Herat
(2002 est. pop. of province 1.3 million; 2002 est. pop. of city 167,000). An important historical, commercial, and cultural center in Central Asia, Herat (ancient Aria) is a city on the Hari River in northwest Afghanistan and the capital of Herat Province. Herat played an important role in the military and cultural history of the Central Asian region due to its strategic location on the Silk Road from China and Central Asia to Western Asia and Europe. According to historical records, a large settlement in this area had existed at least since the fifth century BCE; Herat Province may be the ancient homeland of Aryan-speaking people, and Aria was a satrapy of the Persian empire (sixth–fourth centuries BCE). Alexander of Macedon (356–323 BCE) destroyed the Persian citadel and the city around 328 BCE, during his conquest of the Persians. Nonetheless, the city was rebuilt and continued to serve the flourishing trade on the Silk Road, surviving turmoil and frequent wars.
In the eleventh century, Herat was captured by the Seljuks, and in the twelfth century, it was taken over by the powerful Khwarizm empire centered on the valley of the Amu Dar'ya River. In the thirteenth century, Herat was destroyed by Mongols led by Genghis Khan (c. 1162–1227), who ordered the slaughter of all 80,000 citizens of the city, yet it was rebuilt again. In 1381, Timur (Tamerlane, 1336–1405) conquered the city, but his son, Shah Rokh (1377–1447), rebuilt Herat and made it his capital and an intellectual and cultural center. During this time, Herat was famous for its poets, painters of miniatures, and architecture.
From the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, Herat was fought over by various regional powers, and only in 1863 did Abdorrahman Khan (c. 1844–1901), the Afghan ruler, finally integrate it into Afghanistan with British support. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, the city experienced decay due to political turmoil, the Soviet occupation in 1980, and civil war. Presently it remains a commercial center that relies on agriculture and small-scale manufacturing, including food processing and textile and carpet manufacturing.
Further Reading
Allen, Terry. (1983) Timurid Herat. Wiesbaden, Germany: Reichert.
Dupree, Louis. (1980) Afghanistan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ewans, Sir Martin. (2002) Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics. New York: HarperCollins.
Tumanovich, N. N. (1989) Gerat v XVI–XVIII vekakh (Herat in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries). Moscow: Nauka.
This is the complete article, containing 389 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
