Masʽud I

Masʽud I of Ghazni (Persian: مسعود غزنوی), known as Amīr-i Shahīd (امیر شهید; "the martyr king") (b.

He rose to power by seizing the Ghaznavid throne from his younger twin Mohammad, who had been nominated as the heir upon the death of their father Mahmud of Ghazni.

Mas'ud later participated in the campaigns of his father in Jibal, where they managed to annex the Buyid amirate of Ray which was then under the rule of Majd al-Dawla.

After Mas'ud's father left the region, Mas'ud was in charge of the Ghaznavid operations in western Iran; he continued his campaigns further west, where he managed to defeat the Kakuyid ruler Muhammad ibn Rustam Dushmanziyar, who made a treaty where he agreed to recognize Ghaznavid authority.

However, his uncle Yusuf ibn Sabuktigin, and the Ghaznavid army including prominent officers such as Ali Daya, were in favor of Mas'ud, whose military campaigns had earned him a great reputation.

[1] Mas'ud was also joined by his former assistant Abu Sahl Zawzani, who in the words of the historian Yusofi, "became a sort of vizier and rose in prestige and influence.

[2] Nevertheless, in order to further strengthen his army, Mas'ud recruited a group of Turkmens which were head by their chiefs Yaghmur, Qizil, Bogha and Goktash.

[5] He also suspected the majority of his father's officers of treachery, and even had his own uncle Yusuf and the powerful statesman Ali ibn Il-Arslan imprisoned.

The same year, in order to keep control over his unreliable vassal, the Kakuyid ruler Muhammad, Mas'ud I appointed Abu Sahl Hamduwi as the governor of Jibal.

Mas'ud then marched towards Jibal, where he once again defeated the Kakuyid ruler Muhammad, who fled to the Buyids of Ahvaz, and then to northwestern Iran, where he raised a Turkmen army.

[13] Mas'ud had a son named Maw'dud Ghaznavi, who later avenged his father by killing Mohammad, and then crowned himself as the new ruler of the Ghaznavid Empire.

Coinage of Mas'ud I of Ghazni, derived from Hindu Shahi designs, with the name of Mas'ud ( Persian : مسعود ) around the head of the horserider.
Artwork of the Battle of Dandanaqan