Ghurids
Encyclopedia
The Ghurids or Ghorids were a medieval Muslim dynasty of Iranian origin
Iranian peoples
The Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...

 that ruled during the 12th and 13th centuries in Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...

. At its zenith, their empire, centred at Ghōr (now a province in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

), stretched over an area that included the whole of modern Afghanistan, the eastern parts of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 and the northern section of the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

, as far as Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

. The Ghurids were succeeded in Persia by the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty and in North India by the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty...

.

Origins

In the 19th century, some European scholars, such as Mountstuart Elphinstone
Mountstuart Elphinstone
Mountstuart Elphinstone was a Scottish statesman and historian, associated with the government of British India. He later became the Governor of Bombay where he is credited with the opening of several educational institutions accessible to the Indian population...

, favoured the idea that the Ghurid dynasty was Pashtun
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...

, but this is generally rejected by modern scholarship, and, as explained by Morgenstierne in the Encyclopaedia of Islam
Encyclopaedia of Islam
The Encyclopaedia of Islam is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies. It embraces articles on distinguished Muslims of every age and land, on tribes and dynasties, on the crafts and sciences, on political and religious institutions, on the geography, ethnography, flora and...

, is for "various reasons very improbable". Instead, the consensus in modern scholarship (incl. Morgenstierne, Bosworth
Clifford Edmund Bosworth
Clifford Edmund Bosworth FBA is an English historian and orientalist, specializing in Arabic studies. He received his B.A. degree from Oxford University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Edinburgh University. He held permanent posts at St. Andrews University, Manchester University, and the Center...

, Dupree
Louis Dupree (professor)
Professor Louis Duprée was an American archaeologist, anthropologist, and scholar of Afghan culture and history. He was the husband of Nancy Hatch Duprée, who is the Board Director of the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University in Afghanistan and author of five books about Afghanistan...

, Gibb, Ghirshman, Longworth Dames and others) holds that the dynasty was most likely of Tajik origin. Bosworth
Clifford Edmund Bosworth
Clifford Edmund Bosworth FBA is an English historian and orientalist, specializing in Arabic studies. He received his B.A. degree from Oxford University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Edinburgh University. He held permanent posts at St. Andrews University, Manchester University, and the Center...

 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
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...

.

Language

The language of the Ghurids is subject to some controversy. What is known with certainty is that it was considerably different from the New Persian literary language
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

 of the Ghaznavid court. Nevertheless, like the Samanids and Ghaznavids, the Ghurids were great patrons of New Persian literature
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...

, 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
Pata Khazana
Pata Khazāna is the title of a disputed manuscript written in Pashto language...

) that the Ghurids were Pashto-speaking, and there is no evidence that the inhabitants of Ghor were originally Pashto-speaking.

History

Before the mid-12th century, the Ghurids had been bound to the Ghaznavids and Seljuks
Seljuq dynasty
The Seljuq ; were a Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries...

 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". The Ghaznavids retook the city with Seljuk
Ahmed Sanjar
Ahmad Sanjar Ahmad Sanjar Ahmad Sanjar (Mu'iz ud-Dīn Ahmad-e Sanjar; was the sultan of the Great Seljuq Empire from 1118 to 1153. He was initially the sultan of Khorasan until he gained the rest of the territory upon the death of Muhammad I....

 help, but lost it to Oghuz Turk
Oghuz Turks
The Turkomen also known as Oghuz Turks were a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval Turkic expansion....

 freebooter
Freebooter
Freebooter may refer to:* Marine freebooters, or pirates.* Filibuster , a group of individuals who engage in unauthorized warfare against foreign countries.* Rapparee, the Irish usage.* Meadowbrook Freebooters, American polo team...

s. In 1152, Ala ad-Din Jahan-Suz Husain refused to pay tribute to the Seljuks and instead marched an army from Firuzkuh but was defeat at Nab by Sultan Ahmed Sanjar.

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
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...

