Product Code Database
Herat Herat - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary . Merriam-webster.com (2012-08-31). Retrieved on 2013-07-12. (Pashto, Dari: ), also known as Harāt or Hirāt, and historically known as Hira, Harew, Haraiva, and Horeiva is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276. It serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains ( Selseleh-ye Safēd Kōh) in the fertile valley of the Hari River in the western part of the country. An ancient civilization on the Silk Road between West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia, it serves as a hub in the country's west.
Herat dates back to Avestan period and was traditionally known for its wine. The city has a number of historic sites, including the Herat Citadel and the Musalla Complex. During the Middle Ages, Herat became one of the important cities of Greater Khorasan, as it was known as the Pearl of Khorasan. After its conquest by Tamerlane, the city became an important center of intellectual and artistic life in the Islamic world. Under the rule of Shah Rukh, the city served as the focal point of the Timurid Renaissance, whose glory is thought to have matched Florence of the Italian Renaissance as the center of a cultural rebirth.Periods of World History: A Latin American Perspective - Page 129The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia - Page 465 After the fall of the Timurid Empire, Herat has been governed by various Afghan rulers since the early 18th century.Singh, Ganda (1959). Ahmad Shah Durrani, father of modern Afghanistan . Asia Publishing House, Bombay. (PDF version
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> 66 MB ) In 1716, the Abdali Afghans inhabiting the city revolted and formed their own Sultanate, the Sadozai Sultanate of Herat. They were conquered by the Afsharid Iran in 1732.
After Nader Shah's death and Ahmad Shah Durrani's rise to power in 1747, Herat separated from Persia and became part of Durrani Empire. It became an independent city-state in the first half of the 19th century, facing several Qajar Qajar Iran invasions until being incorporated into Afghanistan in 1863. Pashtunzadagan, Darwazekhosh, Ghorian, GhaderGij (QaderGij) and Gozargah are some of the neighborhoods of Herat within the city limits. The roads from Herat to Iran (through the border town of Islam Qala) and Turkmenistan (through the border town of Torghundi) are still strategically important. As the gateway to Iran, it collects high amount of customs revenue for Afghanistan. It also has an international airport. Following the 2001 war, the city had been relatively safe from Taliban insurgent attacks. In 2021, it was announced that Herat would be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On 12 August 2021, the city was seized by Taliban fighters as part of the Taliban's summer offensive.
The area of Herat Province, along with areas like Piranshahr, Damghan and Aleppo, are noted to be sites for archaeological interests and exploration.
Herat is first recorded in ancient times, but its precise date of foundation is unknown. Under the Persian Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC), the surrounding district was known by the Old Persian name of Haraiva (𐏃𐎼𐎡𐎺), and in classical sources, the region was correspondingly known as Areia (Aria). In the Zoroastrian collection of Avesta, the district is referred as Haroiva. The name of the district and its principal town is a derivative from that of the local river, the Herey River (from Old Iranian Harayu, meaning "with velocity"), which goes through the district and ends south of Herat. The naming of a region and its principal town after the main river is a common feature in this part of the world— compare the adjoining districts/rivers/towns of Arachosia and Bactria.
The district Aria of the Achaemenid Empire is mentioned in the provincial lists that are included in various royal inscriptions, for instance, in the Behistun inscription of Darius I (ca. 520 BC). Representatives from the district are depicted in reliefs, e.g., at the royal Achaemenid tombs of Naqsh-e Rustam and Persepolis. They are wearing Scythians-style dress (with a tunic and trousers tucked into high ) and a twisted Bashlyk that covers their head, chin and neck.
Hamdallah Mustawfi, composer of the 14th-century geographical work Nuzhat al-Qulub writes that:
Herodotus described Herat as the breadbasket of Central Asia. At the time of Alexander the Great in 330 BC, Aria was obviously an important district. It was administered by a satrap called Satibarzanes, who was one of the three main Persian officials in the East of the Empire, together with the satrap Bessus of Bactria and Barsaentes of Arachosia. In late 330 BC, Alexander captured the Arian capital that was called Artacoana. The town was rebuilt and the citadel was constructed. Afghanistan became part of the Seleucid Empire.
However, most sources suggest that Herat was predominantly Zoroastrian. It became part of the Parthian Empire in 167 BC. In the Sasanian period (226–652), 𐭧𐭥𐭩𐭥 Harēv is listed in an inscription on the Ka'ba-i Zartosht at Naqsh-e Rustam; and Hariy is mentioned in the Middle Persian catalogue of the provincial capitals of the empire. Around 430, the town is also listed as having a Christian community, with a bishop from the Church of the East.The earliest recorded date of a bishop in Herat is 424.
