Encyclopedia Iranica, «Ghurids» (Edmund Bosworth), edizione online, 2001 ([1])
Encyclopædia Iranica, «Ghurids», C.E. Bosworth, (Link): «. . . The Ghurids came from the Šansabānī family. The name of the eponym Šansab/Šanasb probably derives from the Middle Persian name Wišnasp (Justi, Namenbuch, p. 282). . . The chiefs of Ḡūr only achieve firm historical mention in the early 5th/11th century with the Ghaznavid raids into their land, when Ġūr was still a pagan enclave. Nor do we know anything about the ethnic stock of the Ġūrīs in general and the Šansabānīs in particular; we can only assume that they were eastern Iranian Tajiks. . . The sultans were generous patrons of the Persian literary traditions of Khorasan, and latterly fulfilled a valuable role as transmitters of this heritage to the newly conquered lands of northern India, laying the foundations for the essentially Persian culture which was to prevail in Muslim India until the 19th century. . .»
