~Conquest of Delhi.~--For a century and a quarter after the death of Mahmud in 1030 A.D. his line maintained its sway over a much diminished empire. In 1155 the Afghan chief of Ghor, Ala ud din, the "World-burner" (Jahan-soz), levelled Ghazni with the ground. For a little longer the Ghaznevide Turkish kings maintained themselves in Lahore. Between 1175 and 1186 Muhammad Ghori, who had set up a new dynasty at Ghazni, conquered Multan, Peshawar, Sialkot, and Lahore, and put an end to the line of Mahmud. The occupation of Sirhind brought into the field Prithvi Raja, the Chauhan Rajput king of Delhi. In 1191 he routed Muhammad Ghori at Naraina near Karnal. But next year the Afghan came back with a huge host, and this time on the same battlefield fortune favoured him. Prithvi Raja was taken and killed, and Muhammad's slave, Kutbuddin Aibak, whom he left to represent him in India, soon occupied Delhi. In 1203 Muhammad Ghori had to flee for his life after a defeat near the Oxus. The Ghakkars seized the chance and occupied Lahore. But the old lion, though wounded, was still formidable. The Ghakkars were beaten, and, it is said, converted. A year or two later they murdered their conqueror in his tent near the Indus. ~Turkish and Afghans Sultans of Delhi.~--He had no son, and his strong viceroy, Kutbuddin Aibak, became in 1206 the first of the 33 Muhammadan kings, who in five successive dynasties ruled from Delhi a kingdom of varying dimensions, till the last of them fell at Panipat in 1526, and Babar, the first of the Moghals, became master of their red fort palace. The blood-stained annals of these 320 years can only be lightly touched on. Under vigorous rulers like the Turki Slave kings, Altamsh (1210-1236) and Balban (1266-1287), a ferocious and masterful boor like Ala ud din Khalji (1296-1316), or a ferocious but able man of culture like Muhammad Tughlak (1325-1351), the local governors at Lahore and Multan were content to be servants. In the frequent intervals during which the royal authority was in the hands of sottish wastrels, the chance of independence was no doubt seized.