On The Causes Of Ghaznavid Dynasty’s Declining And Fall

Ghaznavid Dynasty (962-1186), was a military state established by the Central Asian Turkic slaves in the middle area of Afghanistan, set up its capital at the city of Ghazni (which had a variety of translations in Chinese), which lasted two hundred years. Taking the period which Mas’ ud III at the throne as a boundary, the history of Ghaznavid dynasty was primarily divide in early period and late period. In the early period, the sultans developed a series of appropriate domestic policies, and launched many conquer wars in adjacent area, which led the state towards prosperity. But it is a fact that everything has a tide and feudal state must face the fading process, the Ghaznavid dynasty is no exception. In the late period, the later sultans caught in a series of crisis such as succession struggle and the war with neighborhood-Ghaznavid-Selque dynasty war and Ghaznavid-Ghur war. In such a beleagued situations, it is difficult for the later sultans to deal with internal and external crisis, the state also collapsed inevitably.The Ghaznavid dynasty after the succession of Mas’ud Ⅲ (492-508/1109-1115) faced all kinds of domestic crisis. Politically, the disorder of succession system result in succession crisis, thus led to a chain of dependent tributaries rebellion and social unrest. On the economic level, the struggle with the Seljuk and the Ghur states made Ghaznavid lost Khwarezm and Transoxiana territory, shrinking the actual control territories of the dynasty, thus result in the decrease of tax sources and the difficulties of revenues. Suffering from a large number of war reparations and the trade disruptions around central Asia and the decrease of tributes, the Ghaznavid Dynasty’s economic crisis aggravated. On militarily issues, the Seljuk’s control of the Transoxiana territory cut off the trade contacts with the central Asian steppes of Ghaznavid dynasty, so that the slave trades between the two sides were affected. Short of amassive Turkish slave influx, the soldiers supplies were affected severely, which led to the state’s military crisis. The once invincible elephant force and superior strategic doctrine were defeated by the Seljuk and the Ghur at the time of the later sultans. In the face of domestic crisis, it was unable for sultans to take effective measures to solve them, the Ghaznavid collapsed inevitably.The later period, the dynasty also faced severe international crisis. The failure of competition with the Seljuk, on the one hand, turns the diplomatic relations between two states from equality to dependency, which aggravated the Ghaznavid dynasty’s domestic crisis. The interference of domestic issue; On the other hand, the crysis forced the Ghur survived on the margins of society to seek independence. Defeated by Ghur, sultan Khusrau Shahwas forced to abandon Afghanistan stronghold for a long time, and retreat to India. This retreat prevented subsequent sultans of Ghaznavid from returning to Ghazni, exercising sovereignty over a part of the country. On another hand, the rule on Afghanistan of Ghaznavid dynasty was replaced by Ghur. Hence the Turks of Afghanistan is no longer a nation and absorbed by other ethnic groups. As a tributary effect of aforementioned, their constant policies of India Rajas also had significant effects on the declining and fall of the state.Facing verities’ of crises at home and abroad, it is correct for any monarch of the feudal state to take effective measures to solve the contradiction, to consolidate power, and to maintain regime. However, the sultans in the late dynasty were trapped in the endless war, thus the only option of policies is to imitate the early period. But the internal and external situations had been changed.In a different environment, taking the same rule policy but not to obtain ideal measures, is a fault undoubtedly, and can’t get the ideal results. In the later Ghaznavid, sultans can’t take corresponding measures to govern the country, which will not solve the crises faced by the country inevitably and make the nation declining and falling. In the later, sultans were unable to deal with countries facing the internal and external contradictions correctly, which led to the perished. under the situation of domestic crisis and international crisis, the Ghaznavids was replaced by the Ghur dynasty in1186.