Herat, also written as Harat or Hirat, and historically known as Haraiva, Horeiva and Hires, is a major city in western Afghanistan, serving as the capital of Herat Province and the Herat District. With an estimated population of 673,273 settled residents, it is the largest city in the province and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. As the gateway to Iran and Turkmenistan, the city collects billions of dollars in customs revenue for Afghanistan. The roads from Herat to Iran (through the border town of Islam Qala) and Turkmenistan (through the border town of Torghundi) are strategically important for Afghanistan and its neighbors.
Herat is situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (Selseleh-ye Safēd Kōh) in the fertile valley of the Hari River. An ancient civilization on the Silk Road between West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia and East Asia, it is a regional hub in the country's west. It dates back to Avestan period and was traditionally known for its wine. The city has a number of historic sites, particularly the Great Mosque of Herat, the Herat Citadel, the Musalla Complex. During the Middle Ages, Herat became one of the important cities of Khorasan, as it was known as the Pearl of Khorasan. After its conquest by Timur, the city became an important center of intellectual and artistic life in the Islamic world. Under the rule of Shah Rukh and Husayn Bayqara, the city served as the focal point of the Timurid Renaissance, whose grandeur 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 remained part of Safavid Iran until the early 18th century. Since then it has been generally governed by various Pashtun tribes.Singh, Ganda (1959). Ahmad Shah Durrani, father of modern Afghanistan . Asia Publishing House, Bombay. (PDF version 66 MB ) In 1716, the Abdali Afghans inhabiting the city revolted and established the Sadozai Sultanate of Herat. The city became part of Afsharid Iran in 1732. After Nader Shah's death and Ahmad Shah Durrani's rise to power in 1747, Herat was captured and made a part of his Durrani Empire. It became an independent city-state in the first half of the 19th century, facing several invasions from Qajar Iran. Following the 1857 Treaty of Paris, under which British prompted Iran to withdraw from the city, Herat was incorporated into Afghanistan in 1863. Prior to the 1980s Soviet–Afghan War, the city had become one of the major stops on the Hippie trail from Tehran to Kabul. Following the 2001 war, the city had been relatively safe from militant attacks.
Herat is a major industrial and trading center of Afghanistan. It has a industrial park near the Khwaja Abdullah Ansari International Airport. In 2021, it was announced that Herat would be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Herat, Piranshahr, Damghan and Aleppo are noted to be sites for archaeological interests and exploration.
Mullah Nematullah Hassan is the current mayor of the city. His predecessor was Haji Abdulraziq Rashed.
History
Ancient
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 Scythian-style dress (with a tunic and trousers tucked into high boots) 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:
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 Pahlavi 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.
Conversion to Islam
At the time of the Arab invasion in the middle of the 7th century, the Sasanian central power seemed already largely nominal in the province in contrast with the role of the Hephthalite tribal lords, who were settled in the Herat region and in the neighboring districts, mainly in pastoral Bādghis and in Qohestān. It must be underlined, however, that Herat remained one of the three Sasanian mint centers in the east, the other two beings Balkh and Marv. The Hephthalites from Herat and some unidentified Turks opposed the Arab forces in a battle of Qohestān in 651-52 AD, trying to block their advance on Nishāpur, but they were defeated.
When the Arab armies appeared in Khorāsān 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 Saffarid dynasty, conquered Herat and the rest of the nearby regions in the name of Islam.
Pearl of Khorasan
The region of Herāt was under the rule of King Nuh II, the seventh of the Samanid line—at the time of Sebük Tigin and his older son, Mahmud of Ghazni. The governor of Herāt was a noble by the name of Faik, who was appointed by Nuh III. It is said that Faik was a powerful but insubordinate governor of Nuh III and had been punished by Nuh III. Faik made overtures to Bogra Khan and Ughar Khan of Khorasan. Bogra Khan answered Faik's call, came to Herāt, and became its ruler. The Samanids fled, betrayed at the hands of Faik to whom the defense of Herāt had been entrusted by Nuh III. In 994, Nuh III invited Alptegin to come to his aid. Alptegin, along with Mahmud of Ghazni, defeated Faik and annexed Herāt, Nishapur and Tous.
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 Taherid dominion in Khorāsān until the rise of the Saffarids in Sistān 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 Sāmānid dynasty was established in Transoxiana by three brothers, Nuh, Yahyā, and Ahmad. 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.
Ghaznavids
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 Abdullah Awn, who established a city-state and made an alliance with Mahmud of Ghazni. Yet, in 1175, it was captured by the Ghurids 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 Muslims. 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