Talk - Ghaznavids between Iran and India November 7, 2008

Talk - Ghaznavids Between Iran and India: Institutional and Cultural Aspects of India's first Sultanate (991-1186 AD).
Speaker: Mr. George Malagaris from the Dept. of History, Columbia University and AIIS Junior Research Fellow.

The Ghaznavids raided northwest India at the start of the 10th century and maintained a capital in Lahore until the end of the 12th century. They are typically viewed as the ultimate Islamic Turkic warriors who initiated a wave of fanaticism and repression in India. This lecture, based on primary sources and the latest international scholarship, aims at a more nuanced and realistic picture. It will address some of the economic motives for Ghaznavid raids in light of the silver crisis of medieval Central Asia and Iran.

Chair: Prof. Saiyid Zaheer Hussain Jafri, Head, Dept. of History, University of Delhi.

First in a new series of lectures being organised in collaboration with American Institute of Indian Studies.