MAHMUD'S SUCCESSORS 37 them from Samarkand to the shores of the J^gean, has no bearing on the present subject, except in so far as their brilliant career of conquest cut off. all Mahmud's Persian possessions in less than ten years after the Idol-breaker had passed away from the scene of his triumphs. By 1038 Tugh- ril Beg the Seljuk was pro- claimed king of Khorasan, and when Mahmud's son, Mas'ud, at last awakened to the danger of the shep- herd clans, whose presence he had tolerated within his borders, and marched in 1040 to subdue the rebels, he was utterly defeated at Dandanakan near Merv, and thenceforward Persia was lost to the house of Ghazni. The barrier thus set up on the west, whilst it bounded the ambitions of Mahmud's successors, did not immediately throw them into the far more valuable provinces of India. They continued to hold the Pan jab, the only part of his Indian conquests that was perma- nently annexed, but even there their authority was uncertain, and when it was strongest under a firm governor there was most risk of separation. A capable Turkish amir who had witnessed the successful rise of A TYPICAL TURKMAN.
