Thread by @AbubakarTweets

This THREAD is a response to criticism on Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi by some so called experts on Indian history who declare Ghaznavi a plunderer and a hater of Hindus who launched his expeditions for communal reasons.
Self-Loathing has no cure perhaps.
Anyways, lets dig in!

Before Mahmood became the king of Ghazni, a Hindu ruler Jaipal of North India had already invaded Ghazni twice. Indian historian Romila Thapar, in her book 'Somanatha' wrote that Hindu Rajas frequently attacked Arab traders based in Ghazni and Hormuz and looted their wealth.

Romila Thapar also added that the Arab traders were often looted by the looters active in the coastal areas of India. These looters were known as Bairooj. There was continuous disturbance for the Ghazni based traders in India due to these circumstances even before Mahmood.

Thapar says,
"It seems that whenver the temples became centres of power concentration, they became targets of expeditions".

Somnath had become a centre of political power of Mahmood's rivals in India.

Romila Thapar on Ghaznavi's purpose of invasions,

"purpose of the raid was economic, perhaps even iconoclastic, but not communal."
Somanatha - The Many Voices of a History

When Ghaznavi met Jaipal, the ruler of North India, he had 15000 horsemen whereas Jaipal had 12,000 Horsemen, 30,000 Foot soldiers and 300 elephants. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Ghaznavi defeated Jaipal. He later released Jaipal and 15 of his relatives and generals.

Dr. Ishwari Prasad of Allahabad University writes regarding Mahmood, that an "objective investigator while keeping in mind the context of those times would agree that Mahmood was a great leader, an intelligent and honest ruler, a brave and just commander and a literature lover."

The only temples destroyed by Mahmood were during battles and thousands of other temples remained untouched by Mahmood because these temples had no strategic purpose and so Mahmood allowed Hindus to stick to their own religion and forced no conversion.

The Indian soldiers, which Romila Thapar presumed to be Hindus, were one of the components of Mahmood's military with their commander called sipahsalar-i-Hinduwan lived in their quarter of Ghazna practicing their own religion. Tilak Rai, a Hindu was a leader of that group.

Richard M. Eaton, a Historian from University of Arizona who specialises in Pre-Modern Indian History (1000-1800 AD) commenting on Mahmood's policies wrote that his attitude regarding other religions and non muslims was contrary to his image constructed in modern times today.