In the last two centuries of Sasanian rule, Aria (Herat) was of great strategic importance in the endless wars between the Sasanians, the Chionites, and the Hephthalites, who had been settled in the northern section of Afghanistan since the late 4th century.
When the Arab armies appeared in Greater Khorasan in the 650s, Herāt was counted among the twelve capital towns of the Sasanian Empire. The Arab army under the general command of Ahnaf ibn Qais in its conquest of Khorāsān in 652 seems to have avoided Herāt. The city eventually submitted to the Arabs, since shortly afterward, an Arab governor is mentioned there. A treaty was drawn in which the regions of Bādghis and Bushanj were included. Like many other places in Khorāsān, Herāt rebelled and had to be re-conquered several times.Abu Ja’far Muḥammad ibn Jarir Ṭabari, Taʾrikh al-rosul wa’l-moluk, pp. 2904-6
Another power that was active in the area in the 650s was Tang dynasty China which had embarked on a campaign that culminated in the Conquest of the Western Turks. By 659–661, the Tang claimed a tenuous suzerainty over Herat, the westernmost point of Chinese power in its long history. This hold however would be ephemeral with local Turkish tribes rising in rebellion in 665 and driving out the Tang.
In 702, Yazid ibn al-Muhallab defeated certain Arab rebels, followers of Ibn al-Ash'ath, and forced them out of Herat. The city was the scene of conflicts between different groups of Muslims and Arab tribes in the disorders leading to the establishment of the Abbasid Caliphate. Herat was also a center of the followers of Ustadh Sis.
In 870, Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar, the founder of the Saffarids, conquered Herat and the rest of the nearby regions in the name of Islam.
Herat was a great trading center strategically located on trade routes from the Mediterranean to India or China. The city was noted for its textiles during the Abbasid Caliphate, according to many references by geographers. Herāt also had many learned sons such as Ansārī. The city is described by Estakhri and Ibn Hawqal in the 10th century as a prosperous town surrounded by strong walls with plenty of water sources, extensive suburbs, an inner citadel, a congregational mosque, and four gates, each gate opening to a thriving market place. The government building was outside the city at a distance of about a mile in a place called Khorāsānābād. A church was still visible in the countryside northeast of the town on the road to Balkh, and farther away on a hilltop stood a flourishing fire temple, called Sereshk, or Arshak according to Mustawfi. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Brill Publishers, Vol.3: H-Iram, 1986, Leiden, pp. 177Eṣṭaḵri, pp. 263-65, tr. pp. 277-82Ibn Ḥawqal, pp. 437-39, tr. pp. 424;Moqaddasi (Maqdesi), Aḥsan al-taqāsim fi maʿrifat al-aqālim, ed. M. J. de Goeje, Leiden, 1906, p. 307;
Herat was a part of the Tahirid dynasty dominion in Khorāsān until the rise of the Saffarid dynasty in Sistan under Ya'qub-i Laith in 861, who, in 862, started launching raids on Herat before besieging and capturing it on 16 August 867, and again in 872. The Saffarids succeeded in expelling the Taherids from Khorasan in 873.
The Samanids was established in Transoxiana by three brothers, Nuh I, Yahyā, and Ahmad Samani. Ahmad Sāmāni opened the way for the Samanid dynasty to the conquest of Khorāsān, including Herāt, which they were to rule for one century. The centralized Samanid administration served as a model for later dynasties. The Samanid power was destroyed in 999 by the Qarakhanids, who were advancing on Transoxiana from the northeast, and by the Ghaznavids, former Samanid retainers, attacking from the southeast.
Ghaznavid Era
Sultan Maḥmud of Ghazni officially took control of Khorāsān in 998. Herat was one of the six Ghaznavid mints in the region. In 1040, Herat was captured by the Seljuk Empire. During this change of power in Herat, there was supposedly a power vacuum which was filled by Qutb Shah, who established a city-state and made an alliance with Mahmud of Ghazni. Yet, in 1175, it was captured by the Ghurid dynasty of Ghor and then came under the Khawarazm Empire in 1214. According to the account of Mustawfi, Herat flourished especially under the Ghurid dynasty in the 12th century. Mustawfi reported that there were "359 colleges in Herat, 12,000 shops all fully occupied, 6,000 bath-houses; besides caravanserais and mills, also a darwish convent and a fire temple". There were about 444,000 houses occupied by a settled population. The men were described as "warlike and carry arms", and they were Sunni Islam . The great mosque of Herāt was built by Ghiyasuddin Ghori in 1201. In this period Herāt became an important center for producing metal goods, especially in bronze, often decorated with elaborate inlays in precious metals.
