Within a year or so, Muhammad suffered a devastating defeat at Andkhud against their Turkish rivals Khwarazmians aided by timely reinforcements from the Qara Khitais, which resulted in the Ghurid power ebbing out in most of the Khurasan.

[15] He used Kandahar as a base and raided the principality of Oghuzs multiple times, before defeating them decisively along with Ghiyath al-Din and followed up their victory by conquering Ghazni in 1169 along with some other territories in what is present-day eastern Afghanistan.

[25] Muhammad's expeditions in the Indian subcontinent started against the Qarmatians (sevener branch of Isma'ilis) who regained a foothold in Multan, soon after the death of Mahmud of Ghazni who installed a Sunni governor there.

[40][41] He, appointed Mulla Sirajuddin who was earlier a high-ranking Qāḍi in his father court, as the head of judicature department in the newly conquered Ghaznavid territories along with the charge of Multan.

His son Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani (born 1193) later composed the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri in 1260 which is regarded as a monumental work from the medieval period on the Ghurid dynasty and the Delhi Sultanate.

[45] A largely different account from Za'inul Masir claimed that Muhammad after being wounded in combat with Govindraja fell unconscious and his forces withdrew in disarray after assuming him to be dead, later a remnant of his soldiers arrived in the night and searched for his body at the battle site.

[48] The late medieval historian Ferishta further states on the testimony of folklore in Ghazni, that Muhammad vowed not to visit his royal harem and heal his wounds sustained in the battle till he avenged the humiliation of his defeat.

[54] Instead of engaging in direct confrontation as they did in the initial Battle of Tarain, the Ghurids adopted a strategy of deceit and diplomacy to overcome the Rajputs, as documented in Taj-ul Ma'asir by Hasan Nizami.

Upon Ghori's arrival on the battlefield, Prithviraj, the Rajput leader, purportedly sent a formal message suggesting a peaceful resolution, stating, "It would be wise for you to return to your homeland, and we have no intention of pursuing you."

[55] According to accounts from Hasan Nizami, Muhammad Ufi, and Firishta, it becomes evident that Ghori employed deception, and Prithviraj, considering it a genuine truce, accepted the proposal.

Juzjani attributed the success of the Ghurid army to the 10,000 elite mounted archers whom Muhammad stationed at a small distance from the elephant phalanx of the Rajput forces and which ultimately scattered the "infidel host".

[62][63] While, Muhammad continued to carry raids in the north Indian plain, although later he got preoccupied with the Ghurid expansion in Transoxiana against the Khwarezmian Empire as his brother Ghiyath al-Din began to have health problems.

Notwithstanding, Muhammad as per the writings of Fakhr-i Mudabbir and Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani, appointed Aibak as his administrator of the Ghurid domains in North India after the Second Battle of Tarain.

[64][65][66] His lieutenants - Qutb ud-Din Aibak, Bahauddin Tughril, Bakhtiyar Khalji and Yildiz before his assassination, swiftly raided the local kingdoms and expanded his empire in the Indian Subcontinent up to north-western parts of Bengal in east, Ajmer and Ranthambore (Rajasthan) in north and till the borders of Ujjain in south.

Following the battle, the Ghurids took the fort at Asni, where they plundered the royal treasure of the Gahadavalas, and went on to take the pilgrimage city of Varanasi, which was looted and a large number of its temples destroyed.

Meanwhile, in the affairs of Khurasan, Sultan Shah was defeated by his brother Ala al-Din Tekish in alliance with the Qara Khitai troops and the latter succeeded the throne of Khwarezm in December 1172.

The Ghurid siblings seized the opportunity and amidst the turmoil in the Khwarezmian house for succession, Muhammad and Ghiyath al-Din invaded and captured the oasis cities of Nishapur, Merv and Tus and reached as far as Gorgan.

However, he was chased on his way to Firuzkuh and was decisively defeated in the Battle of Andkhud in 1204 by the combined forces of Qara Khitai and Kara-Khanid Khanate under Taniku and Uthman ibn Ibrahim.

[93] After the disaster of Andkhud and the subsequent rumours of Muhammad's death in the battle led to widespread insurrections throughout the Ghurid Sultanate, most notably by Aibak Beg, Husain Kharmil and by the governor of Ghazni, Yildiz, as well.

[96] Thus, Muhammad successfully restored his empire to stability, after suppressing the mutineers and turned his attention towards the affairs of Central Asia again to avenge the rout at Andhkhud and to reclaim his holdings in Khurasan.

Accordingly, by July 1205, Muhammad's governor of Balkh besieged Tirmidh in the present-day Uzbekistan and captured the city following a short siege, destroying the Qara Khitai garrison stationed there and placed it under his son.

[97] Afterwards, Muhammad ordered his viceory in the Bamiyan Valley, Baha al-Din Sam II to construct a boat bridge and a castle across the river Oxus to facilitate the march of his armies in Transoxiana.

[103] After crushing the Khokhars, on his way back to his capital in Ghazni, Muhammad's caravan rested at Dhamiak near Sohawa (which is near the city of Jhelum in the Punjab province of modern-day Pakistan) where he was assassinated on March 15, 1206, by the Ismāʿīlī emissaries.

[105] The martyrdom of the sovereign of sea and land, Muizz-ud-din, From the beginning of the world the like of whom no monarch arose, On the third of the month Sha`ban in the year six hundred and two, Happened on the road to Ghazni at the halting-place of Damyak.

[130][131][82][83] The Catastrophe of Andkhud and the collapse of the Šansabānī dynasty within a decade of his assassination along with the rise of Genghis Khan who carved out the largest contiguous empire in history made his short-lived successes in the Khurasan and Persia as less consequential in contrast to the more substantial Islamic monarchs of Central Asia.

[134] His decisive victory in the Second Battle of Tarain against the Rajput forces of Prithviraja III laid to the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate by Qutb ud-Din Aibak which was further consolidated by his slave commander Illtutmish.

[135][136][137] In the ensuring times, the Sultanate of Delhi turned to be the only major Islamic state that survived amongst the carnage in the Central Asia caused by the Mongols during the thirteenth century.

According to Juzjani, Muhammad imposed heavy taxes, plundered and seized the property in Tus for the expanses of his army, which was committed for the protection of a Imam's shrine.

[148] The Ghurid coins in India except Bengal, continued on the same paradigm of pre-conquest with the existing Hindu iconography juxtaposed with the name of Muhammad written in Nāgarī, the script of northern Indian literate elites and not in the Arabic.

Finbarr Barry Flood commented on the notion of continuity of the pre-conquest arrangements in the numismatics as a pragmatic measure of Ghurids to met the economic realities in northern India.