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Tim11rid Herat Tim11ridHerat by Terry Allen WIESBADEN 1983 DR. LUDWIG R EICH E RT VERLAG Cll'-Kurztitelauf11.d1me der lkt1tsd1rn Bil,/iothck Allen, Terry: Timurid I lcr,1t hy Terry ,\//en. - \Vicsh.1clcn : Rc·icl1,·:t, llJS.l. (lkihdtc zurn Tubingcr Atl,ts des \'"rdcrcn Orients. Reihe II, Cei,rcswiss. ; Nr. 5G) ISBN 3-~822i'i-175-0 NE: Tiihingcr ,\tlas des Vorucrrn Orients I Bcihcftc, B CO 1983 Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag \Viesb;idcn rhcit ist i111Sondcrforschungsbereich 19, Tiibingen, cnrstanden und wurde auf seine ;sung linter Vcrwcndung dcr il;m von der Deutschen Forsdrnngsgcmeinschafi zur Vcrfiigung gestelltcn Mittcl gcdr.uckr.. Cesamthcrstcllung: Hubert & Co., (;oningen · Printed in Cermany Contents Preface ....................... 7 Note on Transliteration, Transcr-i-ption, and Dates 10 Landsc:.1pe :.1nd History 11 Chronology of Development 17 Society and Economics . 36 The Timurids and Herat 46 Appendix: Sources ... -r- -- 56 'HanJlist of Toponyms and Mo11u111e11ts. 63 Bibliography 82 Figures 93 I I .. II "The whole habitable world has not such a town as Herat haJ become under Sultan Husayn l\firza, whose orJers and efforts had incrcascJ its splendor and beauty as ten to one, rather, as twenty to one." Zahir al-Din Mu~ammad Babur, 1506 1 "From (the] Musella [sic] extensive ruins stretch away for a considerable distance to the [no,thwest], skirting the foot of the mountains-the remains of mosques, sepulchres, baths, and other public eJifices. The tombs, which are in great numbers, are held in much veneration by the Heratians. Some of them are of immense proportions; others arc only great heaps of stones, or rough masonry, at the top of which a long pole is fixeJ surmounted by a ragged piece of linen for a flag, a signal that some sainted rnollah is there interred." J.P. Ferrier, 1845 2 "The city itself is, I should imagine, one of the dirtiest in the world. Many of the small strec!s, which branch from the main ones, arc built over, and form low dark tunnels, containing every offensive thing. No drains having been contrived to carry off the rain whi~h falls within the walls, it collects and stagnates in ponds which arc dug in Jiffercnt parts of the city. The residents cast out the refuse of their houses into the streets, and dead cats and dogs are commonly seen lying upon heaps of the vilest filth. In a street which we were obliged to pass through to get at the bazaar lay for many days a. dead horse, surrounded by bloated dogs, and poisoning the neighbourhood with its w1- wholcsome effluvia. !v1orc could be said about the bestiality of the citizens, but, as it is not a choice theme, I will not enlarge upon it.'' Arthur Conolly, 1830 3 1 B;ibor, trans., p. 300 (slightly emended). 2 Ferrier, pp. 179-80. 3 A. Conolly, v. 2, pp.3-4. • Preface Ir has been nearly five centuries since rhe lasr descrndanrs of T1mLir fled rhe • oasis ciry of Heriir, in western Afghanistan. They ldr behinJ rhem a capital rhar had been rhe center of poliric1I, financial, inrellecrual, and culrural life in • rhe eastern Islamic world since rhe sulranare of TimC1r's son giih Rob began . When Biibor, rhe emperor-to-be of India, came ro Hcriir rhe Ozbek invasion of 1507 and rhe Timurid ahandonment of rhe city were only seven months in • the future. Soltiin Hosein, a great-great-grandson of TimCir, had died just six month before, after a reign of thirty-eight years. The Herat that Biibor saw • and praised was largely a Timurid creation. Siih Rob, Solriin Hosein, and several less famed Soltiins restored pub.lie buildings, exrended biiziirs, dug 11ew canals, built religious shrines-and schools, and covered vast tracts of land • with grandiose estates enclosing elegant palaces. Heriit's TimuriJ form domi­ nated its shape until a half century ago, despite the city's progressive disinte­ • gration. Only a pitifol remnant of Timurid Hcriit has survived the successive depreda­ • tions of every power that has controlled the city since 1507. The low point / J came in the early 19th century, as Conolly's observations vividly suggest. By •• 1838 only six to seven thousand citizens were left within the square mud ,. walls of a city ravaged by a--year's siege. Even in the 1960's the population of rhe district that includes Her;it was estim;Hed ar only 86,000; 4 its growth certainly has been stopped by the present IZusso-Afghan war. While Timurid Heriit is a lost ciry, it cin be reconstructed in considerable det;1il, since in • many, and the most important, cases the location of monuments and even their plans and histories can be established. The "Musalla" area that Ferrier referred to has long been known to architectural historians, and outside the • city some of Ferrier's "extensive ruins" can still be seen, since the mounds formed