At a glance
- Era
- The Early Abbasid Caliphate
- Region
- South Asia
- Review
- Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it
In time
Sides
Commanders: Mahmud of Ghazna
Summary
In 418 AH a letter arrived from King Mahmud ibn Subuktakin reporting his conquest of lands in India and his breaking of Somnath 1.
The idol and its endowments
The idol and its people are described: they came to it from every deep valley and offered sacrifices to it. Its endowments grew to 10,000 villages, and the treasury of the idol was filled with money. It had a thousand servants, three hundred who shaved for its sake, and three hundred who sang 1.
The march and the defeat
Mahmud set out in Sha'ban 416 AH with 30,000 horsemen apart from the volunteers. He reached the town of the idol, took the idol and the land, and fires were lit around the idol until it broke apart. Fifty thousand people of the town were killed 1.
Connections
- Had participant
- Mahmud of Ghazna
People and things also explored
The Sa'diyya Madrasa of Nishapur· Mahmud of Ghazna Enters Rayy, 420· Al-Qadir's order of repentance for the Mu'tazila in Baghdad and Khurasan· Al-Qadir's recantation decree against the innovators (408 AH)· السلطان مسعود بن محمود الغزنوي· Mahmud of Ghazna
Sources
- Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali , p. 209
- al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-Muluk wa'l-Umam — Ibn al-Jawzi
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Mahmud of Ghazna breaks Somnath”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/somnath-raid-416/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.