[933-1094 A.D.]
The Buyids, who had taken possession of Persia in 933, and were all-powerful in Irak-Arabia and Baghdad, did not continue to shine for so long a period as the Fatimites, but their era was ushered in a little earlier. During the last half of the tenth century, after the Turkish militia had been destroyed and the Hamdamites driven from Jezira and Mosul, the Buyids were without rivals in Asia, and the continuance of peace permitted them to carry on the work begun by Al-Mamun. Two of their princes, Adhud ad-Daula and Sharaf ad-Daula, revived the taste for literature by themselves becoming authors, and to them is due the credit of restoring upon a sound basis the school of Baghdad, which during their reign was to produce so many learned men. Adhud ad-Daula did not rest content with showering benefits on poets and scholars; he caused engineers of the highest merit to sink the bed of the river Bendemir in Persia, thus preventing the inundations which were so frequent and disastrous near Shiraz, and furnishing an improved water-way for commerce. A magnificent hospital was erected at Baghdad, and at its inauguration a festival was given which is still famous in the annals of the East. Unfortunately the Buyids succeeded no better than the caliphs in transmitting their power to their descendants by means of fixed laws; they actually paved the way for the dismemberment of the empire they had founded, and laid it open to revolution and disaster by the impolitic manner in which they distributed its provinces and dependencies among their children.
The dominion of the Samanids, after lasting for more than a century, came to an end at about the same time. Alp Tegin, a Turkish slave who had risen to a position of dignity under Abdul-Malik, failed in his attempt to get the reins of power into his own hands at the death of that monarch, and fled to Ghazni, where he gradually assumed control of public affairs, and for sixteen years successfully resisted all efforts of the Samanids to overthrow him.
Subuktigin, the wise general and councillor who succeeded him in 995, carried the Moslem faith and arms into India, ravaging the Punjab, founding the cities of Bast and Kasdar and defending the Samanids against the Turks who were invading the Mawarannahar. He designated his youngest son, Ismail, to succeed him; but the eldest, Mahmud, at the head of an armed force, proclaimed himself an independent sovereign and became rich with the plunder of India. He defeated the Samanids without difficulty and became master of Khorasan in 1000, thus extending as far as the Caspian Sea an empire that began at the Indus and Ganges and embraced the territories known to-day as Afghanistan, Herat, and Baluchistan. Mahmud was the first of the oriental princes to assume the title of sultan. Ghazni was his capital, hence the name “Ghaznevid” given him by historians, and the cities of Kanaiy, Lahore, and Delhi in India, where the greatest renown was gained, paid him tribute. He further devastated the kingdom of Guzerat and destroyed the pagoda of Somnath, the magnificence of which defies description. Two thousand Brahmans were employed in the service of this temple, and its idol was formed of a single stone fifty cubits high. Immense sums were offered to Mahmud as a ransom for this idol, which was the most revered in Hindustan, but he inexorably refused them all.
[852-1055 A.D.]
While Mahmud’s troops were swarming over India, Mawarannahar fell into the power of the tribes of Turkestan. The sultan committed the error of allowing these enemies to remain, and himself introduced into his dominions the Seljuk Turks, who had recently been converted to Islam, and demanded grants of land in Khorasan. Masud, who succeeded his father in 1028, tried to rid himself of these formidable neighbours, but was defeated and could do no more thereafter than remain on the defensive. Toghril Beg, grandson of Seljuk, soon gained a second victory more decisive than the first over the Ghaznevids and drove them back towards India. Turning westward he invaded Khawarizm, Jorjan, Irak-Djeni, and then invaded the dominions of the Buyid princes.
The greatest disorder reigned at Baghdad. To escape the troubles by which he was beset, the caliph Kaim had placed himself under the protection of Toghril Beg, and relinquished the temporal power over all the states of Islam to that prince, who had made great display of piety by erecting temples to Mohammed in all the conquered cities. The ceremony of the investiture took place in Baghdad. After kissing the dust before the caliph, who was clothed in the black garments of the Abbasids, Toghril Beg ascended the throne that had been especially prepared for him and received upon his head the two crowns which signified his sovereignty over the double realm of Persia and Arabia. To further cement this union of the East with the West, the sister of Toghril Beg was given to the caliph in marriage, and the title of sultan was introduced in the khotba, or official prayer.
No sooner had the Turks withdrawn, however, than a general uprising took place at Baghdad, and Abu Temim Mustansir, the Fatimite ruler of Egypt, was proclaimed caliph in place of Kaim. True to his conciliatory policy the sultan came to the rescue of the imprisoned Abbasid prince and replaced him on the throne.
While the Arab predominance was being destroyed little by little, the Greeks were making renewed efforts to regain some of the colonies they had lost. As early as 852 their fleets had carried destruction to the town of Damietta, and a century later they had penetrated as far as Aleppo and had pillaged the treasures of Saif ad-Daula, the Hamdanite prince. Two of their emperors, Nicephorus and Zimisces (963-976), had crossed the Euphrates and made Jezireh swarm with their troops, while a great many strongholds had been reconquered as well as the country Cilicia and the island of Cyprus.
Incapable as they were of resisting the incursions of the Greeks, how were the Baghdad caliphs to check the advance of the warrior hordes of Turkestan, whom the Seljuks had gathered under their banner by the promise of spoils to be gained in the lands they were to conquer? The scattered tribes which the Samanids had easily repulsed in 893 were now united under one chief and formed a mighty force that, sweeping down all obstacles, was to subjugate the whole of western Asia and maintain its supremacy there for centuries to come.