ABSTRACT
From the writings of the Arab geographers of the ninth and tenth century Ad one gets the reference of Al-Jurz country ruled by the Pratihara dynasty. It has been stated that they had opposed the Arabs. The Arab geographer Al-Masudi states that on both sides of Cambay Gulf there were many villages and towns. In the eleventh century Al-Beruni spoke of Gurjar Rastra, the kingdom of the Gurjaras. The soldiers of the Sultan Alauddin Khalji first came to Gujarat as conquerors. There is a story running for some time that Madhava, the minister of King Karna, was associated with the conquerors, but now this has been proved to be inaccurate. In the thirteenth century Nusrat Khan, the commander of the forces of the Sultan Alauddin Khalji, defeated the Solanki king Karna and plundered his capital Patan almost without any resistance. After plundering Somnath, Nusrat Khan plundered the prosperous port, Khambaj. The Turks came merely to plunder these places and returned with the loot. After 1306 Alauddin sent his commander Malik Ahmad to conquer Gujarat. This time also King Karna left his capital Patan and took shelter with Pratap Rudra Dev, king of Warangal. Around the same time another commander of Alauddin, Alap Khan came to Gujarat as its governor and made his seat at Patan.
