Far East Kingdoms

Ghurid Sultanate / Shansabani Dynasty (Southern Khorasan)
AD 1149 - 1215

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The Yamanids of Ghazni were Islamicised Sassanid descendants who had resettled in early Turkestan. There they had intermarried with the locals over the subsequent three centuries before one of their number was enslaved and purchased by Alptigin, the Turkic-born ex-slave governor of 'Samanid Subject' Southern Khorasan.

This slave-solder adoptee of Alptigin was named Sebuktigin. He succeeded Alptigin and a few other, short-lived, successors in 977 to become governor of the city of Ghazni in southern Khorasan. This city sits a hundred and twenty kilometres to the south-west of Kabul, in modern Afghanistan (Ghazni is now an eastern province).

Sebuktigin immediately began turning his governorship into the Ghaznavid emirate, with his successors expanding it over to the south-eastern corner of the Caspian Sea. For the most part, Lahore was the emirate's easternmost bastion, where the Ghaznavids played a major part in introducing Islam into India.

The Ghurids (or Ghorids) from Bamiyan in the Afghan mountains were initially one of many groups to be conquered by the Ghaznavids. Such a location makes it possible that their heritage may have had elements of Indo-Parthian or Indo-Scythian, and certainly the more generalised Indo-Iranian with Turkic additions which could be found in many groups in the eastern Iran of this period. They may also be the ancestors of today's Ghilzai Pashtuns (according to Gene Gurney, at least, but opposed more generally in twenty-first century literature).

Following the drawn-out Islamic conquest of eastern Iran, they converted from 'paganism' (the regionally-dominant Buddhism) to Islam in the eleventh century. The following century saw Ghaznavid power waning in the face of concerted attacks by the powerful Seljuqs. As a result the Ghurids began to assert their own control over Ghaznavid lands.

From 1146 at least, they gradually chiselled away at Ghaznavid holdings and asserted their own increasing dominance in the region. In 1149 their ruling figure, Aladdin Hussein, turned the tables on his masters. He sacked the city of Ghazni in 1150, ending Ghaznavid rule in Afghan territories. Ghurid rulers from the Shansabani clan were now dominant, able to form a short-lived sultanate of their own.

Some scholars link the Shansabani name to that of the Sassanids, many of whom had fled east during the Arab invasion of Persia in 651. That would also make them potential relatives (direct or indirect) of the ancestors of the Ghaznavids.

Principal author(s): Page created: Page last updated:

(Information by Peter Kessler and the John De Cleene Archive, with additional information from The Turks in World History, Carter Vaughn Findley (Oxford University Press 2005), from The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade, Susan Wise Bauer (2010), from An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples, Peter B Golden (1992), from Kingdoms of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, Gene Gurney (New York, 1986), and from External Links: Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Encyclopaedia Iranica.)

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Local (Buddhist) ruler of Ghor (central Afghanistan).

? - c.1011

Son. (Buddhist) ruler of Ghor. Committed suicide.

c.1011

The Buddhist ruler of Ghor is Muhammad ibn Suri. He is defeated by the Ghaznavid sultan, Yamin-ud-Dawlah Mahmud, and his territory is conquered. Muhammad is captured by Mahmud, made prisoner along with his son, and taken to Ghazni where he dies by his own hand using poison. The population of Ghor is forcibly converted to Islam.

Under the Ghaznavids, the small town of Ghazni was built up into a rich and important city, with it today lying in the east of Afghanistan

c.1011 - 1035

Son. (Buddhist, then Islamic) ruler of Ghor. Deposed.

c.1035 - 1060

Nephew. (Usurper) ruler of Ghor. Deposed by Ghaznavids.

c.1060 - 1080

Son. Ruler of Ghor. Deposed by Ghaznavids.

c.1080 - 1100

Son. Ruler of Ghor. Killed suppressing a tribal revolt.

c.1100 - 1146

Son. Ruler of Ghor. Suppressed the revolt.

1146

The Ghurids begin to assert their control in the region in the face of weakening Ghaznavid control. They gradually chisel away at Ghaznavid holdings and establish their own increasing dominance in the region. Raids into Ghaznavid Indian territories also begin to weaken their hold there (these holdings will later form the basis of the Delhi sultanate).

1149

Son. Poisoned by Ghaznavid ruler, Bahram Shah.

1146 - 1149

Brother. Established early territories. Crucified.

1149

Kutbuddin Mohammed and Sayf ud-Din Suri quarrel, with it being serious enough for the former to seek refuge in Ghazni. Once there he is poisoned by the ruling Ghaznavid emir, Bahram Shah. Sayf ud-Din Suri seeks revenge by defeating the emir in battle near Ghazni.

The Ghurids constructed the minaret of Jam in the late twelfth century as a royal commemorative tower, although today (2022) it is in need of urgent repair work

Within a year, Bahram Shah gains his own revenge by defeating Sayf ud-Din Suri in battle, followed by crucifying his captured opponent. A third brother, Baha' ud-Din Sam, dies of natural causes on his way to conduct the latest bout of revenge.

1149

Brother. Died of natural causes.

