Mahmud of Ghazna Enters Rayy, 420

In the year 420 a letter reached Baghdad from Mahmud ibn Sabuktigin to the caliph. In it he describes his entry into Rayy in Jumada al-Ula, after leaving Isfahan, and what took place there: the surrender of the last of the Daylami amirs, the seizure of the leaders, and the burning of books. It is a conqueror's letter to his caliph, justifying the campaign. ¹

Mahmud writes in his letter that the people of Rayy had been tormented by the Daylam and so had called on him for help, and that Abu Talib Rustam ibn Ali ibn Fakhr al-Dawla surrendered by agreement. His banners entered the countryside of Rayy in the early morning of Monday, the sixteenth of Jumada al-Ula, with a large army. ²

His letter describes how the leaders of the Batiniyya were arrested, and the jurists issued rulings that their blood was forfeit; they were crucified at the crossroads, their property was divided, and their books were brought out. The books taken from a single city filled fifty camels, and the books of the Mu'tazila, the philosophers and the Rafida were burned beneath the afflicted (al-musabin). The valuables taken amounted to some five hundred thousand dinars and two hundred and sixty thousand dirhams, and Abu Talib, his son and the senior amirs were sent off to Khurasan. ³

With this conquest the effective rule of Majd al-Dawla in the Jibal came to an end. Mahmud closed his letter with a prayer: "May God remove the hands of the oppressors from this land and cleanse it of the call of the Batiniyya." These are the victor's words about his own reasons, and they are not to be read apart from those reasons. ⁴