Ghurid Sultanate Shansabānī
← 1148–1215 →   →
This map is showing the Ghurid Empire without their south-eastern territories of north-western India.
Capital		Firuzkuh[1] Herat[2] Ghazni (1170s-1215)[3] Lahore (winter)
Languages		Persian (official & court)[4]
Religion		Sunni Islam
Government		Sultanate
Sultan
-	1148–1157	Ala-ud-din Jahan-Suz
-	1157–1202	Ghiyasuddin Ghori
-	1202–1206	Muhammad of Ghor
-	1206–1210	Qutbuddin Aibak
History
-	Established	1148
-	Disestablished	1215

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The Ghurids or Ghorids (Persian: سلسله غوریان‎; self-designation: Shansabānī) were a native Sunni Muslim dynasty of possibly eastern Iranian Tajik origin, which established rule over parts of modern day Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan from 1148 to 1215.^[5] The dynasty succeeded the Ghaznavid Empire.^[6] Their empire was centered in Ghor Province or Mandesh, in the center of what is now Afghanistan. It encompassed Khorasan in the West and reached in the East to northern India, as far as Delhi. Their first capital was Fīrūzkūh in Ghor, which was later replaced by Herat^[2] while Ghazni^[3] and Lahore were used as additional capitals, especially during the winter seasons. They are known as patrons of Persianate culture and heritage.^[7]

The Ghurids were succeeded in Persia by the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty and in northern India by the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.

Origins [edit]

In the 19th century, some European scholars, such as Mountstuart Elphinstone, favoured the idea that the Ghurid dynasty relate to today's Pashtun people,^[8][9][10] but this is generally rejected by modern scholarship, and, as explained by Morgenstierne in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, is for "various reasons very improbable".^[11] Instead, the consensus in modern scholarship (incl. Morgenstierne, Bosworth, Dupree, Gibb, Ghirshman, Longworth Dames and others) holds that the dynasty was most likely of Tajik origin.^[12][13][14] Bosworth further points out that the actual name of the Ghurid family, Āl-e Šansab (Persianized: Šansabānī), is the Arabic pronunciation of the originally Middle Persian name Wišnasp, perhaps hinting at a (Sassanian) Persian origin.^[15]

The Ghuristan region remained primarily Hindoo and Buddhists till 12th century. It was then Islamised and gave rise to the Ghurids.

The rise to power of the Ghurids at Ghur, a small isolated area located in the mountain vastness between the Ghaznavid empire and the Seljukids, was an unusual and unexpected development. The area was so remote that till the 11th century, it had remained a Hindu enclave surrounded by Muslim principalities. It was converted to Islam in the early part of the 12th century after Mahmud raided it, and left teachers to instruct the Ghurids in the precepts of Islam. Even then it is believed that paganism, i.e. a variety of Mahayana Buddhism persisted in the area till the end of the century.^[16]

Language [edit]

The language of the Ghurids is subject to some controversy. What is known with certainty is that it was considerably different from the Persian used as literary language at the Ghaznavid court. Nevertheless, like the Samanids and Ghaznavids, the Ghurids were great patrons of Persian literature, poetry, and culture, and promoted these in their courts as their own. There is nothing to confirm the recent surmise (as claimed in the Paṭa Khazāna) that the Ghurids were Pashto-speaking,^[17] and there is no evidence that the inhabitants of Ghor were originally Pashto-speaking.^[12] Contemporary book writers refer to them as the "Persianized Ghurids".^[18]

History [edit]

Before the mid-12th century, the Ghurids had been bound to the Ghaznavids and Seljuks for about 150 years. Beginning in the mid-12th century, Ghor expressed its independence from the Ghaznavid Empire. In 1149 the Ghaznavid ruler Bahram Shāh poisoned a local Ghūrid leader, Quṭb ud-Dīn, who had taken refuge in the city of Ghazna after a family quarrel. In revenge, the Ghūrid chief ʿAlāʾ-ud-Dīn Ḥusayn sacked and burned the city of Ghazna and put the city into fire for seven days and seven nights. It earned him the title of Jahānsūz, meaning "the world burner".^[19] The Ghaznavids retook the city with Seljuk help, but lost it to Oghuz Turk freebooters.^[19] In 1152, Ala ad-Din Jahan-Suz Husain refused to pay tribute to the Seljuks and instead marched an army from Firuzkuh but was defeated at Nab by Sultan Ahmed Sanjar.^[20]

