the Ghūrid conqueror of the north Indian plain; he was one of the founders of Muslim rule in India.

Muʿizz-ud-Dīn's elder brother, Ghiyāṣ-ud-Dīn, acquired power east of Herāt in the region of Ghūr (Ghowr, in present Afghanistan) c. 1162. Muʿizz-ud-Dīn always remained his brother's loyal subordinate. Thus Muʿizz-ud-Dīn expelled the Oğuz Turkmen nomads from Ghazna ( Ghaznī) in 1173 and came as required to his brother's assistance in his contest with Khwārezm for the lordship of Khorāsān.

After Ghiyāṣ-ud-Dīn's death in 1202, the rivalry between the two powers came to a head with Muʿizz-ud-Dīn's attack in 1204 on the Khwārezmian capital, Gurganj (in present Uzbekistan). In Hindustān, Muʿizz-ud-Dīn captured Multān and Uch in 1175 and annexed the Ghaznavid principality of Lahore in 1186. After being defeated by a coalition of Rājput kings at Tarāorī (see Tarāorī, Battles of) in 1191, he returned the next year with an army of mounted archers and won a great victory over them on the same field, opening the way for his lieutenants to occupy most of northern India in the years that followed. Muʿizz-ud-Dīn was assassinated, according to some, by Hindu Khokars, according to others by Ismāʿīlīs. See also Delhi sultanate.