76 
A History of the GaW luirs. 
[No. 1, 
accompanied with accounts of their great and increasing power, 
so that he considered it his duty, first to repulse these people and 
punish them severely before detaching his forces to any other 
quarter. For this reason Shihabuddin gave up for the present 
the idea of proceeding to Khata. 
On the 5th of Kabi’-ulawwal of the same year, Sultan Shihab¬ 
uddin returned towards Ghazni, and when after some days he 
arrived at Pashawar, he learned that the Gakk’hars had taken up 
a position between the Jhelam and Siidrak (Chanab) with a large 
army. Having marched from Pashawar on Thursday the 25th of 
the said month, he attacked them unexpectedly, and the battle 
lasted from morning till the afternoon of that day. The Gakk’hars 
fought so valiantly, that the Sultan with all his kingly power and 
resources was very near being compelled to retreat; but in the 
meantime Qutbuddin Aibag arriving with the army of Hindu¬ 
stan, began to make havoc among the Gakk’hars, and as his 
forces were fresh and vigorous, the Gakk’hars were soon overpower¬ 
ed and had recourse to flight. The Muhammadans pursuing dealt 
slaughter among them in a manner which defies all descrip¬ 
tion. They set fire to their retreat on all sides, and the in¬ 
fidels entering into a solemn covenant not to surrender themselves 
into the hands of the Muhammadans, threw themselves into the fire. 
In this manner all of them who had taken refuge in the woods, 
perished. When the attention of the Sultan was relieved of the 
anxiety occasioned by these transactions, he marched towards 
Labor, and gave leave to his soldiers to return to their homes 
ordering them to march towards Khata after a few days repose.* 1 
As long as the Sultan remained at Labor, the Gakk’hars, who 
possessed the country between the Indus and the base of the Siwalik 
mountains, gave much trouble to the Muhammadans, who were un¬ 
able to travel in the Panjab on their account. The Gakk’hars had 
no religion, and they thought it very meritorious to treat Mu¬ 
hammadans in a cruel manner. 
On one occasion the Gakk’hars took a Muhammadan captive. This 
Musalman mentioned to them the principal points of the Muham¬ 
madan faith. The chiefs of the Gakk’hars approving of the religion, 
* Tankh-i-Alfi, Elliot’s Index to Muhammadan Historians, page 15S. 