Mongols
The Mongol Empire laid siege to Herat twice. The first siege resulted in the surrender of the city, the slaughter of the local sultan's army of 12,000, and the appointment of two governors, one Mongol and one Muslim. The second, prompted by a rebellion against Mongol rule, lasted seven months and ended in June 1222 with, according to one account, the beheading of the entire population of 1,600,000 people by the victorious Mongols, such that "no head was left on a body, nor body with a head." Cambridge History of Iran, Vol.V, Ch.4, "Dynastic and Political History of the Il-Khans" (John Andrew Boyle), pp.315-6 (1968).
The city remained in ruins from 1222 to about 1236. In 1244, a local prince Shams al-Din Kart was named ruler of Herāt by the Mongol governor of Khorāsān and in 1255 he was confirmed in his rule by the founder of the Ilkhanate Hulagu Khan. Shamsuddin Kart founded a new dynasty and his successors, especially Fakhruddin Kart and Ghiyasuddin Kart, built many mosques and other buildings. The members of this dynasty were great patrons of literature and the arts. By this time Herāt became known as the pearl of Khorasan.
Timur took Herat in 1380 and he brought the Kartids to an end a few years later. The city reached its greatest glory under the Timurid dynasty, especially Husayn Bayqarah who ruled Herat from 1469 until 4 May 1506. His chief minister, the poet and author in Persian and Turkish, Mir Ali-Shir Nava'i was a great builder and patron of the arts. Under the Timurids, Herat assumed the role of the main capital of an empire that extended in the West as far as central Iran. As the capital of the Timurid empire, it boasted many fine religious buildings and was famous for its sumptuous court life and musical performance and its tradition of miniature paintings. On the whole, the period was one of relative stability, prosperity, and development of economy and cultural activities. It began with the nomination of Shahrokh, the youngest son of Timur, as governor of Herat in 1397. The reign of Shahrokh in Herat was marked by intense royal patronage, building activities, and the promotion of manufacturing and trade, especially through the restoration and enlargement of the Herat's bāzār. The present Musallah Complex, and many buildings such as the madrasa of Gawhar Shad, Ali Shir mahāl, many gardens, and others, date from this time. The village of Gazar Gah, over two km northeast of Herat, contained a shrine that was enlarged and embellished under the Timurids. The tomb of the poet and mystic Khwājah Abdullāh Ansārī (d. 1088), was first rebuilt by Shahrokh about 1425, and other famous men were buried in the shrine area.
In the summer of 1458, the Qara Qoyunlu under Jahan Shah advanced as far as Herat, but had to turn back soon because of a revolt by his son Hasan Ali and also because Abu Said's march on Tabriz.
In 1507, Herat was occupied by the Uzbeks but after much fighting the city was taken by Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid dynasty, in 1510 and the Shamlu Qizilbash assumed the governorship of the area. Under the Safavids, Herat was again relegated to the position of a provincial capital, albeit one of particular importance. At the death of Shah Isma'il the Uzbeks again took Herat and held it until Tahmasp I retook it in 1528. The Persian king, Shah Abbas the Great was born in Herat, and in Safavid texts, Herat is referred to as a'zam-i bilād-i īrān, meaning "the greatest of the cities of Iran". In the 16th century, all future Safavid Persian rulers, from Tahmasp I to Abbas I, were governors of Herat in their youth.
The famous Musalla Complex of Herat, a large Islamic religious complex consisting of five minarets, several mausoleums along with and was dynamited during the Panjdeh incident to prevent their usage by the advancing Russian forces. Some emergency preservation work was carried out at the site in 2001 which included building protective walls around the Gawhar Shad Mausoleum and Sultan Husain Madrasa, repairing the remaining minaret of Gawhar Shad's Madrasa, and replanting the mausoleum garden.
In the aftermath of the Afghan Civil War (1928–1929), Herat was the last stronghold of Saqqawist resistance, holding out until 1931 when it was retaken by forces loyal to Mohammad Nadir Shah.
In the 1960s, engineers from the United States built Herat Airport, which was used by the Soviet Union forces during the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Even before the Soviet invasion at the end of 1979, there was a substantial presence of Soviet advisors in the city with their families.
