Hindu Shahis in the context of "Pakistan"

The Turk Shahis were a dynasty of Western Turk, or mixed Turco-Hephthalite origin, that ruled from Kabul and Kapisa to Gandhara in the 7th to 9th centuries AD. They may have been of Khalaj ethnicity. The Gandhara territory may have been bordering the Kashmir kingdom to the east. From the 560s, the Western Turks had gradually expanded southeasterward from Transoxonia, and occupied Bactria and the Hindu Kush region, forming largely independent polities. The Turk Shahis may have been a political extension of the neighbouring Western Turk Yabghus of Tokharistan. In the Hindu Kush region, they replaced the Nezak Huns – the last dynasty of Bactrian rulers with origins among the Xwn (Xionite) and/or Huna peoples (who are sometimes also referred to as "Huns" who invaded Eastern Europe during a similar period).

The Turk Shahis arose at a time when the Sasanian Empire had already been conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate. The Turk Shahis then resisted for more than 250 years the eastward expansion of the Abbasid Caliphate, until they fell to the Persian Saffarids in the 9th century AD. The Ghaznavids then finally broke through into India after overpowering the declining subsequent Hindu Shahis and Gurjaras.

Abu Mansur Nasir ad-Din wa'd-Dawla Sabuktigin (Persian: ابومنصور ناصرالدین والدوله سبکتگین; c. 940s – August-September 997) was the founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty, and amir of Ghazna from 977 to 997. Sabuktigin was a Turkic slave who was bought by Alp-Tegin, the commander of the royal guard of the Samanid dynasty. Alp-Tegin established himself as the governor of Ghazna in 962, and died a year later in 963. Afterwards, Sabuktigin built his prestige among other slave soldiers in Ghazna until he was elected by them as their ruler in 977.

Sabuktigin expanded his rule down to south of present-day Afghanistan and north of Balochistan. Through conflicts with the Hindu Shahi dynasty of Kabul, he invaded Indian lands, opening the gates of India for the future monarchs of his dynasty. As a vassal of the Samanid Empire, he answered Nuh II's call to help regarding Abu Ali Simjuri's rebellion, defeating the latter in several battles during 994 to 996. Towards the end of his life, Sabuktigin arranged an agreement with the Kara-Khanid Khanate, Samanids' rivals, to partition Nuh's realm between themselves. However, before he could realize this agreement, he died on his way to Ghazna on August-September 997.

Peshawar is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the eighth-most populous Pakistani city, with a population of over 1.9 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, lying in the Valley of Peshawar, a broad area situated east of the Khyber Pass.

Peshawar's recorded history dates back to at least sixth century BC, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in South Asia. One of the principal cities of the ancient Gandhara, Peshawar served as the capital of the Kushan Empire during the rule of Kanishka the Great, in the second century CE. A variety of Muslim empires ruled the city following the conquest of Peshawar by the Ghaznavids from the Hindu Shahis, in 1001 CE. It was an important trading centre in the Mughal Empire, later serving as the winter capital of the Durrani Empire from 1776 until the capture of the city by the Sikh Empire in 1823. In 1849, the city was captured by the East India Company and subsequently became part of British Raj. In 1901, Peshawar became capital of the North-West Frontier Province after it was created from the northwestern districts of Punjab Province. Following the Partition of British India it became part of Pakistan, in 1947.