High Middle Ages · South Asia · War

1151

Ala al-Din Husayn sacks Ghazni

1151

The Ghurid sultan, burning with vengeance for his brother's murder at Ghaznavid hands, descended from his mountain stronghold with an army and set the great city of Ghazni ablaze for seven consecutive days and nights. The legendary Ghaznavid capital - once the proudest gem of the Islamic east under the patronage of Sultan Mahmud - was reduced to charred rubble and ash, earning its destroyer the terrible epithet Jahansuz, World-Burner.