GHURI, A Mohammedan dynasty which received its name from Ghur, a district of Afghanistan. Ten monarchs are included in this line, and their power lasted from about A.D. 1148 to about A.D. 1215. In 1148 ALA UD-DIN HUSAIN and his brothers, SAIF UD-DIN SURI and BAIIA UD-DIN SAM, attacked and captured Ghazni (see GIIAZNIVIDES), which was placed under Saif ud-Din. This prince was defeated by Bahram, Shah of Ghazni, in the following year, and was hanged. He was succeeded by Bahl', ud-Din as ruler of Ghur, who died within the year, and was followed in turn by Ala ud-Din, who again cap tured Ghazni. Imprisoned by Sanjar in 1150, Ala ud-Din was released after two years and died at Herat in 1156, being succeeded by his son, SAIF UD-DIN MoirAmmEn, who was followed seven years later by his cousin, GIIIYATI1 UD-DIN. In 1173 the most famous prince of the line, Mo ITAMMED Giruni, who was to be the conqueror of Northern India, captured Ghazni, which had been lost. and began his career as a warrior. Ile took Lahore from Khusru Shah, the last of the Ghaznivides, in 1181, and captured it again five years later. Mohammed's early attempts to conquer India were not successful, and he was severely defeated by the Rajah of Delhi and Ajmere, near Thaneswar, between Delhi and Am bala, in 1191. In the following year the tables
were turned; the Rajah was defeated and cap tured near the scene of his previous victory, and put to death. In 1193 Delhi was captured, and the first, or Turkish, dynasty of Delhi Sultans was founded there by MOHAMMED GRURI. The Sultan continued his conquests, defeating the Maharajah of Kanouj in 1194, thus extending his dominion to Benares. Within ten years his slave, Qutb ud-Din, had reduced Gujarat, and Mohammed Bakhtyar had subdued Oudh, Behar, and Bengal. In 1206 Mohammed Ghuri, who kept his court at Ghazni in Afghanistan, was assassi nated while asleep in his tent on the banks of the Indus, and was succeeded by his nephew, GIIIYATII UD-DIN Mmustun. As so often happened at the death of an Oriental conqueror, the Empire was broken up, and the dead Emperor's slave, QUTH uD-DIN, was crowned Emperor of Delhi at Lahore, and began a career of conquest, extending his sway to the Brahmaputra River. The reigns of the Ghuri dynasty after Mohammed, comprising GIIIVATII UD-DIN MAIIIIUD (1206-10), BAHA UD DIN SAN (1210), ALA un-DIN UTSUZ (1210.15), and ALA UD-DIN MOHAMMED (1215), are entirely Without interest.