GHÛRI

GHÛRI, a dynasty of princes who had the seat of their empire in the country of Ghûr, and ruled over Persia, Afghanistan, northern Hindustan, and Transoxiana. We first read of Ghûr in connection with Mahmud of Ghazni and his son Masaud, the latter of whom subjugated the region in 1020. About a century later Malik Izzuddin made himself ruler of all the Ghûr country. His son, Alauddin Jahansoz (the Burner), fell upon Ghazni, and took it and burned it to the ground. This prince's nephews, Ghiyassuddin and Muizzuddin, established their power in Khorasan and Ghazni. The latter, crossing the Indus, then conquered successively the provinces of Multan (1176), Lahore (1186), and Ajmere (1190), and, in the course of the next six years, all Hindustan as far south as Nagpur and eastward to the Irawadi. It is from this epoch that the preponderance of Islam in Hindustan is dated. On the death of Muizzuddin the Indian states asserted their independence, the power of the Ghûri being confined to Ghûr, Seistan, and Herât. This last feeble remnant was taken from them by the Shah of Kharezm about 1215. Some thirty years later the Ghûr princes managed to revive something of their former power at Herât, which they retained by sufferance from the Mongols down to 1383, when the city was captured by Timur, and the Ghûr sovereignty came to an end.