by the collapse of Timurid palaces, colleges, and tombs have been • only partly effaced by modernization of the city's plan. This modernization has not extended to the customs remarked by Conolly: in the newly bid out streets of the gahr-e Nou fNew City), I observed the fixtures to be the same, • down to the dead horse. -,' • 4 Nancy l·btch Dupree, A11 /Iistorfr,,f G11idt' to A(gl1.111i:;/,111,f..:,ihul, 1971, unp3ginatl'J. \X'hile II Afghan census figures historically have bl'ell exaggerJteJ, 86,0UtJ is credible if it is taken to inclu,lc the populatioii of the entire oasis. ; __-, --- 8 l'rcf.1cc The Tirnurid rt1111sarc supplemented, for the purpose of historic1I topngra­ phy, by Timurid histories, biographic1! collections, citalogucs of the cin·".; religious monuments, .111dlegal documents that describe Hcrat, directly or in passing, from a local and contemporary point of view. From these sources, combined with 19th and 20th century maps and photographs, and ·obser\'J­ tions from my own visits in J 976, 1977, and 1978, I have constructed ;1 Catalogue of Toponyms and Monuments that deals with detailed topographic and historical matters. 5 The catalogue and map, however, contain only inar­ ticulate facts. This memoir is intended to set forth those facts in a compre­ hensible form and show how they can be understood by reference to Herat's urban history and cultural context. I am pleased to acknowledge my gratitude to the many persons who have given me their assistance, advice, and time during the years I have worked on - this study, which first appeared as lllf doctoral thesis. 6 Without the unstint­ ing intellectual and material support of Prof. Oleg Grabar and Dr. William Trousdale I would never have seen Herat, much less completed my investiga­ tion of it. Dr. Lisa Golombek, Prof. Renata Holod, and Mr. James Knudstad, too, have contributed systematically to my trnining as well as to my interpre­ tation of Herat. Whatever success this work enjoys is a result of their concern and insight. / My field work in 1978-79 was supported by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship ;ind c1n International Doctoral Research Fellowship (administered by the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies). For information on particular points and for their more general advice and · help, I thank Dr. Michelle de Angelis, Dr. Margaret Feary, Prof. Richard Frye, Prof. Heinz Gaube, Mr. Robert Hamilton, Ms. Beatrice Manz, Dr. Maria Subtelny, and Prof. Wheeler Thackston, Jr. Mr. A.S. Cook and Ms. Lesley Hall of the India Office Library and Records and Mrs. Christine Kelly of the Royal Geographie:i!I Society were both generous and ingenious in help­ ing me to find archival material in London. For their moral and personal support I thank Dr. Max Klimburg, Prof. Deborah Klimburg-Salter, Dean Elizabeth Pattullo, Dr. Ralph Pinder-Wilson, Ms. Margaret Scvcenko, and Dr. Jon Summers, as well as my other friends and travelling companions in Afghanistan. Despite the wise advice .rnd liberal assistance offered by these 5 A Cata!ogJ1e of tlJe Topo11yms ,md !v10111m1e11tso/ Timurid l/erat, Agh:i Kh:in Program fnr Islamic Architecture, Harvard University ~nd the /Vl:issJc!iusctts Institute of Technology, C1111bridgc,Mass., 1981. 1' "TimuriJ-Hcrat;" Harvard University, 198 i:-- --------- -_-_-------=----~--~ Prdace 9 kinJ persons, bLime for the errors ,rnJ vag:ui:.:s perpetratt:J here must rest • entirely with me. In the following pages I h:1Ve concerneJ rnyst:lf solely with Herat, srepping wiJely around most comparisons with other cities. I have become familiar • with Herat to the point that I feel uneasy about my understanJing of cities I cannot know nearly so well. Continually I have been maJc aware of how the • basic outlines of Herat's site, ancient plan: and water system have affected every aspect of its development. \Xlhere a dry list of water-tax assessments, • for example, can be induced to yielJ evidence on a dozen distinct issues, it is clear that the idiosync~atic influence of location must be adjusted for before comparisons can be made'. If I have succeeded, the reader will be able to • make that adjustment for Herat; I am too close to the trees for a good per- • spective on the forest . Gregory, Michigan • August 1981 • • • • • 4 •i Note on Transliteration, Transcrfption and Dates The system of transcription of Arabic and Persian names employed here is that of the Tubinger Atlas des .Vorderen Orients. For ri1y own transliteration, see Allen, Catalogue. Dates, where not specified, are according to the lunar hijrah calendar (A.H. or L. H.; S. H. denotes the solar hijrah calendar). ft is i111practical to g1ve Julian equivalents for all hijrah dates. ft will be sufficient for the reader to remember that the year 800 A.H.
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