[Articles] A Reconsideration of the Formation of the Ghorid Dynasty

In an article published in 1999, I examined the early history of the Ghorid dynasty, which arose within the central mountain massif of Afghanistan in the twelfth century, as well as the location of its ‘capital,’Fīrūzkūh. Subsequent developments have provided new insights: the field investigations conducted in three phases from 2001 onward by David C. Thomas and his team in and around the Minaret of Jam -- now a World Heritage site and identified with Fīrūzkūh -- and my own codicological study of manuscripts of the thirteenth-century Persian chronicle Ṭabaqāt-i Nāṣirī, undertaken to clarify the location of Mandīsh, which played a pivotal role on the eve of the Ghorid rise to power. In light of these findings, I reconsider the pathway leading to the formation of the Ghorid polity and reinforce the earlier hypothesis that the dynasty may originally have emerged from the southern fringes of the central Afghan mountain massif.