Then came the year 418 AH.
In Rabīʿ al-Awwal a hail-storm fell that ruined a vast quantity of crops and fruit and killed great numbers of sheep and wild animals. Ibn al-Jawzī (1) said: “It was reported that every hailstone weighed two ratls and more; in Wāsiṭ a single hailstone weighed several ratls, and in Baghdad they were the size of eggs.”
In Rabīʿ al-Thānī the Isfahsalāriyya guards and the caliphal pages asked the caliph to remove Abū Kalijār because of his negligence of their affairs and the disorder that had spread under his rule, and to appoint Jalāl al-Dawla over them instead—the very man they had rejected the first time. The caliph procrastinated, writing to Abū Kalijār to set his affairs in order and hurry back to Baghdad before the matter slipped from his grasp. But the guards pressed the caliph about Jalāl al-Dawla, the Friday sermon in Baghdad was delivered in his name, the crisis deepened and the administration collapsed.
That same year a letter arrived from Yamīn al-Dawla Maḥmūd ibn Subuktikīn stating that he had also entered the lands of India and had smashed their greatest idol, called Somanāt. Pilgrims used to come to it from every distant valley and spend enormous sums there; 10,000 well-known villages were endowed for its upkeep, its treasuries were overflowing with wealth, and 1,000 men served it. Three hundred barbers shaved the heads of its pilgrims, while 350 singers and dancers performed at its gate, where drums and trumpets were beaten in its honor. Thousands of residents lived in its precincts, living off its endowments, and people in the remotest parts of India yearned simply to reach it. The servant—meaning King Maḥmūd ibn Subuktikīn—had long wished to uproot this idol, but the length of the deserts and the multitude of obstacles had delayed him. He then performed istikhāra, braved those terrors with an army of 30,000 chosen troops, not counting the volunteers, and Allah kept them safe until “we reached the land of that idol and encamped in the courtyard of its worshipers—an enclosure the size of a great city. Before long we conquered it, killed 50,000 of its people, uprooted the idol and lit a fire beneath it. Praise be to Allah.”
More than one source relates that the Indians offered vast sums of money to King Maḥmūd ibn Subuktikīn to leave them this greatest idol. Some commanders advised him to accept that enormous wealth, but he said, “I must first seek Allah’s guidance.” The next morning he declared, “I have reflected on this matter and realized that when I am called on the Day of Resurrection and it is proclaimed, ‘Where is Maḥmūd who smashed the idol?’ that is dearer to me than that it be said, ‘Where is Maḥmūd who spared the idol for what he gained of this world?’” He then resolved upon it and shattered the idol.