Herat

A town and province in western Afghanistan, important in pre-Islamic times and sometimes identified as the capital of the Achaemenid satrapy of Aria and the Hellenistic city of Alexandria Ariana. The principal monuments of Herat were built in the reigns of the Timurid rulers Shah Rukh (1405-1447), the son of Timur, and Husain Baikara (1469-1506).

For centuries the largest town in western Afghanistan, Herat stands on the Hari Rud. Already important in pre-Islamic times, it is sometimes identified as the capital of the Achaemenid satrapy of Aria and the Hellenistic city of Alexandria Ariana. Herat was captured by the Arabs in 645 and thereafter was ruled by successive Islamic dynasties, including the Ghaznavids (from 1000) Saljuqs (1040) and Ghorids (1175). Taken by the Mongols in 1221, it became the capital of a quasi-independent state. It fell to the Tim-urids in 1381. With one exception, the principal monuments of Herat were built in the reigns of the Timurid rulers Shah Rukh (140547), the son of Timur, and Husain Baikara (1469-1506). To the former belong Musalla, constructed by Gowhar Shad, the wife of Shah Rukh, in 1417 and, just outside the city, the shrine of Gazur Gah, built in 1425-6. To the latter belong the Madrasa of Husain Baikara and the reconstruction of the Friday Mosque, begun in 1498. Little of the pre-Timurid mosque survives, although restoration has revealed an elaborate Ghorid doorway. These buildings apart, the most importat Timurid monument in Herat is the Mausoleum of Gowhar Shad, who died in 1457.