Balkh

Balkh بلخ
Dari: گُنبَد, dome),[1] in July 2001
Balkh Location in Afghanistan Show map of Afghanistan Balkh Balkh (Bactria) Show map of Bactria Balkh Balkh (West and Central Asia) Show map of West and Central Asia
Coordinates: 36°45′29″N 66°53′53″E / 36.75806°N 66.89806°E / 36.75806; 66.89806
Country	Afghanistan
Province	Balkh Province
District	Balkh District
Population  (2021)[3]
• City	138,594[2]
Time zone	+ 4.30
Climate	BSk

Balkh

Balkh was historically an ancient place of religions, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, and one of the wealthiest and largest cities of Greater Khorasan, since the latter's earliest history. The city was known to Persians as Zariaspa and to the Ancient Greeks as Bactra, giving its name to Bactria (Greeks called the city also Zariaspa).^[6] It was mostly known as the center and capital of Bactria or Tokharistan. Marco Polo described Balkh as a "noble and great city".^[7] Balkh is now for the most part a mass of ruins, situated some 12 km (7.5 mi) from the right bank of the seasonally flowing Balkh River, at an elevation of about 365 m (1,198 ft).

French Buddhist

An earlier name for Balkh or a term for part of the city was Ζαρίασπα, which may derive from the important Zoroastrian fire temple Azar-i-Asp[12] or from a Median name *Ζaryāspa- meaning "having gold-coloured horses".^[13]

The nickname of Balkh is "the Mother of All Cities".^[14]

History

Balkh was earlier considered to be the first city to which the Iranian tribes moved from north of the Amu Darya, between 2000 and 1500 BC.^[15] However it was only recently that archaeological remains before 500 BC were found by French archaeologists led by Johanna Lhullier and Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento in the section called Bala Hissar, which is the citadel of the site. They dated this first settlement to the Early Iron Age (Yaz I period, c. 1500-1000 BC) continuing until pre-Achaemenid times (Yaz II period, c. 1000-540 BC).^[16] Bala Hissar is located at the north of the site and is oval in shape, having an area of around 1,500 by 1,000 m2 (c. 150 hectares) and to the south is the lower town.^[17] Another mound of the site, known as Tepe Zargaran, and the Northern Fortification Wall of Balkh, were occupied at a large extension in Achaemenid times (Yaz III period, c. 540-330 BC).^[16]

Since the Iranians built their first kingdom in Balkh

The Arabs called it Umm Al-Bilad or Mother of Cities, on account of its antiquity. The city was traditionally a center of Zoroastrianism.^[12]

For a long time the city and country was the central seat of the dualistic

Bactrian religion

Bactrian documents - in the

A large number of Sanskrit medical, pharmacological, and toxicological texts were translated into Arabic under the patronage of Khalid, the vizier of Al-Mansur. Khalid was the son of a chief priest of a Buddhist monastery. Some of the family were killed when the Arabs captured Balkh; others including Khalid survived by converting to Islam. They would later come to be known as the Barmakids of Baghdad.^[24]

Judaism

An ancient Jewish community existed in Balkh as recorded by the Arab historian Al-Maqrizi who wrote that the community was established by the transfer of Jews to Balkh by the Assyrian King Sennacherib. A Bāb al-Yahūd (Gate of Jews) and al-Yahūdiyya (Jewish town) in Balkh is attested to by Arab geographers.^[25] Muslim tradition stated that the prophet Jeremiah fled to Balkh and that Ezekiel was buried there.^[26]

This Jewish community was noted in the eleventh century as the Jews of the city were forced to maintain a garden for the Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni for which they paid a tax of 500 dirhems. According to Jewish oral history, Timur gave the Jews of Balkh a city quarter of their own with a gate to close it.^[27]

There was still a substantial Jewish community in Balkh as late as 1885: Charles Yate noted "a considerable colony of Jews, who have a separate quarter of the village to themselves, and appeared, so far as we could judge, to be fair-looking men with most unmistakably Jewish features".^[28][29]

The famed Jewish exegete Hiwi al-Balkhi was from Balkh.

Arab conquest and rule

At the time of the Islamic conquest of

Arabs occupied Persia in 642 (during the Caliphate of

Nazak Tarkhan is also said to have murdered not only the Chief Priest but also his sons. Only a young son was saved. He was taken by his mother to Kashmir where he was given training in medicine, astronomy and other sciences. Later they returned to Balkh. Prof. Maqbool Ahmed observes "One is tempted to think that the family originated from Kashmir, for in time of distress, they took refuge in the Valley. Whatever it be, their Kashmiri origin is undoubted and this also explains the deep interest of the Barmaks, in later years, in Kashmir, for we know they were responsible for inviting several scholars and physicians from Kashmir to the Court of Abbasids." Prof. Maqbool also refers to the descriptions of Kashmir contained in the report prepared by the envoy of Yahya bin Barmak. He surmises that the envoy could have possibly visited Kashmir during the reign of Samgramapida II (797–801). Reference has been made to sages and arts.^[clarification needed]

The Arabs managed to bring Balkh under their control only in 715 AD, in spite of strong resistance offered by the Balkh people during the

