Ghūrid Sultanate

Ghūrid sultanate, kingdom centred in Ghūr (modern Ghowr) in west-central Afghanistan from the mid-12th to the early 13th century. Its founder was ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Ḥusayn.

Ghūr is a mountainous territory situated southeast of the region of Herāt and northwest of the Helmand River valley. Ghūr was conquered by Maḥmūd of Ghazna (Ghaznī) in 1009/1020, and it subsequently paid tribute to the Ghaznavids until the mid-12th century. Its inhabitants converted to Islam during this period. In 1149 the Ghaznavid ruler Bahram Shāh poisoned a local Ghūrid leader, Quṭb al-Dīn, who had taken refuge in the city of Ghazna after a family quarrel. In revenge, the Ghūrid chief ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Ḥusayn sacked and burned the city of Ghazna and ended the Ghaznavids’ rule. Although ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn was unable to hold Ghazna, his triumph enabled his nephews Ghiyāth al-Dīn and Muʿizz al-Dīn to retake the city in 1173 from the Oğuz Turkmen nomads who had ruled it since the fall of the Ghaznavids.

Between 1173 and 1202 Ghiyāth, the senior Ghūrid leader and suzerain, and Muʿizz al-Dīn, his brother and loyal subordinate, raised Ghūrid power to its peak. Ghiyāth struggled with the Khwārezm-Shāh for control of the Seljuq Turks’ former holdings in Khorāsān (in northeastern Iran). Ghiyāth occupied Herāt (in western Afghanistan) in 1176 and went on to establish control over most of Afghanistan, eastern Iran, and what is now Turkmenistan by 1200. Meanwhile, Muʿizz al-Dīn and his lieutenant, Quṭb al-Dīn Aybak, were establishing Ghūrid rule over northern India from the city of Multān in Sind to Gaur in Bengal. (See Muʿizz al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Sām.)

The Ghūrid empire proved short-lived, however. Ghiyāth died in 1202, and Muʿizz al-Dīn was assassinated in 1206. A confused struggle then ensued among the remaining Ghūrid leaders, and the Khwārezm-Shāh were able to take over the Ghūrids’ empire in about 1215.

Though the Ghūrids’ empire was short-lived, Muʿizz al-Dīn’s conquests laid the foundation for subsequent Muslim rule in India. The cooperative relationship between Ghiyāth al-Dīn and Muʿizz al-Dīn, free of jealousy, greatly contributed to their success and is unusual in Muslim dynastic annals.