. Shahabuddin Ghori captured Multan
Multan
Multan , is a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan and capital of Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province on the east bank of the Chenab River, more or less in the geographic centre of the country and about from Islamabad, from Lahore and from Karachi...

 and Uch
Uch
Uch or Uch Sharif ) is located in 75 km from Bahawalpur in Bahawalpur District, South Punjab, Pakistan Uch is an important historical city, being founded by Alexander the Great. Formerly located at the confluence of the Indus and Chenab rivers, it is now removed to Mithankot, some 100 km...

 in 1175 and annexed the Ghaznavid principality of Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

 in 1186. 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
Jhelum
Jhelum or Jehlum may refer to:* Jhelum, a city in Pakistan on the banks of the Jhelum River* Jhelum District, an administrative division in Punjab, Pakistan surrounding the city of Jhelum...

 by Khokhar
Khokhar
The Khokhar or Khokar are a people of Punjab region of Pakistan and north-western India. According to H. A. Rose they are the gotra of Rajput, Jat, Arain, Nai, and Churah. According to Denzil Ibbetson, they are also a gotra of the Tarkhan and Khatri tribes. The Khokhars were designated as an...

 tribesmen (in modern-day Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

). 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
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty...

 as the centre of Islamic influence during the rule of his successor Sultans in India.

Ghurid Dynasty

Titular Name(s) Personal Name Reign
Malik
}
|align="center"|? - 1011

|-
|- style="background:lightblue"
|align="center"|Malik

|align="center"| Abu Ali bin Muhammad

|align="center"|1011 – 1030s?
|-
|- style="background:lightblue"
|align="center"|Malik

|align="center"| Abbas bin Shith

|align="center"|1030s? - 1059?
|-
|- style="background:lightblue"
|align="center"|Malik

|align="center"| Muhammad bin Abbas

|align="center"|1059 - ?
|-
|- style="background:lightblue"
|align="center"|Malik

|align="center"| Qutb-ud-din Hasan bin Muhammad

|align="center"|
|-
|- style="background:yellow"
|align="center"|Abul-Muluk

|align="center"| Izz-ud-din Hussain bin Hasan

|align="center"|1100 – 1146
|-
|- style="background:yellow"
|align="center"|Malik

|align="center"| Saif-ud-din Sām bin Hussain

|align="center"|1146 – 1149
|-
|- style="background:yellow"
|align="center"|Malik

|align="center"| Baha-ud-din Sām bin Hussain

|align="center"|؟
|-
|- style="background:yellow"
|align="center"|Malik

Jahan-Suz

|align="center"| Ala-ud-din Hussain bin Hussain 

|align="center"|
|-
|align="center"|Malik

|align="center"| Saif-ud-din Muhammad bin Hussain

|align="center"|1161 – 1163
|-
|align="center"|Sultan Abul-Fateh

|align="center"| Ghiyāṣ-ud-din Muhammad bin Sām
Ghiyas ad-Din Ghori
Ghiyāṣ ad-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Sām , commonly referred to as Ghiyāṣ ad-Dīn Ghōrī, was a ruler of the 12th century Ghorid dynasty in The Ghurid Empire which encompassed Khorāsān, Afghanistan and extended into Pakistan, northern and central India all the way to Bengal. He fought with the Khwarezmid...

 

|align="center"|1163 – 1203
|-
|align="center"|Sultan Shahāb-ud-din Muhammad Ghori

|align="center"| Muizz-ud-din Muhammad bin Sām
Muhammad of Ghor
Sultan Shahāb-ud-Din Muhammad Ghori , originally called Mu'izzuddīn Muḥammad Bin Sām , was a ruler of the Ghurid dynasty who reigned over a territory spanning present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India.Shahabuddin Ghori reconquered the city of Ghazna Sultan Shahāb-ud-Din Muhammad Ghori...



|align="center"|1203 – 1206
|-
|colspan=4 align="middle"| Break up of the Ghurid Empire under Turkic slaves: Qutb-ud-din Aibak becomes ruler of Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...

 in 1206, establishing the Sultanate of Delhi; Nasir-ud-Din Qabacha
Nasir-ud-Din Qabacha
Nasir-ud-Din Qabacha or Kaba-cha was the Muslim Turkic governor of Multan, appointed by Sultan Shahabuddin Muhammad Ghauri in 1203.- Successors of Ghauri :...

 became ruler of Multan
Multan
Multan , is a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan and capital of Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province on the east bank of the Chenab River, more or less in the geographic centre of the country and about from Islamabad, from Lahore and from Karachi...

 in 1210; Tajuddin Yildoz became ruler of Ghazni
Ghazni
For the Province of Ghazni see Ghazni ProvinceGhazni is a city in central-east Afghanistan with a population of about 141,000 people...

