Ghιir is mentioned in the Shahnamah of Firdousi (1010 A.D.), and in the Arab geographers of that time, though these latter fail in details almost as much as we moderns, thus indicating how little accessible the country has been through all ages. Ibn Haukal’s map of Khorasan (c. 976) shows Jibal al-Gkdr, “ the hill-country of Ghùr,” as a circle ring-fenced with mountains. His brief description speaks of it as a land fruitful in crops, cattle, and flocks, inhabited by infidels, except a few who passed for Mahometans, and indicates that, like other pagan countries surrounded by Moslem populations, it was regarded as a store of slaves for the faithful. The boundary of Ghιir in ascending the valley of the Hari-πid was six and a half easy marches from Herat, at Chist, two marches above Obah (both of which are still in our maps).

The chief part of the present population of Ghιir are Taimûnis belonging to the class of nomad or semi-nomad clans called Eimciks (see Afghanistan, vol. i. p. 235). There are also, according to Ferrier, Suris, who were formerly the main part of the population, apparently the same as the Zoorees of Elphinstone (Caubul, ii. 204), another of the Eimâk clans; and in the north of Ghùr Ferrier mentions Mongols. Camels are kept in great numbers by the Eimâks, chiefly for their wool. Though the country is very mountainous, there are fruitful valleys of considerable width. But our knowledge is too slight for us to say more.

The people and princes of Ghur first become known to us in connexion with the Ghaznevid dynasty, and the early mediaeval histories of Ghιir and Ghazni are so intertwined that little need be added on that subject towhat will be found under Ghazni (g ’.ι∙.). What we read of Ghùr shows it as a country of lofty mountains and fruitful valleys, and of numerous strongholds held by a variety of hill-chieftains ruling warlike clans whose habits were rife with feuds and turbulence,—indeed, in character strongly resembling the tribes of modern Afghanistan, though there seems no good reason to believe that they were of Afghan race. It is probable that they were of old Persian blood, like the older of those tribes which still occupy the country. It is possibly a corroboration of this that, in the 14th century, when one of the Ghιiri kings, of the Kurt dynasty reigning in Herat, had taken to himself some of the insignia of independent sovereignty, an incensed Mongol prince is said to have reviled him as “an insolent Tajik” (Journal Asiat., ser. v. tom. xvii. p. 509). Sabuktigin of Ghazni, and his famous son Mahmιid, repeatedly invaded the mountain country which so nearly adjoined their capital, subduing its chiefs for the moment, and exacting tribute; but when the immediate pressure was withdrawn, the yoke was thrown off, and the tribute withheld. In 1020 Masa ’ ud, the son of Mahmùd, being then governor of Khorasan, made a systematic invasion of Ghιir from the side of Herat, laying siege to its strongholds one after the other, and subduing the country more effectually than ever before. About a century later one of the princely families of Ghιir, deriving the appellation of Shansabi, or Shansabaιriah, from a certain ancestor Shansab, of local fame, and of alleged descent from Zohâk, acquired predominance in all the country, and at the time mentioned Malik ’ Izzuddin al Husain of this family came to be recognized as lord of Ghùr. He was known afterwards as “the Father of Kings,” from the further honour to which several of his seven sons rose. Three of these (see Ghazni) were—(1) Amir Kutbuddin Mahommed, called the lord of the Jibal or mountains; (2) Sultan Saifuddin Sιiri, for a brief period master of Ghazni,—both of whom were put to death by Bahram the Ghaznevid; and (3) Sultan Alauddin Jahansoz, who wreaked such terrible vengeance upon Ghazni. Alauddin began the conquests which were afterwards immensely extended both in India and in the west by his nephews Ghiyassuddin Mahommed ibn Sam and Muizuddi'n Mahommed Sam (the Shahâbuddin Ghûri of the historians), and for a brief period during their rule it was boasted, with no great exaggeration, that the public prayer was read in the name of the Ghιirι from the extremity of India to the borders of Babylonia, and from the Oxus to the Straits of Ormus. After the death of Muizuddi'n (alias Shahâbuddin), Mahmùd the son of Ghiyassuddin was proclaimed sovereign (1206) throughout the territories of Ghι'tr, Ghazni, and Hindustan. But the Indian dominion, from his uncle’s death, became entirely independent, and his actual authority was confined to Ghùr, Seistân, and Herat. The whole kingdom fell to pieces before the power of Mahommed Shah of Khwarazm and his son Jalâluddin (c. 1214—1215), a power in its turn to be speedily shattered by the Mongol flood (see Ghazni).

