Shahi

The Shahi dynasty ruled portions of eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, and northwestern India from the mid-ninth century to the early eleventh century. The Shahi were the last Hindu dynasty to rule Afghanistan and the western Punjab before the Muslim conquest of the tenth and eleventh centuries.

The Hindu Shahis owe their origins to Lalliya, a Brahmin minister in the service of Kabul's Buddhist kings. Lalliya took control of the state, which at its height extended from the Hindu Kush to the Himalaya, including Kabul and the Khyber Pass region of western Afghanistan, the Punjab region of northern India and Pakistan, and Himachal Pradesh in the Himalayas. Their kingdom was bounded on the north by the Hindu kingdom of Kashmir, on the east by Rajput kingdoms, on the south by the Muslim kingdom of Sind, and on the west by the Abbasid Caliphate. In 870, Kabul was captured by the Muslims, and the Shahi capital shifted east to Hund or Ohind, near Attock in the Punjab.

In the 980's, Sabuktigin, the Turkic ruler of Ghazni, defeated the Shahis and captured the Khyber Pass region as far as the Indus River. His son and successor, Mahmud of Ghazni, waged several campaigns against the Shahi, capturing most of the kingdom in 1008. The Shahi retained a small territory in the eastern Punjab until 1013, when it too was captured by Mahmud.

Shahi rulers

• Lalliya (c. 890-895)
• Kamaluka (895-921)
• Bhima (921-960), son of Kamaluka
• Jayapala (died 1001)
• Anandapala (1001-c.1010), son of Jayapala
• Trilochanapala (ruled c.1010-1013; died in exile in Kashmir)