The Ghurids or Ghorids (Persian: سلسله غوریان‎; self-designation: Shansabānī) were a medieval Muslim dynasty of Iranian origin that ruled during the 12th and 13th centuries in Khorasan. At its zenith, their empire, centred at Ghōr (now a province in Afghanistan), stretched over an area that included the whole of modern Afghanistan, the eastern parts of Iran, Pakistan and the northern section of the India, as far as Delhi. The Ghurids were succeeded in Persia by the Khwārazm-Shāh dynasty and in North India by the Mamluk dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.

In the 19th century, some European scholars, such as Mountstuart Elphinstone, favoured the idea that the Ghurid dynasty was Pashtun, but this is generally rejected by modern scholarship, and, as explained by Morgenstierne in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, is for "various reasons very improbable". Instead, the consensus in modern scholarship (incl. Morgenstierne, Bosworth, Dupree, Gibb, Ghirshman, Longworth Dames and others) holds that the dynasty was most likely of Tajik origin.Bosworth further points out that the actual name of the Ghurid family, Āl-e Šansab (Persianized: Šansabānī), is the Arabic pronunciation of the originally Middle Persian name Wišnasp, perhaps hinting at a (Sassanian) Persian origin.

The Khalaj people are a Turkic people that speak the Khalaj language, which is thought to be one of the closest languages to Old Turkic.

Syed Usman Marwandi or known as Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (1177–1274) (Sindhi: لال شھباز قلندر), a Sayed Sufi saint, philosopher, poet, and qalandar. Born Syed Hussain Shah, he belonged to the Suhrawardiyya order of Sufis.

He preached religious tolerance among Muslims and Hindus. His mysticism attracted people from all religions. He was called Lal (red) after his usual red attire, Shahbaz due to his noble and divine spirit, and Qalandar for his Sufi affiliation. Many Hindus regard him as the incarnation of Bhrithari while others (Hindus from Sindh) consider him as an emanation of Jhule lal. Thousands of pilgrims visit his shrine in Sehwan every year, especially at the occasion of his Urs.

Shahbaz Qalandar (Syed Usman Marwandi) was born in Maiwand, Afghanistan to a dervish, Syed Ibrahim Kabiruddin whose ancestors had migrated from Baghdad and settled in Mashhad, a center of learning and civilization, before migrating again to Marwand.

During his lifetime he witnessed the Ghaznavid and Ghurids rules in South Asia. A contemporary of Baha-ud-din Zakariya, Fariduddin Ganjshakar, Syed Jalaluddin Bukhari Surkh-posh of Uchch, Shams Tabrizi, Mehre Ali Shah Mast and Rumi, he travelled around the Muslim world and settled in Sehwan (Sindh, Pakistan) where he was eventually buried. Evidence shows that Shahbaz Qalander was in Sindh before 1196 when he met Pir Haji Ismail Panhwar of Paat. It is believed he arrived in Sehwan in 1251. He established a Khanqah there and taught in the Fuqhai Islam Madarrsah: during this period he wrote his treatises Mizna-e-Sart, Kism-e-Doyum, Aqd and Zubdah.

Igor Anvar Kufayev (Russian: Игорь Анвар Kуфаев; born January 5, 1966), is a Russian British artist, yogi and spiritual teacher.

Igor Kufayev was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In his childhood he had many spiritual experiences associated with awakening of Kundalini. Classically trained in art from an early age he attended a private studio of a martial artist and painter Shamil Rakhimov, a place of underground meetings between liberal thinkers, poets and painters. The violent death of his mentor lead to young Igor's decision to become an artist. Kufayev received his formal education at the Art College in Tashkent, and after two years of compulsory military service, resumed his studies at the Theater and Art Institute, at the department of Mural painting. In 1988 he was accepted as a student of a second year to the Academy of Arts [now Imperial Academy of Arts] in St Petersburg, Russia. Independently of his official program, he studied and painted directly from the masterpieces of western art, in the Hermitage Museum.