1149 - 1161

Brother. Founder of the sultanate. Seljuq vassal from 1152.

1150

The Ghaznavid emirate is effectively brought to an end when Ghazni is captured by Ala-uddin as he avenges the deaths of all of his brothers. The city is burned in a conflagration which lasts for seven days and seven nights, earning Ala-uddin the title of 'Jahan-Suz', or 'world-burner'.

Ghaznavid power continues in northern India alone, with them ruling from Lahore, although they do briefly recapture Ghazni in 1157. Ala-uddin, though, is never able to beat off Seljuq domination which even imprisons him for two years (1152-1154). Further conquests include Bamiyan which is gifted to Fakhr al-Din Masud and his newfound Bamiyan Ghurid holdings.

Shown here are two sides of a coin which was issued in contemporary Zangid-controlled Mosul on the farther side of Iran, most probably during the rule of Sayf al-Din Ghazi II, son of the powerful atabeg of Aleppo and elder brother of Qutb ad-Din Mawdud

1161 - 1163

Son. Killed in battle.

1162 - 1163

A year after recapturing Seistan from the Seljuqs, the death of Sa'if ud-Din Muhammad appears to cause fractures within the sultanate, with two rulers appearing, one each in Firuzkuh and Ghazni. Shihab ud-Din Muhammad is forced to conquer Ghazni (in 1173) in order to establish his own claim on the Ghurid throne, and it is he who succeeds in reuniting the sultanate.

1163 - 1203

Son. In Firuzkuh (location unknown). Opposed by Shihab.

1173 - 1206

Brother. In Ghazni. Lord of Delhi. Assassinated. Childless.

1186

The Ghurids established a vassal emirate in Makran, which has largely been independent (or close to) since the death of Ghaznavid ruler, Yamin-ud-Dawlah Mahmud, in 1030.

In the same year, having barely managed to keep his Lahore rump state independent for a number of years (at least once paying off an attacker to get them to pull back), Khusrau Malik is unable to repeat the same trick just one more time. Ghaznavid Lahore is conquered by the Ghurids who also inherit Pallava Punjab.

The Kailasnatha temple at Kanchi was perhaps the last great Pallava construction, erected by a ruler who was attempting to halt Pallava decline

1194

Muhammad sacks and destroys the Rajput kingdoms of the Gahadavalas and Chauhans. Unfortunately, in the same year, the Khwarazm emirate gains independence from the Seljuq Turks by overthrowing them and occupying much of the rest of Greater Khorasan, including Ghurid Seistan and the heartland of Iran itself.

1206

Muhammad Ghori dies without an heir. After a battle of succession, the Turkic ex-slave general, Qutub uddin Aibak, takes possession of Muhammad Ghori's Indian empire. He establishes his capital first at Lahore, and later at Delhi. Ghiyathuddin Mahmud gains the western section of the empire, focused on territory which largely forms modern Afghanistan.

1206 - 1212

Secured western half of sultanate from Ghazni.

1206 - 1215

Turkic slave-soldier. In Ghazni. Forced to stand down.

1212 - 1213

Son of Ghiyathuddin Mahmud. Imprisoned.

1213

With Baha' ud-Din Sam having been captured by the Khwarazm shahs and carried off in captivity, it is they who now dominate the eastern Iranian lands. Ala-uddin Atsiz is supported as the new sultan of Ghor, but he is killed just a year later by a Turkic slave-solider named Taj ud-Din Yïldïz Mu'izzi (Tajuddin Yildoz).

The Qutub Minar was constructed largely between 1199-1220 as one of the first architecturally-grand structures of the newly-founded sultanate of Delhi

1213 - 1214

Son of Ala-uddin 'Jahan-Suz'. Khwarazm vassal. Killed.

1214 - 1215

Cousin. Khwarazm vassal. Captured and exiled.

1215 - 1221

The remaining Ghurid territories in northern India are taken over by the Delhi sultanate which also gains the Punjab of the former Pallavas. Ghazni and its heartland are controlled by Khwarazm until 1221.

1221

After the shah of Khwarazm decapitates the Mongol ambassador from Chingiz Khan, the emirate is attacked twice by the Golden Horde. Khwarazm is reduced to its western section covering northern Mesopotamia and western Persia.

Shamsuddin Bahram Shah of Seistan is killed, and Bukhara and then Samarkand are captured by the Mongols. Chaos results, with thousands being massacred or sold into slavery.

The rest of Ghurid Southern Khorasan does not escape unscathed. The Mongols raze the city of Bamiyan and exterminate its inhabitants. Areas of central southern Khorasan around Herat (and Bamiyan) are soon seized by the deposed Ghurids, then to be governed by their subjects and replacements, the Kartids.

A modern depiction of Mongol warriors in the twelfth century, when Chingiz Khan led them across vast swathes of Asia to encounter and conquer much of what they saw

Descendants of the Ghurid rulers reassert control over areas of southern Khorasan between 1332-1369, before being swept away by Timur and his expanding Timurid empire.

Before that happens, however, it is the Kartids who remain the main regional power in southern Khorasan, even if it has to be under Mongol overlordship.