The Ghaznavids

The Ghaznavid emirate was established in Afghanistan in the late tenth century AD, out of the disintegrating rule of the Samanid emirs. Various local rulers around Afghanistan and in Baluchistan were brought under Ghaznavid control and a conglomerate empire was constructed out of tribes and sedentary states in Transoxania. The high point of Ghaznavid power was under the reign of Emir Mahmud, 998 to 1030, who expanded his territories by military conquest until it stretched from Azerbaijan in the west to the Ganges valley of northern India in the east.