In fact, the foundations of an independent Ghaznavid power, which was to be erected into a mighty empire by Sebiik-Tegin's son Mahmtid, were firmly laid in his time. The economic stability of the Turkish soldiery in Ghazna was helped by reforms in the system of land grants or iqta's on which they had settled in the surrounding countryside. The Turks' power radiated out from Ghazna over the region of Zabulistan in eastern Afghanistan. Zabulistan was basically Iranian in population, and it played a notable part in Iranian epic lore, especially in that aspect of it concerned with the hero Rustam-i Zal; in the 5 th/ n t h century, the popular traditions of Zabulistan were worked up by Asadi Tusi into his epic of the Garshdsp-ndma. Before the coming of Alp-Tegin, it is probable that this region was only imperfectly Islamized; certainly, paganism persisted in the inaccessible region of Ghur in central Afghanistan well into the 5th/11nth century. Sebiik-Tegin endeavoured to conciliate local feeling by marrying the daughter of one of the nobles of Zabulistan; it was from this union that Mahmud (sometimes referred to in the sources as Mahmud-i Zawuli) was born.
The group of Turks in Ghazna was a small one, set down in an hostile environment, and a dynamic policy of expansion may have seemed to Sebuk-Tegin the best way to ensure its survival. Soon after his assumption of power, Sebuk-Tegin moved against the rival group of Turkish ghulams in Bust and overthrew Baituz, at the same time adding Qusdar (sc. northeastern Baluchistan) to his possessions. As a result of the Bust expedition, Sebiik-Tegin acquired the services of one of the greatest literary men of the age, Abu'-Fath Busti, formerly secretary to Baituz; the composition of his new master's fath-ndmas, proclamations of victory, and the organization of a Ghaznavid chancery, were now undertaken by Abu'-Fath.
Most significant, however, for the future history of the Ghaznavids were the beginnings of expansion towards the plains of India. The ddr al-kufr, land of unbelief, began not far to the east of Ghazna. The Kabul river valley is geographically an extension of the river system of the northern Indian plain; it was often part of the Indian cultural and religious world too, and Buddhism and Hinduism both left their mark there in pre-Islamic times. In the 4th/ioth century, the lower Kabul valley, as far west as Lamghan and Kabul itself, was the centre of the powerful Hindushahi dynasty of Waihind (near the modern Attock, at the confluence of the Indus and Kabul rivers), and these rulers barred the way for Muslim expansion into northern India. For Sebuk-Tegin and his followers, the situation resembled that familiar from Transoxiana. Here too there were frontier fortresses like Ghazna and Gardiz facing a pagan land, but with the difference that the plains of India promised an infinitely richer plunder than the bare Central Asian steppes had ever yielded. It is likely that Sebiik-Tegin's first clashes with the Hindushahis were, at least in part, defensive measures; we have noted above that the Hindushahis were related to the dispossessed Lawiks of Ghazna, and on more than one occasion, they supplied help from Kabul to the Lawiks. At some time around 367/986-7 there was sharp fighting in the Kabul-Lamghan region, in which the Hindushahl Raja was finally defeated, enabling Sebiik-Tegin to advance down the Kabul river towards Peshawar and implant the first seeds of Islam there.
Ghaznavids: the Powerful Turkish Dynasty in Medieval Persia
