GHOR or GHUR, an ancient kingdom in the southern portion of that great peninsula of strong mountain country which forms the western part of modern Afghanistan.
Ghor is mentioned in the Shahnama of Firdousi (A.D. IOIO), and in the Arab geographies of that time, but the people and princes of Ghor first became known to us in connection with the Ghaznevid dynasty, and the early mediaeval histories of Ghor and Ghazni are so intertwined that nothing need be added to what will be found under GHAZNI (q.v.).
About A.D. one of the princely families of Ghor, deriving the appellation of Shansabi, or Shansabaniah, from a certain ancestor Shansab, of local fame, acquired predominance in all the country, and Malik 'Izzuddin al Hosain of this family was known afterwards as "the Father of Kings," from the honour to which several of his seven sons rose. Three of these were—(t) Amir Kutbuddin Mahommed, called the lord of the Jibal or mountains; (2) Sultan Saifuddin Suri, 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 vengeance upon Ghazni and began the conquests which were afterwards immensely extended both in India and in the West by his nephews Ghiya suddin Mahommed b. Sam and Mahommed Ghori. For a brief period during their rule it was boasted, with no great exaggera tion, that the public prayer was read in the name of the Ghori from the extremity of India to the borders of Babylonia, and from the Oxus to the Straits of Ormus. After the death of Mahommed Ghori the Indian dominion became independent, and the whole kingdom fell to pieces before the power of Mahommed Shah of Khwarizm and his son Jelaluddin (c. 1214-15), a power in its turn speedily shattered by the Mongol flood.
The princes of Ghor experienced, about the middle of the 13th century, a revival of power, which endured for 14o years. This later dynasty bore the name of Kurt or Kart. The first of his torical prominence was Malik Shamsuddin Kurt, who in 1245 held the lordship of Ghor in some kind of alliance with, or subordina tion to, the Mongols, and in 1248 received from the Great Khan Mangu an investiture of all the provinces from Mery to the Indus, including by name Seistan, Kabul, Tirah (adjoining the Khyber pass), and Afghanistan, which he ruled from Herat. He stood well with Hulagu, 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 Tatar suzerains, he withdrew into Ghor, 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, some times aiming at independence. But in 138o Timur came against Herat, and carried away the king and the treasures of his dynasty. A revolt and massacre of his garrison provoked Timur's ven geance; he put the captive king to death, came against the city a second time, and showed it no mercy (1383) . Ghor has since been obscure in history.
The valleys of the Taimani tribes though narrow are fertile and well cultivated, and there are many walled villages and forts about Parjuman and Zarni in the south-eastern districts. The peak of "Chalap Dalan" (described by Ferrier as "one of the highest in the world") is the Koh-i-Kaisar, which is a trifle over 13,000f t. in height. All the country now known as Ghor was mapped during the progress of the Russo-Afghan boundary delimitation.
See the "Tabakat-i-Nasiri," in the Bibl. Indica, transl. by Raverty; Journal asiatique, ser. v. tom. avii. ; "Ibn Haukal," in J. As. Soc. Beng., vol. xxii. ; Ferrier's Caravan Journeys; Hammer's Ilkhans.