GIPCIR (Gkor, Chow', Corr, kc.) is the name of a territory in Asia, and Gut'Lar (Gbori, Ghoory, &c.) that of a dynasty deriving its origin front that territory.

The name of Chiir was, in the Middle Ages, and, indeed, locally still is, applied to the highlands east of Herat, and extending eastward to the upper Helmand valley, or nearly so. There is hardly any region of Asia regarding which we continue to be more in the dark than about this. alie is the southern portion of that great peninsula of strong mountain country which forms the western part of modern Afghanistan, and which may be taken in a general way to represent the Paropamisus of the ancients. The northern portion of the said peninsula was in the Middle Ages comprehended under the names of Ghaddiskin, (on the west), and Ja2jcinci (on the east), whilst the basin of the Herat river, and all south of it, constituted Glrar. The name as now used does not perhaps include the valley of the Herat river ; on the south the limit seems to be the declivity of the higher mountains (about 32° 45' N. ]at.) dominating the descent to the lower Helmand, and the road from Farrah to Kandahar. It is in Ghtir that rise all those affluents of the closed basin of Seistdn, the Hardt, the Farrah-rAd, the Khash-rnd (see AFGHANISTAN), besides other considerable streams joining the Helmand above Girishk.

Ghtiir is mentioned in the Shahnamah of Firdousi (1010 A.D.), and in the Arab geographers of that time, though these latter fail in details almost as much as we moderns, thus intimating how little accessible the country has been through all ages. Iba Baukal's map of Khorasan (e. 976) shows Jibcil " the hill-country of Ghia," as a circle ring-fenced with mountains. His brief description speaks of it as a land fruitful in crops, cattle, and flocks, inhabited by infidels, except a few who passed for Mahometans, and indicates that, like other pagan countries surrounded by Moslem populations, it was regarded as a store of slaves for the faithful. The boundary of Glair in ascending the valley of the Hari-rnd was six and a half easy marches from Herat, at Chist, two marches above Obah (both of which are still in our maps).

The chief part of the present population of Ghia' are Tainninis belonging to the class of nomad or semi-nomad clans called Einzas (see AFGHANISTAN, vol. i. p. 235). There are also, according to Ferrier, AS'iimis, who were formerly the main part of the population, apparently the same as the Zoorees of Elphinstone (Canbul, ii. 204), another of the Eimak clans ; and in the north of GhUr Ferrier mentions Mongols. Camels are kept in great numbers by the Eimaks, chiefly for their wool. Though the country is very mountainous, there are fruitful valleys of considerable width. But our knowledge is too slight for us to say more.

The people and princes of Chin' first become known to us in connexion with the Ghaznevid dynasty, and the early media:val histories of Glint' and Ghazni are so intertwined that little need be added on that subject to what will be found under GHAZNI (q.v.). What we read of Glinr shows it as a country of lofty mountains and fruitful valleys, and of numerous strongholds held by a variety of hill-chieftains ruling warlike clans whose habits were rife with feuds and turbulence, - indeed, in character strongly resembling the tribes of modern _Afghanistan, though there seems no good reason to believe that they were of Afghan race. It is probable that they were of old Persian blood, like the older of those tribes which still occupy the country. It is possibly' a corroboration of this that, in the 14th century, when one of the Glinri kings, of the Kurt dynasty reigning in Herat, had taken to himself some of the insignia of independent sovereignty, an incensed Mongol prince is said to have reviled him as "an insolent Tajilc" (Journal Asial., ser. v. tom. xvii. p. 509). Sabuktigin of Ghazni, and his famous son Mainland, repeatedly invaded the mountain country which so nearly adjoined their capital, subduing its chiefs for the moment, and exacting tribute ; but when the immediate pressure was withdrawn, the yoke was thrown off, and the tribute withheld. In 1020 Masa'ud, the son of Mahmnd, being then governor of Khorasan, made a systematic. invasion of Ghnr from the side of Herat, laying siege to its strongholds one after the other, and subduing the country more effectually than ever before. About a century later one of the princely families of Ghnr, deriving the appellation of Shansabi, or Shausabaniab, from a certain ancestor Shansab, of local fame, and of alleged descent from Zohak, acquired predominance in all the country, and at the time mentioned Malik 'Izzuddin al Husain of this family came to be recognized as lord of Ohn•. He was known afterwards as "the Father of Kings," from the further honour to which several of his seven sons rose. Three of these (see GHAZNI) were - (1) Amir Kutbuddin Mahonmacd, called the lord of the Jibal or mountains ; (2) Sultzin Saifuddin Snri, for a brief period master of Ghazni, - both of whom were put to death by Bahram the Ghaznevid ; and (3) SulOn Alituddin Jahansoz, who wreaked such terrible vengeance upon Ghazni. Alauddin began the conquests which were afterwards immensely extended both in India and in the west by his nephews Ghiyassuddin Mahommed ibis Sam and Muizuddin Mahommed Sam (the Shalnibuddin Ghnri of the historians), and fora brief period during their ride it was boasted, with no great exaggeration, that the public prayer was read in the name cf the Glanri from the extremity of India to the borders of Babylonia, and from the Oxus to the Straits of Ormus. After the death of Muizuddin (alias Shahauddin), Mainland the son of Glaiyassuddin was proclaimed sovereign (1206) throughout the territories of GUI-, Ghazni, and Hindustan. But the Indian dominion, from his uncle's death, became entirely independent, and his actual authority was confined to ChM., Seistan, and Herat. The whole kingdom fell to pieces before the power of Mohammed. Shall of Khwarazm and his son Jaltiluddin (c. 1214-1215), a power in its turn to be speedily shattered by the Mongol flood (see GuAzxa).

