Also in that year:
Sultan Sanjar fought the Ghurid ruler ʿAlaʾ al-Din al-Ḥusayn b. al-Ḥusayn,⦗1⦘ the first of their kings. Sanjar defeated him and took him captive. When the prisoner was brought before him, Sanjar asked, “What would you have done with me had you captured me?” ʿAlaʾ al-Din produced a silver fetter and replied, “I would have bound you with this.” Sanjar pardoned him and sent him back to his lands.

ʿAlaʾ al-Din then marched on Ghazna, wrested it from its ruler Bahram Shah al-Sabuktikini, and appointed his own brother Sayf al-Din in his stead. The townspeople betrayed the brother, handed him over to Bahram Shah, and Bahram crucified him. Bahram Shah died soon afterward, whereupon ʿAlaʾ al-Din advanced once more; Bahram’s son Khusraw fled, and ʿAlaʾ al-Din entered the city. He plundered it for three days, killed a great many of its inhabitants,⦗2⦘ and enslaved the rest. The captives were compelled to carry earth in sacks⦗3⦘ to a distant quarter, where a fortress—still known today—was built from that soil. Thus the Sabuktikin dynasty came to an end in Ghazna and elsewhere.⦗4⦘

Their rule had begun in 366 AH and lasted until 547 AH. They were among the finest of kings, the most zealous in waging jihad against the unbelievers, and the richest in wealth, women, troops, and equipment. They smashed idols, annihilated infidels, and amassed riches no other monarchs had gathered, though their lands were among the most fertile, with abundant fields and water. Yet all of it vanished from them, in fulfillment of the divine word: “Say: ‘O Allah, Owner of all sovereignty, You grant sovereignty to whom You will and You remove sovereignty from whom You will; You honor whom You will and You humble whom You will. In Your hand is all good; indeed, You are over all things competent.’” (Al ʿImran 3:26)

The Ghurids thereafter took possession of India and Khurasan; their realms expanded and their power became mighty.

Ibn al-Jawzi relates in al-Muntaẓam⦗5⦘ that during this very year a rooster laid a single egg, a goshawk laid two eggs, and an ostrich without a mate laid eggs as well—an astonishing occurrence.

Among the notable deaths of the year was al-Muẓaffar b. Ardashir, Abū Manṣūr al-ʿAbbādī,⦗6⦘ the preacher. He studied hadith, came to Baghdad, dictated traditions and delivered sermons.⦗7⦘ He would write down his sermons, and volumes accumulated from them.