MAHMUD

born 971 died April 30?, 1030, Ghazna in full Yamin Al-daula Abu'l-qasim Mahmud Ibn Sebktigin sultan of the kingdom of Ghazna (9981030), originally comprising modern Afghanistan and northeastern modern Iran but, through his conquests, eventually including northwestern India and most of Iran. He transformed his capital, Ghazna, into a cultural centre rivalling Baghdad. Additional reading Wolseley Haig in The Cambridge History of India, vol. 3 (1965), provides a reliable account of the Ghaznavid period. Ramesh Majumdar et al., An Advanced History of India, 3rd ed. (1967), includes a short sketch of this period. See also the relevant chapters in A Cultural History of Afghanistan by Mohammed Ali (1964); and S.M. Ikram and Percival Spear, The Cultural Heritage of Pakistan (1955).