Besides the thrones of Ghùr and Ghazni, the Shansabaniah family, in the person of Fakhruddin, the eldest of the seven sons of Malek ’ Izzuddin, founded a kingdom in the Oxus basin, having its seat at Bamian (q.v.), which endured for two or three generations, till extinguished by the power of Khwarazm (1214). And tfie great Mussulman empire of Delhi was based on the conquests of Muizuddi'n the Ghurian, carried out and consolidated by his Turki freedmen, Kutbuddin Aibak and his successors. The princes of Ghùr experienced, about the middle of the 13th century, a revival of power, which endured for 140 years. This later dynasty bore the name of Kurt or Kart. The first of historical prominence was Malik Shamsuddin Kurt, descended, by his mother from the great king Ghiyassuddin Ghιiri, whilst his other grandfather was that prince’s favourite minister. In 1245 Shamsuddin held the lordship of Ghιir in some kind of alliance with, or subordination to, the Mongols, who had not yet definitively established themselves in Persia, and in 1248 he received from the Great Khan Mangu an investiture of all the provinces from Merv to the Indus, including by name Sijistan (or Seistân), Cabul, Tirah (adjoining the Khaibar pass), and Afghanistan (a very early occurrence of this name), which he ruled, from Herat. He stood well with Hulaku, and for a long time with his son Abaka, but at last incurred the latter’s jealousy, and was poisoned when on a visit to the court at Tabriz (1276). His son Ruknuddin Kurt was, however, invested with the government of Khorasan (1278), but after some years, mistrusting his Tartar suzerains, he withdrew into Ghιir, and abode in his strong fortress of Kaissar till his death there in 1305. The family held on through a succession of eight kings in all, sometimes submissive to the Mongol, sometimes aiming at independence, sometimes for a series of prosperous years adding to the strength and splendour of Herat, and sometimes sorely buffeted by the hosts of masterless Tartar brigands that tore Khorasan and Persia in the decline of the dynasties of Hulakιi and Chagatai. It is possible that the Kurts night have established a lasting Tajik kingdom at Herat, but in the time of the last of the dynasty, Ghiyassuddin Pir-’Ali, Tartar-dom, reorganized and re-embodied in the person of Timur, came against Herat, and carried away the king and the treasures of his dynasty (1380). A revolt and massacre of his garrison provoked Timur’s vengeance; he put the captive king to death, came against the city a second time, and showed it no mercy (1383). Ghùr has since been as obscure in history as it is in its topography.

The proper capital of the kingdom of Ghur when its princes were rising to dominion in the 12th century was Finiz-Koh, where a city and fortress were founded by Saifuddin Suri. The true position of Firuz-Koh does not seem to have been determined, out It was probably on or near the upper waters of the Hari-rud or river of Herat; and it is possible that it may be represented by Shahrak, a place in that valley (about 65° 30' E. long.), once a populous and flourishing town, which was described to Ferrier, who passed not far from it, as having been anciently the capital of Ghùr. The name of Firûz-Kohis has been appropriated to one of the most numerous of the nomad tribes occupying the upper part of the Hari-πid and part of the Murghab, but it is doubtful if this has to do with thç Ghιir capital, as the name is otherwise explained. Other places claim to have been the old capital. Thus Karrukh, a place visited by Khanikoff in 1858, in a rapid excursion from Herat, and lying on the north side of the valley, is one. But this seems too near Herat (only 30 miles distant). Ferrier, again, describes as the ancient capital a place, which he reached in his journey, called Zarni, about 150 miles by road from Herat towards the S.E. The population did not exceed 1200, belonging to the Sûri and Taimιini tribes. The peak of Chalap Dalan, “one of the highest in the world,” rose before Zarai in imposing majesty. The mountain, at half its height, has a compass of some 40 miles; the sides are covered with forests and pastures, villages and tents, and also exhibit naturally impregnable positions where successive chiefs have built strongholds. Ferrier, in accompanying the Afghan governor, who lived at Zarni, saw three ancient towns on the skirts of this mountain, all large and fortified, viz., Kala’ Kaissar, Kala’ Sangi, and Fakhrabad. These are described as only a fewfarsakhs, or hours’ march, north-east of Teivereh, which last is in some of our maps. Doubts have indeed been cast on the authenticity of this part of Ferrier’s book, chiefly on account of the extreme brevity of the time which he allows. But the professed journal was probably, under the circumstances, only an expansion from memory of the merest jottings; and several things are in favour of authenticity. His notices of the country, slight as they are, correspond notably in the impression conveyed with those of the Tabakdti-i-Ndsiri(see below). Kaissar, which he mentions, is a place that has already been referred to as the stronghold of Ruknuddin Kurt. Zarni, as roughly located by him, corresponds fairly with what was told Conolly on his journey between Herat and Kandahar, of the position and character of “the old city of Ghore .... now a ruinous, ill-inhabited town, the capital of a petty province, governed by one of Shah Kamran’s sons, who has his residence there” CJoumey, vol. ii. p. 61). Zami is mentioned by Major Leech in connexion with Taiwara (Teivereh of Ferrier) and other places in the south of the Ghùr country, but not so as to determine its position. In some other points, moreover, as to names of chiefs, &c., Ferrier’s statements agree with Leech’s.

See the “Tabakdt-i-Nisiri,” in the Bil·l. Indica, transi, by Raverty; Journal Asiatique, ser. v, tom. xvii.; “Ibn Haukal," in J. As. Soc. Beng.,∙cd∖. xxii.; Ferrier's Caravan Journeys·, Hammer's Ilkhans, Ac. (∏. Y.)