Ghurid dynasty
Ghurid Sultanate Shansabānī | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1148–1215 | |||||||
| Capital | Herat, Ghor, Ghazni, Lahore | ||||||
| Common languages | an Iranian language, perhaps Northeast Iranian or Middle Persian | ||||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||||
| Government | Sultanate | ||||||
| History | |||||||
• Established | 1148 | ||||||
• Disestablished | 1215 | ||||||
| |||||||
 | This template is a customized wrapper for {{[[Template:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]]}}. Any field from {{[[Template:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]]}} can work so long as it is added to this template first. Questions? Just ask here or over at [[Template talk:{{{1}}}]]. |
|
|-
|
|-
|
|-
|
|}
| History of Afghanistan |
|---|
 |
| Timeline |
The Ghurids or Ghorids (Persian: سلسله غوریان; self-designation: Shansabānī) were a medieval Muslim dynasty of Iranian origin that ruled during the 12th and 13th centuries in Khorasan.[1] At its zenith, their empire, that was centered in Ghōr (now a province in Afghanistan), stretched over an area that included the whole of modern Afghanistan, the eastern parts of Iran and the northern section of the Indian subcontinent, as far as Delhi. The Ghurids were succeeded in Persia by the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty and in North India by the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.
Origins
In the 19th century, some European scholars, such as Mountstuart Elphinstone, tended to classify them as a Pashtun tribe,[2][3][4] but this is generally rejected by modern scholarship, and, as explained by Morgenstierne in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, is for "various reasons very improbable".[5] 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.[6][7][8] 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.[9]
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 of the Ghaznavid court. Nevertheless, like the Samanids and Ghaznavids, the Ghurids were great patrons of the New 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[10], and there is no evidence that the inhabitants of Ghor were originally Pashto-speaking.[6]
History
Ghurids were bounded to Ghaznavids and Seljuks almost 150 years before 1148. 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".[11] The Ghaznavids retook the city with Seljuk help, but lost it to Oghuz Turk freebooters.[11]
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. 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 (in modern-day Pakistan). 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 Islamic capital for the Ghurid Sultans in India.[12]
Cultural influences
The Ghurids were great patrons of Persian culture and literature and lay the basis for a Persianized state in India. They also transferred the Khurasanian architecture of their native lands to India, of which several great examples have been preserved to this date. 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.
Ghurid rulers
 |
| History of Greater Iran |
|---|
Primary line in Ghur, Ghazna, North-India and Khorasan
- Muhammad b. Suri Shansabani (until 1011)
- Abu Ali b. Muhammad (1011 until the 1030's, vassal of the Ghaznavids)
- Abbas b. Shith (vassal of the Ghaznavids)
- Muhammad b. Abbas (after 1059, vassal of the Ghaznavids)
- Qutb ad-Din Hasan b. Muhammad (vassal of the Ghaznavids)
- Izz ad-Din Abu l-Muluk Husain (I.) b. Hasan (1100–1146, initially a vassal of the Ghaznavids, later on a vassal of the Seljuq sultan Sanjar)
- Saif ad-Din Suri b. Husain (1146–1149, vassal of the Seljuqs)
- Baha ad-Din Sam (I.) b. Husain (1149, vassal of the Seljuqs)
- Ala ad-Din Jahan-Suz Husain (II.) b. Husain (1149–1161, vassal of the Seljuqs)
- Saif ad-Din Muhammad b. Husain (1161–1163)
- Ghiyath ad-Din Abu l-Fath Muhammad b. Sam (1163–1203)
- Muizz ad-Din Muhammad b. Sam (1203–1206, in Ghazna since 1173)
- Ghiyath ad-Din Mahmud b. Muhammad (1206–1212, vassal of the Khwarizm-Shah Ala ad-Din Muhammad)
