User:Kansas Bear/Battle of Peshawar(1001)

Battle of Peshawar, was fought on 28 November 1001 between the Ghaznavid army of Sultan Mahmud bin Sebuktigin and the Hindu Shahi army of Jayapala. Jayapala was decisively defeated and forced to pay an annual tribute to Mahmud and was returned to Lahore.

Background
In 962, Alp Tigin, a Turkish ghulam or slave soldier, who rose to be the commander of the army in Khorasan in the service of the Samanids, seized Ghazna and set himself up as a ruler there. A successor Sebuk Tigin started to expand vigorously his domain, first capturing Kandahar, then began a struggle with the Hindu Shahi kingdom. The Hindu Shahi ruler Jayapala attacked Sebuk Tigin, but was defeated, then again later when his army of a reported size of over 100,000 was beaten. Lamghan was plundered, and Kabul and Jalalabad were annexed by the Ghaznavids. In 997, Mahmud ascended the throne at Ghazni, and vowed to invade India every year until the northern lands were his. In 1001 he arrived at Peshawar. This battle was the first major battle between Mahmud of Ghazni and the Shahi kingdom and was well recorded by the historian al-Utbi in his book, Tarikh Yamini.

Battle
According to Al-Utbi's Takikh Yamini Mahmud pitched his tent outside the city upon reaching Peshawar. Jayapala avoided action for some time waiting for reinforcement, and Mahmud took the decision to attack, and the army of Jayapala was decisively defeated. According to some sources, Jayapala was captured, and figures of death ranged from 5,000 to 15,000.

Aftermath
Jayapala felt the defeat to be a great humiliation, and later he built himself a funeral pyre, entered it and set it on fire.