A Phoney Grave
A Sultan in Absentia
A Ghauri Misfired
___
Taking G.T.Road from Rawalpindi few furlongs short of the station of Sohawa, due left, a tiny road branches off into the wilderness called Dhamiak
A board announces that it leads to the Tomb of one Shahab-ud-Din Ghauri

Plying on tiny offshoot purpose built to drive to the tomb we reach an extravagant structure, a fairly modern construction
Introductory plaques in English & Urdu give a brief rundown, then tell us that our Ghauri Sultan was treacherously assassinated here with his three guards

Aside under shade are three neatly aligned graves of anonymous guards
Inside main tomb styled as shrine a white marble grave
announces, Sultan Shahabuddin Ghauri, Fateh Hind rests here
Back in 2014, I and @QaisarM01022464 had offered Fateha
we believed our Sultan was buried here

Headstone bears a Persian quatrain

martyrdom of sovereign of sea & land Mu'izz-ud-Din
from beginning of world like of whom no monarch arose
on third of the month Sha'ban in year 602
happened on road to Ghaznin at halting place of Dam-yak

this comes straight from Tabqat e Nasiri

Tabqat e Nasiri of Minhaj-ud-Din Siraj is a fairly reliable account of Ghaurid Kings of Afghanistan
Our Sultan Muizz-ud-Din Muḥammad ibn Sam a.k.a Shahab-ud-Din Muḥammad Ghauri had conquered area upto North India and is regarded as one of the founders of Muslim rule in India

The book gives us a rundown on Muizz-ud-Din who had Lahore by 1186 CE
While fighting a Rajput alliance under Prithvi Raj Chauhan our Sultan tasted defeat
The very next year 1192 CE he bagged a victory against the same alliance
So much for the battles, let's head back to Dhamiak

Minhaj-ud-Din Siraj writes about the fateful journey
"When he set out towards Ghaznin, in year 602 H. at the halting-place of Dam-yak, he attained martyrdom at the hand of a disciple of Mulahidah"
Majority of sources mention Dhamiak as the site of attack where now the tomb stands

Tabqat blames the attack on heretics
Jami-ut-Tawarikh says it was conspired by Sultan of Khwarzam with Imam Fakhruddin Razi
Some believe they were Khokhars of Salt Range
This discussion however is beyond the scope of this thread
What really interests us comes after a few pages

We are told that the bier of Sultan Muizz-ud-Din was dispatched from Dhamiak towards Ghazni together with precious treasures
Sultan's wounds were sewn up, the body was placed "in a sort of covered litter pretending he was ill" and escorted to Ghazna keeping his death a secret

@odysseuslahori tells of this journey in his charming words
"The funeral then proceeded to Ghazni by way of Sankuran that we today know as Shalozan
It was long a stopping place on highroad from Parachinar to Peiwar Kotal that leads into Afghanistan’s Paktya province on to Ghazni"

Received by Taj-ud-Din Yalduz, Sultan Muizz-ud-Din's slave general the body was eventually buried in Ghazni
The burial place is said to be beside the tomb of his daughter, the only child of Sultan beyond infancy, who died a 'maid' and was buried in the capital city of Ghazni

That wintry afternoon I and @QaisarM01022464 prayed on a phoney grave, so does everyone who gets to visit this tomb
This place was fairly recently built by Pakistan's famed Nuclear Scientist
His picture and replica of a ballistic missile named after dead Sultan adorn the place

Picking up the name 'Dam-yak', securing a Persian quatrain from a history book a tomb was built based on pure fantasy
The builders of this fantasy failed to read through few more pages to find the truth or forged it on purpose
In sleepy wilderness of Dhamiak, our Ghauri misfired

Who then sleeps in the tomb of Sultan Shahabuddin Ghauri, Fateh Hind?
A disemboweled kingly gut, or just deception!
Definitely not what last lines of a composition by "Major General Sher Ali Hilal e Jurrat" claim on this headstone

"woh ghazi dafn hey isi mitti kay dher mein"

the pictures in this thread were very kindly permitted by a dear friend Dr. Syed Muzammil Hussain and the group Wasaib Explorer