- Baha ad-Din Sam (II.) b. Mahmud (1212–1213, vassal of the Khwarizm-Shah Ala ad-Din Muhammad)
- Ala ad-Din Atsiz b. Husain (1213–1214, vassal of the Khwarizm-Shah Ala ad-Din Muhammad)
- Ala ad-Din Muhammad b. Ali Shudja ad-Din b. Ali Ala ad-Din b. Husain (1214–1215, vassal of the Khwarizm-Shah Ala ad-Din Muhammad)
Secondary line in Bamiyan, Tukharistan, Badakhshan, Shughnan, Vakhsh und Chaghaniyan
- Fakhr ad-Din Masud b. Husain (1145–1163)
- Shams ad-Din Muhammad b. Masud (1163–1192)
- Baha ad-Din Abu 'l-Muayyid Sam b. Muhammad (1192–1206)
- Jalal ad-Din Ali b. Sam (1206–1215, vassal of the Khwarizm-Shah Ala ad-Din Muhammad)
See also
Notes
- ^ Kingdoms of South Asia - Afghanistan in Far East Kingdoms: Persia and the East
- ^ Elphinstone, Mountstuart. The History of India. Vol. 1. J. Murray, 1841. Web. 29 Apr. 2010. Link: "...the prevalent and apparently the correct opinion is, that both they and their subjects were Afghans. " & "In the time of Sultan Mahmud it was held, as has been observed, by a prince whom Ferishta calls Mohammed Soory (or Sur) Afghan." p.598-599
- ^ A short history of India: and of the frontier states of Afghanistan, Nipal, and Burma, Wheeler, James Talboys, (LINK): "The next conqueror after Mahmud who made a name in India, was Muhammad Ghori, the Afghan."
- ^ Balfour, Edward. The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia, Commercial Industrial, and Scientific: Products of the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms, Useful Arts and Manufactures. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1885. Web. 29 Apr. 2010. Link: "IZ-ud-DIN Husain, the founder of the Ghori dynaasty, was a native of Afghansitan. The origin of the house of Ghor has, however, been much discussed, - the prevailing opinion being that both they and their subjects were an Afghan race. " p.392
- ^ G. Morgenstierne (1999). "AFGHĀN". Encyclopaedia of Islam (CD-ROM Edition v. 1.0 ed.). Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV.
- ^ a b M. Longworth Dames, G. Morgenstierne, and R. Ghirshman (1999). "AFGHĀNISTĀN". Encyclopaedia of Islam (CD-ROM Edition v. 1.0 ed.). Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: Text ""... there is no evidence for assuming that the inhabitants of Ghūr were originally Pashto-speaking (cf. Dames, in E I1). If were are to believe the Paṭa Khazāna (see below, iii), the legendary Amīr Karōṝ, grandson of Shansab, (8th century) was a Pashto poet, but this for various reasons is very improbable ..."" ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Encyclopaedia Iranica, "Ghurids", C.E. Bosworth, (LINK): ". . . The Ghurids came from the Šansabānī family. The name of the eponym Šansab/Šanasb probably derives from the Middle Persian name Wišnasp (Justi, Namenbuch, p. 282). . . . The chiefs of Ḡūr only achieve firm historical mention in the early 5th/11th century with the Ghaznavid raids into their land, when Ḡūr was still a pagan enclave. Nor do we know anything about the ethnic stock of the Ḡūrīs in general and the Šansabānīs in particular; we can only assume that they were eastern Iranian Tajiks. . . . The sultans were generous patrons of the Persian literary traditions of Khorasan, and latterly fulfilled a valuable role as transmitters of this heritage to the newly conquered lands of northern India, laying the foundations for the essentially Persian culture which was to prevail in Muslim India until the 19th century. . . ."
- ^ Encyclopaedia of Islam, "Ghurids", C.E. Bosworth, Online Edition, 2006: "... The Shansabānīs were, like the rest of the Ghūrīs, of eastern Iranian Tājik stock ..."
- ^ Encyclopaedia Iranica, "Ghurids", C.E. Bosworth, (LINK); with reference to Justi, "Namenbuch", p. 282
- ^ Encyclopaedia of Islam, "Ghurids", C.E. Bosworth, Online Edition, 2006: "... There is nothing to confirm the recent surmise that the Ghūids were Pashto-speaking [...] the Paṭa Khazāna “Treasury of secrets”, claims to include Pashto poetry from the Ghūid period, but the significance of this work has not yet been evaluated ..."
- ^ Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press 2002