Ghurid dynasty: A Visual History

The Ghurids were a dynasty from Ghor in the mountains of central Afghanistan who rose from Ghaznavid vassals to masters of an empire stretching from eastern Iran to Bengal. Ala al-Din Husayn sacked Ghazni in 1151, earning the name World-Burner. The brothers Ghiyath al-Din and Muizz al-Din (Muhammad of Ghor) took Ghazni, Herat and, after defeat by Prithviraj Chauhan in 1191, won the second battle of Tarain in 1192 and conquered Delhi and the Ganges plain. After Muhammad's assassination in 1206 the empire fragmented and the Khwarazmians took its western lands by 1215; its Indian slave-generals founded the Delhi Sultanate.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Ghurid dynasty. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Ghurid territory

Timeline of the Ghurid dynasty

1. 1148
   Ghurids assert independence
2. 1151
   Ghazni burned
3. 1173
   Ghazni taken permanently
4. 1186
   Lahore falls; Ghaznavids end
5. 1192
   Second Battle of Tarain
6. 1193
   Delhi taken
7. 1206
   Muizz al-Din assassinated
8. 1215
   Khwarazmians take Ghor

World-Burner

Ghor was a remote, late-Islamised region of chieftains under Ghaznavid overlordship. After the Ghaznavids killed two of his brothers, Ala al-Din Husayn stormed Ghazni in 1151 and burned it for seven days. Defeat by the Seljuk Sanjar checked him, but his nephews Ghiyath al-Din and Muizz al-Din, ruling jointly from 1163, took Ghazni for good in 1173 and Herat in 1175.

Conquest of India

Muizz al-Din campaigned east from Ghazni: Multan and Sind (1175), Lahore and the last Ghaznavid (1186). Prithviraj Chauhan beat him at Tarain in 1191, but the next year the Ghurid cavalry destroyed the Rajput army and Prithviraj was killed. Qutb al-Din Aibak took Delhi in 1193; Bakhtiyar Khalji overran Bihar and Bengal, sacking the Buddhist university of Nalanda. Muhammad's Turkish slave commanders governed the conquests.

Fall in the west, survival in India

Ghiyath al-Din died in 1203; Muizz al-Din was defeated by the Khwarazmians and Qara Khitai at Andkhud in 1204 and murdered on the Indus in 1206, probably by Ismaili or Khokhar assassins. His nephews fought over Ghor while the Khwarazmshah Muhammad took Herat, Ghazni and Ghor by 1215. In India Aibak and Iltutmish converted the conquests into the independent Delhi Sultanate.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Ghaznavid Empire (977 to 1186)
• Delhi Sultanate (1206 to 1526)
• Khwarazmian Empire (1077 to 1231)
• Great Seljuk Empire (1037 to 1194)
• Qara Khitai (Western Liao) (1124 to 1218)
• Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty (730 to 1036)

Wars of the same era and region

• Ghurid and early Delhi Sultanate conquest of North India (1192 to 1235)
• Mongol invasions and conquests (1206 to 1368)

8 surprising things about the Ghurid dynasty

1. The Minaret of Jam, a 65-metre tower in a remote Afghan valley, is almost all that survives of the Ghurid capital Firozkoh.
2. Muizz al-Din is said to have had no sons and, when asked, replied that his Turkish slaves were his sons and would inherit.
3. The Delhi Sultanate's first three rulers were all Ghurid slaves.
4. Bakhtiyar Khalji's raid on Nalanda around 1200 is often taken as the end of Buddhism as an institutional force in India.
5. The Qutb Minar in Delhi was begun as a victory tower for the Ghurid conquest.
6. The Ghurids struck coins in India with the Hindu goddess Lakshmi on them for local acceptance.
7. Prithviraj Chauhan's defeat became the subject of an epic, the Prithviraj Raso.
8. The dynasty ruled from three capitals in three regions: Firozkoh in Ghor, Herat and Ghazni.

Sources

• Ghurid dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Ghurid dynasty Wikipedia
• Muhammad of Ghor World History Encyclopedia
• Peter Jackson, The Delhi Sultanate (1999) Cambridge University Press

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