In this year, a letter from Yamin al-Dawla Mahmud b. Sebüktegin arrived in Baghdad. In his letter, he enumerated the places he had conquered in India a year earlier, stating that he had entered a city in India where there were 1,000 fortified palaces and 1,000 idol houses (temples). He reported that there were a great number of idols there, that the gold ornaments on the idols amounted to 100,000 dinars, that there were more than 1,000 idols made of silver, and that there was also a very large idol present. He further conveyed that, due to their ignorance, the people claimed that this idol had been there for 300,000 years. Mahmud b. Sebüktegin stated that they had taken all these and countless other things as spoils, that the mujāhidīn (those who strive in the path of God) had seized a great deal of property as booty in this expedition, that they had burned the city from end to end so that only ruins remained, that the number of Indians they killed reached 50,000, that about 20,000 Indians became Muslims, that the number of slaves taken as one-fifth of the captives was 53,000, that they captured 356 elephants, and that they obtained 20,000,000 dirhams and a large amount of gold.
In the month of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of this year, the decree of appointment for Abū'l-Fawāris was read. He was given the title Qiwām al-Dawla. Robes of honor were also bestowed upon him. He was appointed governor of Kirmān. In this year, no one from Iraq was able to perform the pilgrimage (ḥajj).
Famous Figures Who Died in the Four Hundred and Tenth Year of the Hijra
Aḥmad b. Mūsā b. Murdawayh
Aḥmad b. Mūsā b. Murdawayh b. Fūrak. His kunya was Abū Bakr. He was from Isfahan. He was a ḥadīth memorizer (ḥāfiẓ). He died in the month of Ramaḍān of this year.