Ghurid dynasty

The Ghurid dynasty was a Persianate dynasty of eastern Iranian origin that emerged in the mountains of Ghor, in central Afghanistan, and built an empire between 1175 and 1215. The Ghurids appear in the 8th century as local chiefs and converted to Sunni Islam after the Ghaznavid conquest of Ghor in 1011. For a long time they were vassals of the Ghaznavids and then of the Seljuks, until Ala al-Din Husayn broke with the Ghaznavids and sacked their capital. The dynasty reached its height under the brothers Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad and Muhammad of Ghor, who divided their campaigns: Ghiyath al-Din pushed west against the Khwarazmians, while Muhammad conquered the Ghaznavid lands, took Lahore and advanced across the Indus into the Gangetic plain. Muhammad's assassination in 1206 opened the way for his slave commanders, above all Qutb al-Din Aibak, to found the Delhi Sultanate. The Ghurid state itself collapsed within a decade under pressure from the Khwarazmian shah Muhammad II, who extinguished the dynasty in 1215. Their capitals included Firozkoh in Ghor and Ghazni, and their architecture, with the minaret of Jam, is among the most impressive of medieval Afghanistan.