Between 10–20 March 1979, the Afghan Army in Herat under the control of commander Ismail Khan mutinied. Thousands of protesters took to the streets against the Khalq communist regime's oppression led by Nur Mohammad Taraki. The new rebels led by Khan managed to oust the communists and take control of the city for 3 days, with some protesters murdering any Soviet advisers and targeting women without Hijab, dubbed sārluchi. This shocked the government, who blamed the new administration of Iran following the Iranian Revolution for influencing the uprising. Revolution Unending: Afghanistan, 1979 to the Present by Gilles Dorronsoro, 2005 Reprisals by the government followed, and between 3,000 and 24,000 people (according to different sources) were killed, in what is called the 1979 Herat uprising, or in Persian as the Qiam-e Herat. The city itself was recaptured with by the Afghan Army’s 4th and 15th Armoured Brigades, detachments of the Afghan Commando Forces and the Afghan Air Force but at the cost of thousands of civilians killed. This rebellion was the first of its kind since the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, and was the bloodiest event preceding the Soviet–Afghan War. Herat received damage during the Soviet–Afghan War, especially its western side. The province as a whole was one of the worst-hit. In April 1983, a series of Soviet bombings damaged half of the city and killed around 3,000 civilians, described as "extremely heavy, brutal and prolonged". Afghanistan: The First Five Years of Soviet Occupation, by J. Bruce Amstutz – Page 133 & 145 Ismail Khan was the leading mujahideen commander in Herat fighting against the Soviet-backed government.
After the communist government's collapse in 1992, Khan joined the new government and he became governor of Herat Province. The city was relatively safe and it was recovering and rebuilding from the damage caused in the Soviet–Afghan War. War, Exile and the Music of Afghanistan: The Ethnographer's Tale by John Baily However, on 5 September 1995, the city was captured by the Taliban without much resistance, forcing Khan to flee. Herat became the first Persian-speaking city to be captured by the Taliban. The Taliban's strict enforcement of laws confining women at home and closing girls' schools alienated Heratis who are traditionally more liberal and educated, like the Kabulis, than other urban populations in the country. Two days of anti-Taliban protests occurred in December 1996 which was violently dispersed and led to the imposition of a curfew. In May 1999, a rebellion in Herat was crushed by the Taliban, who blamed Iran for causing it.
After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, on 12 November 2001, it was captured from the Taliban by forces loyal to the Northern Alliance and Ismail Khan returned to power (see Battle of Herat). The state of the city was reportedly much better than that of Kabul. In 2004, Mirwais Sadiq, Aviation Minister of Afghanistan and the son of Ismail Khan, was ambushed and killed in Herāt by a local rival group. More than 200 people were arrested under suspicion of involvement.
In 2005, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) began establishing bases in and around the city. Its main mission was to train the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and help with the rebuilding process of the country. Regional Command West, led by Italy, assisted the Afghan National Army (ANA) 207th Corps. Herat was one of the first seven areas that transitioned security responsibility from NATO to Afghanistan. In July 2011, the Afghan security forces assumed security responsibility from NATO.
Due to their close relations, Iran began investing in the development of Herat's power, economy and education sectors.Motlagh, Jason. Iran's Spending Spree in Afghanistan . Time. Wednesday 20 May 2009. Retrieved on 24 May 2009. In the meantime, the United States built a consulate in Herat to help further strengthen its relations with Afghanistan. In addition to the usual services, the consulate works with the local officials on development projects and with security issues in the region. "U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry Remarks at the Lease-Signing Ceremony for U.S. Consulate Herat"
On 12 August 2021, the city was captured by the Taliban during the 2021 Taliban offensive.
According to the 2023 CSSF Report, Herat is majority Pashtun who make 40% of the provinces population and with significant Tajik, Hazara, and Uzbek minorities.
The city has high residential density clustered around the core of the city. However, vacant plots account for a higher percentage of the city (21%) than residential land use (18%) and agricultural is the largest percentage of total land use (36%).
The city once had a Jewish community. About 280 families lived in Herat as of 1948, but most of them moved to Israel that year, and the community disappeared by 1992. There are four former in the city's old quarter, which were neglected for decades and fell into disrepair. In the late 2000s, the buildings of the synagogues were renovated by the Aga Khan Trust for culture, and at this time, three of them were turned into schools and nurseries, the Jewish community having vanished. In 2022, the Taliban government approved conservation work on the Yu Aw Synagogue, located in Herat's old city. The Jewish cemetery is being taken care of by Jalil Ahmed Abdelaziz.
|
|
