Ghurid Empire - 1 Jitals "Rider on horse" Ag f-vf – Year: 1000-1173  - 0,200 Ag –

The Ghurids or Ghorids (Persian: سلسله غوریان‎‎; self-designation: شنسباني, Shansabānī) were a dynasty of Eastern Iranian descent (presumably Tajik, but the exact ethnic origin is uncertain),[6] from the Ghor region of present-day central Afghanistan. The dynasty converted to Sunni Islam from Buddhism, after the conquest of Ghor by the Ghaznavid emperor Mahmud of Ghazni in 1011. Abu Ali ibn Muhammad (reigned 1011–1035) was the first Muslim king of the Ghurid dynasty to construct mosques and Islamic schools in Ghor.

The dynasty overthrew the Ghaznavid Empire in 1186, when Sultan Mu'izz ad-Din Muhammad of Ghor conquered the last Ghaznavid capital of Lahore.At their zenith, the Ghurid empire encompassed Khorasan in the west and reached northern India as far as Bengal in the east.Their first capital was Firozkoh in Mandesh, Ghor, which was later replaced by Herat while Ghazni and Lahore were used as additional capitals, especially during winters. The Ghurids were patrons of Persian culture and heritage.The Ghurids were succeeded in Khorasan and Persia by the Khwarezmian dynasty, and in northern India by the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.

The Ghurids or Ghorids (Persian: سلسله غوریان‎‎; self-designation: شنسباني, Shansabānī) were a dynasty of Eastern Iranian descent (presumably Tajik, but the exact ethnic origin is uncertain),[6] from the Ghor region of present-day central Afghanistan. The dynasty converted to Sunni Islam from Buddhism, after the conquest of Ghor by the Ghaznavid emperor Mahmud of Ghazni in 1011. Abu Ali ibn Muhammad (reigned 1011–1035) was the first Muslim king of the Ghurid dynasty to construct mosques and Islamic schools in Ghor.

The dynasty overthrew the Ghaznavid Empire in 1186, when Sultan Mu'izz ad-Din Muhammad of Ghor conquered the last Ghaznavid capital of Lahore.At their zenith, the Ghurid empire encompassed Khorasan in the west and reached northern India as far as Bengal in the east. Their first capital was Firozkoh in Mandesh, Ghor, which was later replaced by Herat, while Ghazniand Lahore were used as additional capitals, especially during winters. The Ghurids were patrons of Persian culture and heritage.The Ghurids were succeeded in Khorasan and Persia by the Khwarezmian dynasty, and in northern India by the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.

In the 19th century, some European scholars, such as Mountstuart Elphinstone, favoured the idea that the Ghurid dynasty relate to today's Pashtun people,but this is generally rejected by modern scholarship, and, as explained by Morgenstierne in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, is for "various reasons very improbable". 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. 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, hinting at a (Sasanian) Persian origin.The Ghuristan region remained primarily populated by Hindus and Buddhists till the 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.

Language

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, and there is no evidence that the inhabitants of Ghor were originally Pashto-speaking. Contemporary book writers refer to them as the "Persianized Ghurids".