Beginning in 725, the Umayyad governor Asad b. 'Abdallah al-Qasri unsuccessfully raided the region of Ghur. The inhabitants of Ghor had completely embraced Islam during the
Ghurids era. Before the 12th century, the region was home to
Buddhists,
Zoroastrians,
Hindus and a small number of Jews. Remains of the oldest settlements discovered by Lithuanian
archaeologists in 2007 and 2008 in Ghor date back to 5000 BC. Ruins of a few castles and other defense fortifications were also discovered in the environs of
Chaghcharan. A Buddhist monastery hand-carved on the bluff of the river
Harirud existed in the first centuries during the prevalence of Buddhism. The artificial caves revealed testimony of the daily life of the Buddhist monks. Various scholars and historians such as John McLeod attribute the conversion of the Ghauris to Islam to
Mahmud Ghazni after his conquest of Ghor. Traditional Muslim historians such as
Estakhri and
Ibn Haukal attest to the existence of the non-Islamic enclave of Ghor before the time of Ghazni, which is attributed to converting its population to Islam.
Minhaju-S-Siraj recorded strife between the non-Muslim and Muslim populations: According to Minhahu-S Siraj, Amir Suri was captured by Mahmud of Ghazni, made prisoner along with his son, and taken to Ghazni, where Amir Suri died. built by the
Ghurid dynasty In 1011, 1015 and 1020, both Mahmud and Mas'ud I led expeditions into Ghur and established
Islam in place of indigenous paganism. After this, Ghur was considered a vassal state of the
Ghaznavid empire. During the reign of 'Abd ar Rashi and the usurper
Toghrul, Ghur and
Gharchistan gained autonomy. Ghor was also the center of the
Ghurid dynasty in the 12th and 13th centuries. The remains of their capital
Firozkoh, which was sacked and destroyed by the Mongols in 1222, includes the
Minaret of Jam, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Karzai and Ghani administrations In June 2004, hundreds of troops of Abdul Salaam Khan, who had rejected the Afghan government's plan to disarm regional militias, attacked Chaghcharan and took over the city in an afternoon-long siege. Eighteen people were killed or wounded in the fighting, at which point Governor Mohammed Ibrahim fled. Three days later the Afghan government announced that it would not retake Chaghcharan. Khan and Ibrahim began negotiations soon after but reached no agreement. Khan's troops left Chaghcharan on 23 June, a day ahead of when an
Afghan National Army battalion, led by Lieutenant-General Aminullah Paktiyanai, arrived with the support of roughly 20 U.S. soldiers.
Taliban administration (2021-present) In 2021, the
Taliban regained control of Ghor after the
2021 Taliban offensive. Fifty people were killed in floods in the Ghor province in May 2024. ==Geography==