GHURIDS (or Āl-e Šansab), a medieval Islamic dynasty of the
eastern Iranian lands. They began as local chiefs in Ḡūr (q.v.)
in the heartland of what is now Afghanistan, but became a major
power from the mid-12th century until the opening years of the
7th/13th century. Ḡūr was then the nucleus of a vast but
transient military empire which at times stretched from Gorgān
(q.v.) in the west to northern India in the east, only to be
overwhelmed by the Ḵᵛārazmšāhs (q.v.; see also CHORASMIA ii) and
to disappear, as far as the eastern Iranian lands were
concerned, on the eve of the Mongol cataclysm. The Ghurids came
from the Šansabānī family. The name of the eponym Šansab/Šanasb
probably derives from the Middle Persian name Wišnasp (Justi,
Namenbuch, p. 282). After the Ghurids had achieved fame as
military conquerors, obsequious courtiers and genealogists
connected the family with the legendary Iranian past by tracing
it back to Żaḥḥāk, whose descendants were supposed to have
settled in Ḡūr after Ferēdūn had overthro