him; his authority grew formidable, and he brought al-Jazīrah and Aleppo under his sway. He besieged Damascus and came within a hair’s breadth of taking it, exacted tribute from Byzantine territory, and when the people of Harran rebelled against him in 476 AH he defeated them and executed their judge. Beloved by the subjects yet held in awe, he habitually distributed the entire jizya to the descendants of Abū Ṭālib, and he built the wall of Mosul.
428
The lord of Ghazna and India
Mawdūd ibn Masʿūd ibn Maḥmūd ibn Subuktigīn
Sultan Mawdūd, son of Sultan Masʿūd ibn Maḥmūd ibn Subuktigīn, was a bold and courageous warrior. His reign lasted eight years. He died in Rajab 441 AH at the age of twenty-nine, in Ghazna. His uncle ʿAbd al-Rashīd was then brought out of prison, placed on the throne, and granted the title “Sword of the State.”