Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/587

Rh than sufﬁcient for maintaining in afﬂuence his large family of ﬁfteen children, and his works became comparatively mannered and self-repeating. His sons traded in France and 1 Ferrara; he himself took a part in commercial affairs, and began paying some attention to mosaic work, but it seems that, after completing one mosaic, the Annunciation over the door of the Nunziata, patience failed him for continuing such minute labours. In his old age Ridolfo was greatly disabled by gout. He appears to have been of a kindly, easy-going character, much regarded by his friends and patrons.

1em 1em  GHIZNI. See.  GHOORKAS. See.  GHÚR (Ghor, Ghoor, Gour, &c.) is the name of a territory in Asia, and (Ghori, Ghoory &c.) that of a dynasty deriving its origin from that territory. The name of Glu’u‘ 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. Ghi’ir 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 com- prehended under the names of Gluujl'slcin, (on the west), and Jug/22nd (on the east), whilst the basin of the Herat river, and all south of it, constituted (Hair. The name as now used does not perhaps include the valley of the Herat river ; on the south the limit seems to be the deelivity of the higher mountains (about 32° 45' N. lat.) dominating the descent to the lower Helmand, and the road from Farrah to Kandahar. It is in Ghl’u‘ that rise all those afﬂuents of the closed basin of Seistz’in, the Hari’it, the Farrah-rial, the Khash-rud (see ), besides other considerable streams joining the Helmaud above Girishk. Ghur is mentioned in the Shahnamah of Firdousi, and in the Arab geographers of that time, though these latter fail in details almost as much as we moderns, thus indicating how little accessible the country has been through all ages. Ibn I'laukal’s map of Khorasau (c.) shows Jibdl al-Gluir, “ the hill-country of Ghur,” as a circle ring- fcnced 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 Moslein populations, it was regarded as a store of slaves for the faithful. The boundary of (that in ascending the valley of the Hari-rt'td 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 Gluir are Taimzinis belonging to the class of nomad or semi-nomad clans called Eimd/rs (see, ). There are also, according to Ferrier, Sch-is, who were formerly the main part of the population, apparently the same as the Zoorccs of Elphinstone (Cuubul, ii. 1204), another of the Eimak clans, and in the north of Ght’tr 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.

1em 