Muhammad of Ghor
Muhammad of Ghor (
Persian:محمد شہاب الدین غوری) also
Muhammad Ghori,
Mohammad Ghauri, etc., originally named
Mu'izz-ad-din, b.
1162 - d.
1206, was a
Ghurid emperor and the governor of
Ghazni from
1173 to
1206.
Muhammad was the brother of the Sultan Ghiyas-ud-din Muhammad of
Ghor, a region of what is now a province in
Afghanistan. Ghor lay on the western boundary of the
Ghaznevid empire. Before 1160, the Ghaznevid empire covered an area running from central
Afghanistan to the
Punjab, with capitals at
Ghazni and
Lahore.
In 1160, the Ghorids conquered Ghazni from the Ghaznevids, and in 1173 Muhammad was made governor of Ghazni. In
1186-
7 he conquered Lahore, ending the Ghaznevid empire and bringing the last of Ghaznevid territory under his control.
Muhammad attacked the north-western regions of the
Indian subcontinent many times. The first time he was routed in present-day
Gujarat by
Rajputs.A battle was fought at Kayadara near
Mount Abu, where Ghauri'sadvance was defeated. Gujarat later fell to Muhammad Ghauri's armies in
1197.
In the
First Battle of Taraori in
1191 Prithvi Raj Chauhan defeated Muhammad Ghouri. Prithviraj met Ghauri in a personal combat and injured Ghauri. Later both armies attacked each other and Ghauri's army was defetaed. Ghauri took his army back to North India and started preparing for another battle. It is said that he vowed not to sleep on a bed or take a bath until he had defetaed Prithviraj. Next year, he again reached Taroro and challenged Prithviraj, defeated him and seized control of his kingdom.
One account recounts that after taking him prisoner, Ghauri ordered the eyes of Prithviraj to be gouged out and made the blind Prithviraj a subject of ridicule in his court.
After some time, an archery competition was held in Ghauri's kingdom. Prithviraj, being a skilled archer of repute was also brought for this competition and asked to compete to ridicule him further. Prithviraj refused to shoot his arrow on the orders of Ghauri's generals, being a king himself. As such, Ghauri himself asked Prithviraj to shoot at the target. Prithviraj, instead, turned around and locating the source of the voice, shot his arrow straight into Ghauri's throat, killing him instantly. The valorous Prithviraj was thus able to avenge his defeat at the hands of Ghauri. It was as a result of this that Qutb-ud-din-Aybak, one of Ghauri's generals, was able to succeed him and control his empire.
A different version, propogated by Muslim historians, says that after defeating Prithviraj Ghauri killed him and gained control of his kingdom and went on to control northern
Rajasthan and the northern part of the Ganges-Yamuna
Doab.Allegedly, Muhammad Ghauri returned east to Ghazni to deal with the threat to his western frontiers from the
Turks and
Mongols, but his armies, mostly under Turkish generals, continued to advance through northern India, raiding as far east as
Bengal.
Muhammad returned to
Lahore after
1200 to deal with a revolt of the
Gakhar tribe in the
Punjab. He suppressed the revolt, but was killed during a
Gakhar raid on his camp on the
Jhelum River in
1206.
Upon his death,
Qutb-ud-din Aybak, Muhammad Ghauri's most capable general, took control of Muhammad's Indian conquests and declared himself the first
Sultan of Delhi. Muhammad's former territory in Afghanistan was conquered by the Mongols.
The tomb of
Pir Sultan Muhammad Ghauri is located at
Punjab,
Pakistan.
Pakistan considers Sultan Muhammad Ghauri as a hero, and has named its
intermediate-range ballistic missile the
Ghauri missile in his honor.
*
Ghurids
