However, during the early twelfth century the long-standing rivalry between the Seljuks and Ghaznavids created a power vacuum in eastern Afghanistan and Panjab which the Ghurids took advantage of and began their territorial expansion.

Ala al-Din Husayn ended the Ghurid subordination to the Ghaznavids, ruthlessly sacking their capital, although he was soon defeated by the Seljuks after he stopped paying tribute to them.

While Ghiyath al-Din was occupied with the Ghurid expansion in the west, his junior partner in the dyarchy, Muhammad of Ghor and his lieutenants were active east of the Indus Valley as far as Bengal and eventually succeeded in conquering wide swaths of the Gangetic Plain, while in the west under Ghiyath al-Din, engaging in a protracted duel with the Shahs of Khwarazm, the Ghurids, reached as far as Gorgan (present-day Iran) on the shoreline of the Caspian Sea, albeit for a short time.

Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad died in 1203 of illness caused due to rheumatic disorders and soon after the Ghurids suffered a crushing defeat against the Khwrezmians aided by timely reinforcements from the Qara Khitais in the Battle of Andkhud in 1204.

In the 19th century some European scholars, such as Mountstuart Elphinstone, favoured the idea that the Ghurid dynasty was related to today's Pashtun people[13][14][15] but this is generally rejected by modern scholarship.

Historian André Wink explains in The New Cambridge History of Islam:[24]The Shansabānī dynasty superseded the Ghaznavids in the second half of the twelfth century.

This dynasty was not of Turkish, nor even Afghan, but of eastern Persian or Tājīk origin, speaking a distinct Persian dialect of its own, like the rest of the inhabitants of the remote and isolated mountain region of Ghūr and its capital of Fīrūzkūh (in what is now central Afghanistan).When the Ghurids started to distinguish themselves through their conquests, courtiers and genealogists (such as Fakhr-i Mudabbir and al-Juzjani) forged a fictive genealogy which connected the Ghurids with the Iranian past.

[24] There is nothing to confirm the recent conclusion that the inhabitants of Ghor were originally Pashto-speaking, and claims of the existence of "Pashto poetry", such as Pata Khazana, from the Ghurid period are unsubstantiated.

[32] In 1152, Ala al-Din Husayn refused to pay tribute to the Seljuks and instead marched an army from Firozkoh but was defeated and captured at Nab in the Harīrūd Valley by Sultan Ahmed Sanjar after his forces defected to the Seljuqs.

Despite relatively smaller size of both armies, the defection of nomads at critical point of the battle eventually decided the issue in favour of the Seljuks.

[34] Ala al-Din Husayn remained a prisoner for two years, until he was released in return for a heavy ransom to the Seljuqs and was allowed to reclaim his principality in Ghor.

Ala al-Din spent the rest of his reign expanding the domains of his kingdom; he managed to conquer Garchistan, Tukharistan, Zamindawar, Bust, Bamiyan and other parts of Khurasan.

Right after Ghiyath's ascension, he, with the aid of his loyal brother Muhammad of Ghor (later known as "Shihabuddin Ghuri"), killed a rival Ghurid chief named Abu'l Abbas.

Ghiyath then defeated his uncle Fakhr al-Din Masud who claimed the Ghurid throne and had allied with the Seljuq governor of Herat and Balkh.

[36] In 1175, the Ghurids took control of Herat from the Seljuks, and the city became one of their main power bases and centers of cultural development, together with Firozkoh and Ghazni.

[41] Afterwards, Muhammad assisted his brother Ghiyath in his contest with the Khwarezmian Empire, who were at times supported by their "pagan" suzerains the Qara Khitai, for the lordship of Khorasan.

[57][58] Afterwards, Muhammad pressed upon the Ghanzavids, whose domain was considerably truncated, though they were still controlling parts of Punjab and Pakistan down to the valley of Kabul which were of strategic importance in the pathway to northern India.

[59] Thus by the turn of next decade, Muhammad conquered Sindh,[56] Peshawar, Sialkot and annexed the last Ghaznavid principality in Punjab, with their capital in Lahore, in 1186 through stratagem after three incursions.

[60][61][62] In 1191, the Ghurids seized Bathinda and marched towards Delhi, but were defeated in the First Battle of Tarain by the Rajput confederacy led by the Ajmer-Chahamana king Prithviraja III.

Nevertheless, Muhammad returned a year later with an army of Turkish mounted archers and routed the Rajput forces in the Second Battle of Tarain, and executed Prithviraja shortly afterwards.

[67][68] In 1194, Muhammad returned to India and crossed the Yamuna River with an army of 50,000 horses and at the Battle of Chandawar defeated the forces of the Gahadavala king Jayachandra, who was killed in action.

[72] Also in 1196, Qutb ud-Din Aibak vanquished a coalition of the Rajputs of Ajmer and the Chaulukyas under king Bhima II at Mount Abu, thereafter sacking Anhilwara.

[73] The Ghurids toppled local dynasties and destroyed Hindu temples during their advance across northern India, in place constructing mosques on the same sites.

[77][78][79][80] Muhammad placed his faithful Turkic generals, rather than his own Ghurid brethens, in position of authority over local tributary kings, throughout the conquered Indian lands.

[85] In the ensuing Battle of Andkhud (1204), fought near the river Oxus, the Ghurid troops were completely routed by the combined forces of the Qara-Khitai and the Khwarizmians.

Notwithstanding, Muhammad within a year or so raised a vast army and build bridge across the Oxus to launch a full-scale invasion of Transoxiana to avenge his defeat.

The Khwarezmians under Ala al-Din Muhammad captured Herat and Ghor in 1206, and finally Ghazni in 1215, completing the takeover of the western part of the Ghūrid empire.

May affliction be removed and given to his enemies The practice of inlaying "required relatively few tools" and the technique spread westward, perhaps by Khurasani artisans moving to other cities.