In 1173, Shahabuddin Muhammad Ghori reconquered the city of Ghazna and assisted his brother Ghiyasuddin—to whom he was a loyal subordinate—in his contest with Khwarezmid Empire for the lordship of Khorāsān. Shahabuddin Ghori captured Multan and Uch in 1175 and annexed the Ghaznavid principality of Lahore in 1186. He was alleged by contemporary historians to extract revenge for his great grandfather Ibn-E-Suri. After the death of his brother Ghiyas-ud-Din in 1202, he became the successor of his empire and ruled until his assassination in 1206 near Jhelum by Khokhar tribesmen (in modern-day Pakistan).^[21] A confused struggle then ensued among the remaining Ghūrid leaders, and the Khwarezmids were able to take over the Ghūrids' empire in about 1215. Though the Ghūrids' empire was short-lived, Shahabuddin Ghori's conquests strengthened the foundations of Muslim rule in India. On his death, the importance of Ghazna and Ghur dissipated and they were replaced by Delhi as the centre of Islamic influence during the rule of his successor Sultans in India.^[22]

Ghurid Dynasty [edit]

• Blue shaded rows signifies Ghurid vassalage under the Ghaznavids.
• Yellow shaded rows signifies Ghurid vassalage under the Seljuks.

Ghor Branch [edit]

• Green shaded row signifies Ghurid vassalage under the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty.

Bamiyan Branch [edit]

• Green shaded row signifies Ghurid vassalage under the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty.

Cultural influences [edit]

The Ghurids were great patrons of Persian culture and literature and lay the basis for a Persianized state in India.^[24][25] They also transferred the Khorasanian architecture of their native lands to India, of which several great examples have been preserved to this date (see gallery). However, most of the literature produced during the Ghurid era has been lost.

Out of the Ghurid state grew the Delhi Sultanate which established the Persian language as the lingua franca of the region – a status it retained until the fall of the Mughal Empire in the 19th century.

History of Greater Iran
Until the rise of modern nation-states
Pre-modern
Pre-Islamic  Prehistory Proto-Elamite civilization 3200–2800 BC Elamite dynasties 2800–550 BC Bactria-Margiana Complex 2200–1700 BC Kingdom of Mannai 10th–7th century BC Median Empire 728 –550 BC Scythian Kingdom 652–625 BC Achaemenid Empire 550–330 BC Seleucid Empire 330–150 BC Greco-Bactrian Kingdom 250-125 BC Parthian Empire 248–BC 224 CE Kushan Empire 30–275 Sassanid Empire 224–651 Afrighid dynasty 305–995 Hephthalite Empire 425–557 Kabul Shahi kingdom 565–879 Dabuyid dynasty 642–760 Kingdom of Alania 8th-9th century–1238/1239
Islamic  Patriarchal Caliphate 637–651 Umayyad Caliphate 661–750 Abbasid Caliphate 750–1258 Tahirid dynasty 821–873 Zaydis of Tabaristan 864–928 Saffarid dynasty 861–1003 Samanid dynasty 819–999 Ziyarid dynasty 928–1043 Buyid dynasty 934–1055 Ghaznavid Empire 975–1187 Ghurid dynasty 1149–1212 Seljuq Empire 1037–1194 Khwarazmian dynasty 1077–1231 Ilkhanate 1256–353 Kartids dynasty 1231–389 Muzaffarid dynasty 1314–1393 Chupanid dynasty 1337–1357 Jalayerid dynasty 1339–1432 Timurid Empire 1370–1506 Qara Qoyunlu Turcomans 1407–1468 Aq Qoyunlu Turcomans 1378–1508 Safavid Empire 1501–1722 Mughal Empire 1526–1857 Hotaki dynasty 1722–1729 Afsharid dynasty 1736–1750 Zand Dynasty 1750–1794 Durrani Empire 1794–1826 Qajar Dynasty 1794–1925

See also [edit]

• Minaret of Jam
• Mandesh
• Ghor Province

Notes [edit]

External links [edit]

• Encyclopaedia Britannica (Online Edition) – Ghurid Sultanate
• Encyclopaedia Britannica (Online Edition) – Muizz-ud-Din-Muhammad a.k.a. Mohammad of Ghor
• Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth Edition) – Muhammad of Ghor
• The Ghurid Rulers
• The Ghurids
• The Ghurids´ Firuzkuh, the summer capital of the Sultans

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