Herat, Afghanistan

February 2005. Herat, Afghanistan

After ten hours on the road from Kandahar and I was reaching the limit of my “fun meter”. The road had been hard, bumpy, long, dusty and cold, and my body was definitely feeling it. I was sure we were near the end but could not see it. My driver kept saying ‘next, boss, next’. I just didn’t know exactly what that meant. Descending from a mountain pass I saw a big, green valley in front of me. The first structure I noticed was a gateway; a clean, white granite looking arch welcoming my convoy to my destination…the city of Herat, the crossroad of the Silk Route and cultural center of ancient dynasties and kingdoms; a city torn between culture and wars.

Herat was built before 500 B.C. and was probably known as Artacoana or Aria. Starting with a young man that became king in 336 B.C. at the age of twenty, it has been conquered, destroyed and rebuilt several times. Alexander the Great came through in 330 B.C. and made Herat one his great cities. Alexander built the fort that to this day still stands guard in the middle of the old part of the city.

On my first outing in Herat I told my translator and my driver to take me to see the city and tell me all they knew about its history, what a wonderful mistake that was. I quickly found out that Heratis are fiercely proud of their city. They proceeded to bombard me with names, years, and facts. My mind was like a sponge, trying to absorb everything. And since most Afghans are illiterate and haven’t gone to school, it meant that the information I was getting from them was probably obtained by word of mouth. As to the accuracy and veracity….well…needless to say, I checked everything they said, and to my astonishment I found most of it to be accurate.

The first place they took me was to the plains located to the west of the city. The year was 1222 and the Mongol king Genghis Khan had just returned to lay siege and destroy Herat. With him were close to 80,000 warriors. I was told the plains were full of warriors and great battles took place there. The citizens put up a great fight, but after a bloody siege that lasted 6 months, Genghis Khan and his Mongols ravaged the city, leaving behind only 40 Heratis alive, so the story goes. My guides spoke of these things with great enthusiasm, as if they had been there themselves.

With a population of around 800,000 people, Herat is a good size city. The influence of Iran, which is only an hour drive to the west, is very noticeable in the modern looking stores and all the wares you can buy, all imported from the western neighbor. Everything from satellite dishes, to computers, to Tupperware bowls can be found in Herat. New modern buildings are sprouting everywhere, all of them with a green glass façade that must be the latest trend somewhere. From a ceremony hall built by the former governor, Ismael Khan, to a modern apartment complex selling for $30,000 per unit, the green glass is everywhere. Modernism is much more pronounced here than in any other city I have been in Afghanistan.

From where the car was parked I looked to the north east and saw very tall towers that looked like factory smoke stacks looming well above the highest structure in the city and immediately asked my ‘tour guides’ if Herat had any factories. What I was looking at was the remnants of the once great “musalla”.

In 1381 Tamerlane completely destroyed Herat. But it was his son Shah Rukh who rebuilt it, along with his wife Gawhar Shad Begom, the daughter of a Turkish nobleman. Together they constructed universities and started a cultural renaissance in Herat. Gawhar Shad is credited with building, around 1405 A.D., the Meshad Mosque, a college and a mausoleum, together known as the musalla. Only 5 of the glorious minarets remain standing tall and proud, one of them leaning precariously to the east on the verge of toppling over. At the moment efforts are being made to prevent it from collapsing.

Still to this day, Heratis pride themselves in being well educated and cultured. According to them they are the most educated and literate people in the country. One can see this, for example, in the amount of bookstores that dot the city. It seems like you can’t pass a city block without seeing books advertised. And perhaps for this level of culture and knowledge, Herat has been sought after by many conquerors.

Around 1873 the Persians came once more and laid yet another bloody and ruthless siege on the city. The rulers of Herat at that time were advised by a young British major named Eldred Pottinger. Some have stated that if it had not been for Major Pottinger, Herat might have fallen into the hands of the invading Persians. This fact earned Pottinger the nickname of Hero of Herat.

Towards the beginning of the 1980’s, Heratis stood defiantly, once again, against the soviet invaders. To teach the inhabitants of the city a lesson and to capture the city, the Red Army sent 300 tanks to attack Herat. After the smoke cleared an estimated 5,000 citizens lost their lives and the Soviets had the city.

Under the leadership of the powerful Mujaihadeen Ismael Khan, Heratis survived not only soviet aggression but Taliban submission. Ismael Khan, the self-named Emir of Herat, cleaned up the city and maintained order, although sometimes too strictly, prompting locals to admit that there was little difference between Ismael Khan’s authority and the Taliban regime. In 2002, in a faint attempt to promote himself as a forward thinking leader, Ismael Khan declared that women did not have to wear the omni present burka; however, it is always up to the woman’s male relatives as to what she can or can’t do, what she can and can’t wear. So today the women of Herat continue, for the most part, to wear the burka.

And now, in the first decade of the 21^st century, Herat stands to become the most modern city in the country and once again the cultural center of Afghanistan, moving far ahead of other Afghan cities.