; Ikhtiyar Uddin Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji became ruler of Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

; the actual Ghurid dynasty divided into two groups, one under Mahmud bin Ghiyāṣ-ud-din Muhammad bin Sām who succeeded his uncle Muhammad of Ghor
Muhammad of Ghor
Sultan Shahāb-ud-Din Muhammad Ghori , originally called Mu'izzuddīn Muḥammad Bin Sām , was a ruler of the Ghurid dynasty who reigned over a territory spanning present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India.Shahabuddin Ghori reconquered the city of Ghazna Sultan Shahāb-ud-Din Muhammad Ghori...

 in possession of Ghor, Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...

, Sistan
Sistan
Sīstān is a border region in eastern Iran , southwestern Afghanistan and northern tip of Southwestern Pakistan .-Etymology:...

 and eastern Khurasan with his capital at Firuzkuh
Firuzkuh
Firuzkuh is a city in and the capital of Firuzkuh County, Tehran Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 15,807, in 4,334 families....

 the other family group under Jalal-ud-din Ali bin Sām  at Bamiyan with possession of Tukharistan, Badakhshan
Badakhshan
Badakhshan is an historic region comprising parts of what is now northeastern Afghanistan and southeastern Tajikistan. The name is retained in Badakhshan Province which is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, in the far northeast of Afghanistan, and contains the Wakhan Corridor...

, Shughnan, Vakhsh
Vakhsh
Vakhsh may refer to:* Vakhsh River* Vakhsh, Tajikistan* Vakhsh culture...

 and Chaghaniyan
Chaghaniyan
Chaghaniyan was a small principality located on the right bank of the Oxus River, to the south of Samarkand.In the late 7th and 8th centuries it was ruled by a local magnate, called in Arabic sources the Chaghān-khudā. These rulers were most likely of Iranian stock...

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





Ghor Branch

Titular Name(s) Personal Name Reign
}

|align="center"|Mahmud bin Ghiyāṣ-ud-din Muhammad bin Sām

|align="center"|1206 – 1212
|-
|- style="background:lightgreen"
|align="center"|Malik

|align="center"| Baha-ud-din Sām bin Mahmud

|align="center"|1212 – 1213
|-
|- style="background:lightgreen"
|align="center"|Malik

Ala-ud-Daulah

|align="center"| Ala-ud-din Atsiz bin Hussain

|align="center"|1213 – 1214
|-
|colspan=4 align="middle"| Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty replaces the Ghurids.
|}
  • Green shaded row signifies Ghurid vassalage under the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty.


Bamiyan Branch

Titular Name(s) Personal Name Reign
Malik
}

|align="center"|1145 – 1163
|-
|align="center"|Malik

|align="center"| Shams-ud-Din Muhammad bin Mas'ud

|align="center"|1163 – 1192
|- ‎
|align="center"|Malik

Abul-Mu'ayyid

|align="center"| Baha-ud-din Sām bin Muhammad

|align="center"|1192 – 1206
|-
|- style="background:lightgreen"
|align="center"|Malik

|align="center"| Jalal-ud-din Ali bin Sām

|align="center"|1206 – 1215
|-
|colspan=4 align="middle"| Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty replaces the Ghurids.
|}
  • Green shaded row signifies Ghurid vassalage under the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty.


Cultural influences

The Ghurids were great patrons of Persian culture and literature
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...

 and lay the basis for a Persianized
Persianization
Persianization or Persianisation is a sociological process of cultural change in which something non-Persian becomes Persianate. It is a specific form of cultural assimilation that often includes linguistic assimilation...

 state in India
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

. They also transferred the Khurasanian 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
Delhi Sultanate
The Delhi Sultanate is a term used to cover five short-lived, Delhi based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. The sultanates ruled from Delhi between 1206 and 1526, when the last was replaced by the Mughal dynasty...

 which established the Persian language as the lingua franca of the region - a status it retained until the fall of the Mughal Empire
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

in the 19th century.



External links

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