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History of Greater Iran
Empires of Persia · Kings of Persia
Pre-modern
Before Islam  BCE Zayandeh River Civilization prehistoric–? Sialk civilization 7500–1000 Jiroft civilization (Aratta) 3000–? Proto-Elamite civilization 3200–2800 Bactria-Margiana Complex 2200–1700 Elamite dynasties 2800–550 Kingdom of Mannai 10th–7th cent. Median Empire 728–550 Achaemenid Empire 550–330 Seleucid Empire 330–150 Greco-Bactrian Kingdom 250-125 Parthian Empire 248–CE 224 CE Kushan Empire 30–275 Sassanid Empire 224–651 Hephthalite Empire 425–557 Kabul-Shahi dynasty 565–670
After Islamic Conquest  Patriarchal Caliphate 637–651 Umayyad Caliphate 661–750 Abbasid Caliphate 750–1258 Tahirid dynasty 821–873 Alavid dynasty 864–928 Saffarid dynasty 861–1003 Samanid dynasty 819–999 Ziyarid dynasty 928–1043 Buyid Dynasty 934–1055 Ghaznavid Empire 975–1187 Ghori dynasty 1149–1212 Seljuk Empire 1037–1194 Khwarezmid dynasty 1077–1231 Kartids dynasty 1231-1389 Ilkhanate 1256–1353 Muzaffarid dynasty 1314–1393 Chupanid dyansty 1337–1357 Jalayerid dynasty 1339–1432 Timurid Empire 1370–1506 Qara Qoyunlu Turcomans 1407–1468 Aq Qoyunlu Turcomans 1378–1508 Safavid Empire 1501–1722* Mughal Empire 1526–1857 Hotaki dynasty 1722–1729 Afsharid dynasty 1736–1802 * or 1736
Modern SSR = Soviet Socialist Republic
Afghanistan  Durrani Empire 1748–1823 British and Russian influence 1826–1919 Independence and civil war 1919–1929 Mohammedzai rule 1929–1973 Republic of Afghanistan 1973–1978 Communist rule 1978–1992 Recent history of Afghanistan since 1992 Timeline
Azerbaijan  Khanates of the Caucasus 1722–1828 Russian Rule 1828–1917 Democratic Republic 1918–1920 Azerbaijan SSR 1920–1991 Republic of Azerbaijan since 1991
Bahrain  Portuguese rule 1521–1602 British Treaty 1820–1971 Kingdom of Bahrain since 1971
Iran  Zand dynasty 1750–1794 Qajar dynasty 1781–1925 Pahlavi dynasty 1925–1979 Iranian Revolution 1979 Provisional Government 1979 Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979
Iraq  Ottoman Empire 1632–1919 Hashimite monarchy 1920–1958 Coup and Republic 1958–2003 Republic of Iraq since 2004
Tajikistan  Emirate of Bukhara 1785–1920 Bukharan / Uzbek SSR 1920–1929 Tajik Autonomous SSR 1929 Tajik SSR 1929–1991 Republic of Tajikistan since 1991
Uzbekistan  Emirate of Bukhara 1785–1920 Uzbek SSR 1924–1991 Independence 1991 Republic of Uzbekistan since 1991
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The Ghurids (or Ghorids; self-designation: Shansabānī) (Persian: سلسله غوریان) were a Sunni Muslim dynasty in Khorasan, most likely of Eastern Iranian Tājik^[1][2] origin. The Ghurid empire was based in Ghor (now a province in modern Afghanistan), and stretched over a vast area including parts of modern Iran and Afghanistan and parts of South Asia (India and Pakistan).

Asia in 1200 AD, showing the Ghurid Sultanate and its neighbors.

Between 1175 and 1192, under the leadership of Muhammad of Ghor, they put an end to Ghaznavid rule in India. They also captured their base in Lahore and founded the second Islamic state in India called the Ghurid state (543-613 A.H. 1148-1215 A.D.). This was named after Ghur their native province, located in present day Afghanistan between Herat and Ghazni. Sultans of this state did not remain in India permanently; instead, they settled in their capital Ghazna and ruled India through their Turkish Mamluks. They made the Khilijs to slave in Ghazna who lived beside the Ghaznavids and occupied Uch, Multan, Peshawar, Lahore, and Delhi. In 1206, one of the Ghurid generals, Qutb-ud-din Aybak, the conqueror of Delhi, made himself independent and founded the first of a succession of dynasties collectively known as the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526). After the Delhi-Sultanate, the Khilij began to create the slave-dynasty of India. Sultan Mohammed El Ghurid bought large numbers of mamluks and looked after their education and prepared them for invasion and holy war. It is reported that whenever he was reminded of the necessity of having a son to preserve his rule, he used to say: I have thousands of sons i.e. Turkish Mamluks". Some of these mamluks became rulers and leaders like Yildiz, ruler of Ghazna, and Nasir al-Din Kubacha, in the Sind, and Qutb al-Din Aybak, in Delhi, with the strongest influence. Thus, Mohammed al-Ghurid managed, thanks to his mamluks especially Aybak, to capture all Indian lands to the north of the Vindhya mountains as far as the mouth of the Ganges river. Islam spread there; its Hindu temples were changed into mosques and its rajas paid tribute.

In 603 A.H. (1206 A.D.) Sultan Mohammed al-Ghurid was assassinated on banks of the River Sind by a radical member of Ismailia sect. On his death, Ghazna and Ghur disappeared and were replaced by Delhi as the Islamic capital for the Mamluk Sultans in India. ^[3]

The Ghoris were great patrons of Persian culture, language, and identity, arts and literature, although many of the written works have been lost. In the arts they transferred the Khurasanian architecture of their native lands to India - with great examples of it in the Minars they built.

According to Faizal Ahmad Chendawoli, the Shansabānī had ancestral lines to the Sassanian royal family who - led by Prince Pirooz - fled with some hundred thousand of followers from Western Iran to Khorasan, following the Arabic conquest of Persia. He further explains that they were still Zoroastrians and isolated from all Arab-Islamic influence until the 11th century when they were eventually converted to Islam by the Samanid and Ghaznavid ghazis. Their isolation in the rough terrain of Ghor's mountains may be an explanation to why their language remained conservative and free of Arabic influence. While Dupree believes that the Ghurids were remnants of the Tocharian Kushans, Bosworth 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, further pointing to a (Sassanian) Persian origin.^[4]

The language of the Ghurids is subject to some controversy. What is known with certainty is that it was significantly different from the New Persian literary language which dominated the kingly courts of the eastern Islamic lands. According to some old sources, it was related to Middle Persian, the language of the Sassanians. That would - to some extent - support the theory that the Ghurids were related to House of Sāsān and indeed formed a part of the eastward migration of Persian families following the Arab-Islamic conquest of Persia.

Some modern linguists also connect the language to certain Eastern Iranian languages, most of all to Yaghnobi which itself derives from ancient Sogdian.

Nevertheless, like the Samanids and Ghaznavids, the Ghurids were great patrons of New Persian literature and poetry, and promoted this culture in their courts.

• Minaret of Jam

• Encyclopaedia Britannica (Online Edition) - Ghurid Sultanate
• Encyclopaedia Britannica (Online Edition) - Muizz-ud-Din-Muhammad a.k.a. Mohammad of Ghor
• Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth Edition) - Muhammad of Ghor
• Ghurids