Besides the thrones of Ohn• and Ghazni, the Shansabaniah family, in the person of Fakh•uddin, the eldest of the seven sons of Malik 'Izzuddin, founded a kingdom in the Oxus basin, having its seat at BialLiN (q.v.), which endured for two or three generations, till extinguished by the power of Khwarazm (1214). And the great Mussulman empire of Delhi was based on the conquests of Muizuddin the Ghanian, carried out and consolidated by his Turki freedmen, Kutbmddin Aibak and his successors. The princes of Mini- experienced, oboist the middle of the 13th century, a revival of power, which endured for 140 years. This later dynasty bore the name of Kurt or Khrrt. The first of historical prominence was Malik Shamsuddin Kurt, descended by his another from the great king Ghiyassuddin Ghuri, whilst his other grandfather was that prince's favourite minister. In 1215 Shamsuddin held the lordship of Glair in some kind of alliance with, or subordination to, the Mongols, who had not vet definitively established themselves in Persia. and in 1246 he received from the Great Khan Mangu an investiture of all the provinces from Mery to the Indus, including by name Sijistan (or Seistan), Cabul, null (adjoining the Khaibar pass), and Afghanistan (a very early occurrence of this name), which he ruled from Herat. He stood well with Hulakn, and for a long time with his son Alaska, but at last incurred the latter's jealousy, and was poisoned when ou a visit to the court at Tabriz (1076). his son Rukuuddin Kurt was, however, invested with the government of Khorasan (1278), but after some years, mistrusting his Tartar suzerains, lie withdrew into Ghnr, and abode in his strong fortress of Kaissar till his death there in 1305. The family held on through a succession of eight kings in all, sometimes submissive to the Mongol, sometimes aiming at independence, sometimes for a series of prosperous years adding to the strength and splendour of Herat, and sometimes sorely lfatkted by the hosts of masterless Tartar brigands that tore Khorasan and Persia in the decline of the dynasties of Ilulakn and Chagatai. It is possible that the hurts might have established a lasting Tajik kingdom at Herat, but in the time of the last of the dynasty, Ghiyassuddin Pir-'Ali, Tartardom, reorganized and re-embodied in the person of Timm., came against Herat, and carried away the king and the treasures of Ids dynasty (13S0;. A revolt and massacre of his garrison provoked Timor's vengeance ; he put the captive king to death, came against the city a second time, and showed it no mercy (1333). Ginn. has since been as obscure in history as it is in its topography.

The proper capital of the kingdom of Ginn- when its princes were rising to dominion in the 12th century was Firnz-Koh, where a city and fortress were founded by Sairuddin Stiri. Tlye trite position of Firnz-Koh does not seem to have been determined, out It was probably on or near the upper waters of the Hari-rnd or river of Herat ; and it is possible that it may be represented by Shahrak, a place in that valley (about 65' 30' E. long.), once a populous and flourishing town, which was described to Ferrier, who passed not far from it, as having been anciently the capital of Ghdr. The name of Firsiz-Kohis has been appropriated to one of the most numerous of the nomad tribes occupying the upper part of the Hari-rnd and part of the Murg1Mb, but it is doubtful if this has to do with the Glair capital, as the name is otherwise explained. Other places claim to have been the old capital. Thus Karrukh, a place visited. by Khanikoff in 1S5S, in a rapid excursion from Herat, and lying on the north side of the valley, is one. But this seems r too neaHerat (only 30 miles distant). Ferrier, again, describes as the ancient capital a place, which lie reached in his journey, called Zqpiti, about 150 miles by road from Herat towards the S.E. The population did not exceed 1200, belonging to the Sari and Taimind tribes. The peak of Chalap Dalan, "one of the highest in the world," rose before Zarni in imposing majesty. The mountain, at half its height, has a compass of some 40 miles ; the sides are covered with forests and pastures, villages and tents, and also exhibit naturally impregnable positions where successive chiefs have built strongholds. Ferrier, in accompanying the Afghan governor, who lived at Zarni, saw three ancient towns on the skirts of this mountain, all large and fortified, viz., Kala' Kaissar, Kala' Sangi, and Fakhralxid. These are described as only a few farsalia, or hours' march, north-east of Teivereh, which last is in some of our maps. Doubts have indeed been cast on the authenticity of this part of Perrier's book, chiefly on account of the extreme brevity of the time which he allows. But the professed journal was probably, under the circumstances, only an expansion from memory of the merest jottings; and several things are in favour of authenticity. His notices of the country, slight as they are, correspond notably in the impression conveyed with those of the TaWcriti-i-NO.siri(see below). Kaissar, which lie mentions, is a place that has already been referred to as the stronghold of Ilnknuddin Kurt. Zarni, as roughly located by him, corresponds fairly with what was told Conolly on his journey between FUrat and Kandahar, of the position and character of " the old city of Ghore . . . . now a ruinous, ill-inhabited town, the capital of a petty province, governed by one of Shah Kamran's sons, who has his residence there (Journey, vol. ii. p. 61). 'Laid is mentioned by Major Leech in connexion with Taiwara (Tcivereh of Ferrier) and other places in the south of the Glair country, lint not so as to determine its position. In some other points, moreover, as to names of chiefs, &e., Furrier's statements agree with Leech's.

See the "DthaInft-i-NAsiri," in the Bad. Indica, trans]. by novelty; Journal Ariativie, ser. v, torn. xvii. • "1bn Ilatikal," in J. As. Soc. Bony., vol. xxii.; Ferrier 's Caravan Journeys: l'Iammer*s //khans, 6:e. (II. Y.)