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Herāt (Pashto / Persian: هرات‎) is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. The city is linked with Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif via highway 1 or the ring road that stretches around the country. It is also linked to the city of Mashad in Iran through the border town of Islam Qala.<br/><br/> Situated in a fertile area, Herāt dates back to the Avestan times and was traditionally known for its wine. The city has a number of historic sites, including the Herat Citadel and the Mosallah Complex. During the Middle Ages Herāt became one of the important cities of Khorasan, as it was known as the Pearl of Khorasan. In 1717, the city was captured by the Pashtuns and remained under Pashtun control until the Hotaki dynasty was defeated by the Afsharids in 1736.<br/><br/> After Nadir Shah's death, Herat became part of the Durrani Empire in 1747. It saw some actions during the 19th century Anglo-Afghan wars. Much of the city has been spared from destructions that occurred in other cities of Afghanistan during the post-1979 Russian and American wars.
The Citadel of Herat (Persian: ارگ هرات‎, Pashto سکندرۍ کلا), also known as the Citadel of Alexander, and locally known as Qala Iktyaruddin (Persian: قلعه اختیارالدین‎), is located in the center of Herat in Afghanistan. It dates back to 330 BCE, when Alexander the Great and his army arrived to what is now Afghanistan after the Battle of Gaugamela. Many empires have used it as a headquarters in the last 2,000 years, and was destroyed and rebuilt many times over the centuries.<br/><br/>This historic citadel was saved from demolition in the 1950s, and was excavated and restored by UNESCO between 1976 and 1979. From decades of wars and neglect, the citadel began to crumble but in recent years several international organizations decided to completely rebuild it. The National Museum of Herat is also housed inside the citadel, while the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture is the caretaker of the whole premises.
Kamal ud-Din Behzad Herawi (c. 1450 - c. 1535), also known as Kamal al-din Bihzad or Kamaleddin Behzad, was a painter of Persian miniatures and head of the royal ateliers in Herat and Tabriz during the late Timurid and early Safavid periods. An orphan, he was raised by the prominent painter Mirak Naqqash, and was a protege of Mir Ali Shir Nava'i. His major patron in Herat was the Timurid sultan Husayn Bayqarah (ruled 1469 - 1506).
Six dervishes or Sufi adepts are depicted in varying states of dizziness and collapse after whirling to induce a mystical state. Two bearded figures stand with the aid of young novices, while two others are seated on the ground. At the lower left, a youth holds a book, while at the right, another plays the tambourine.<br/><br/> The artist is unknown but may well have been Muhammad Herati, a painter with wide influence in the last quarter of the sixteenth century.
The Koran’s oldest illuminations were made by the famed illuminator Yari Mudhahhib, who was active under the late Timurids and early Safavids. The text was written in Naskh by the calligrapher Qasim Ali al-Hirawi in 1519. A Persian translation of the Koran’s Arabic text was added in red Nastaliq. The manuscript was once in the Qutb Shahis’ library in Golconda, but fell into the hands of the Great Mughals when Aurangzeb conquered Golconda in 1687.
The Koran’s oldest illuminations were made by the famed illuminator Yari Mudhahhib, who was active under the late Timurids and early Safavids. The text was written in Naskh by the calligrapher Qasim Ali al-Hirawi in 1519. A Persian translation of the Koran’s Arabic text was added in red Nastaliq. The manuscript was once in the Qutb Shahis’ library in Golconda, but fell into the hands of the Great Mughals when Aurangzeb conquered Golconda in 1687.
Miniature from Hafiz-i Abru’s Majma al-tawarikh. “Noah’s Ark” Iran (Afghanistan), Herat; c. 1425. Timur’s son Shah Rukh (1405-1447) ordered the historian Hafiz-i Abru to write a continuation of Rashid al-Din’s famous history of the world, Jami al-tawarikh. Like the Il-Khanids, the Timurids were concerned with legitimizing their right to rule, and Hafiz-i Abru’s “A Collection of Histories” covers a period that included the time of Shah Rukh himself.
Miniature from Hafiz-i Abru’s Majma al-tawarikh. “Noah’s Ark” Iran (Afghanistan), Herat; c. 1425. Timur’s son Shah Rukh (1405-1447) ordered the historian Hafiz-i Abru to write a continuation of Rashid al-Din’s famous history of the world, Jami al-tawarikh. Like the Il-Khanids, the Timurids were concerned with legitimizing their right to rule, and Hafiz-i Abru’s “A Collection of Histories” covers a period that included the time of Shah Rukh himself.
Abū-Muḥammad Muṣliḥ al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī, Saadi Shirazi (Persian: ابومحمد مصلح الدین بن عبدالله شیرازی‎) better known by his pen-name as Saʿdī (Persian: سعدی‎) or, simply, Saadi, was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is not only famous in Persian-speaking countries, but he has also been quoted in western sources. He is recognized for the quality of his writings, and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts.
The Shahnameh or Shah-nama (Persian: شاهنامه Šāhnāmeh, "The Book of Kings") is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Iran and related Perso-Iranian cultures. Consisting of some 60,000 verses, the Shahnameh tells the mythical and to some extent the historical past of Greater Iran from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century.<br/><br/> The work is of central importance in Persian culture, regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of ethno-national cultural identity of Iran. It is also important to the contemporary adherents of Zoroastrianism, in that it traces the historical links between the beginnings of the religion with the death of the last Zoroastrian ruler of Persia during the Muslim conquest