The Umayyad period lasted until 747, when

From Saffarids to Khwarezmshahs

In 870,

Muhammad al-Idrisi, in the 12th century, speaks of its possessing a variety of educational establishments, and carrying on an active trade. There were several important commercial routes from the city, stretching as far east as India and China. The late 12th-century local chronicle The Merits of Balkh (Fada'il-i-Balkh), by Abu Bakr Abdullah al-Wa'iz al-Balkhi, states that a woman known only as the khatun (lady) of Davud, from 848 appointed governor of Balkh, had taken over from him with "particular responsibility for the city and people" while he was busy building himself an elaborate pleasure palace called Nawshǎd (New Joy).^[33]

Mongol invasion

In 1220

In 1506

In 1751, Balkh was captured by Ahmad Shah Durrani of the Durrani Empire.

The area of Balkh was governed by the Uzbek Qataghan dynasty, with its capital in Khulm, for the majority of the early nineteenth century, and only nominally acknowledged Kabul's suzerainty.^[35] During this time, the Qataghan dynasty also competed with Bukhara in interdynastic conflicts throughout the area.^[35] Only through the conquests of the Emirate of Kabul's Dost Mohammad Khan in the 1850s (see also; Afghan Conquest of Balkh), followed by those of Abdur Rahman Khan in 1888, did the region of "little Turkestan" to the south of the Amu Darya (also known as Oxus River) become a permanent part of Afghanistan.^[35][36][37] By 1885, Charles Yate reported that the city was "nothing but a vast ruin" and that there were no more than 500 houses, occupied mostly by "Afghan settlers" and with "very few Usbegs" (i.e. Uzbeks).^[38]

In 1866, after a malaria outbreak during the flood season, Balkh lost its administrative status to the neighbouring city of Mazar-i-Sharif (Mazār-e Šarīf), about 20 kilometres (12 mi) southeast of Balkh.^[39][40]

20th to 21st centuries

In 1911 Balkh comprised a settlement of about 500 houses of Afghan settlers, a colony of

The fort and citadel to the north-east were built well above the town on a barren mound and were walled and moated. There was, however, little left of them but the remains of a few pillars. The

The town was garrisoned as of 1911 by a few thousand irregulars (kasidars), the regular troops of

The earlier

The mounds of ruins on the road to Mazar-e Sharif probably represent the site of a city yet older than those on which stands the modern Balkh.^[citation needed]

Others

Numerous places of interest are to be seen today aside from the ancient ruins and fortifications:

• The madrasa of Sayed Subhan Quli Khan.
• Bala-Hesar, the shrine and mosque of Khwaja Nasr Parsa.
• The tomb of the poet
  Rabi'a Balkhi
  .
• The Nine Domes Mosque (Masjid-e Noh Gonbad). This exquisitely ornamented mosque, also referred to as Haji Piyada, is the earliest Islamic monument yet identified in Afghanistan.
• Tepe Rustam and Takht-e Rustam

Balkh Museum

The museum was formerly the second largest museum in the country, but its collection has suffered from looting in recent times.^[46]

The museum is also known as the Museum of the Blue Mosque, from the building it shares with a religious library. As well as exhibits from the ancient ruins of Balkh, the collection includes works of Islamic art including a 13th-century Quran, and examples of Afghan decorative and folk art.

Cultural role

Balkh had a major role in the development of the

Notable people

Poets

• Abu-Shakur Balkhi 10th century Persian poet
• Abul Moayyad Balkhi^[47]10th century Persian poet^[48]
• Abu Ali Balkhi,^[49] author of a Shah-nama, according to Biruni^[50]
• Rabi'a Balkhi, 10th century Persian poetess, first woman poet in the history of Persian
  poetry
• Abu Mansur Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Daqiqi, 10th century Persian poet, Balkh is one of his suggested places of birth
• Ma'ruf Balkhi, 10th century Persian poet, one of the first to compose poems in New Persian
• Abu-Shakur Balkhi, 10th century Persian poet
• Sani Balkhi, 10th century Persian Rubaʿi poet^[51]
• Unsuri Balkhi, 10th/11th century Persian royal poet at the court of the Ghaznavids
• Manuchihri Damghani, 11th century Persian royal poet at the court of the Ghaznavids, born in Balkh, according to Dawlat Shah Samarkandi
• Rashid al-Din Vatvat, 11th century Persian secretary, poet and philologist
• Anvari, 12th century Persian poet and scientist, considered to be one of the greatest figures in Persian literature, lived and died in Balkh
• Mawlānā Jalal ad-Din Rūmī Balkhi 13th century Persian poet, one of the most famous and influential Persian writers, born in Balkh^[52][53]
• Amir Khusraw (Dehlavi), from the 13th century, the greatest Persian
  -writing poet of medieval India whose father, Amir Saifuddin, was from Balkh
• Wasef Bakhtari, Afghan contemporary poet of the Persian language, literary figure and intellectual, one of the first Persian poets to introduce she’r-e nimaa'i ("Nimaic poetry") to Afghan-Persian literature, born in Balkh

Scientists

• Abbasid
  court in Baghdad
• scientist
  , introduced the Concept of Mental Health In Psychology
• Avicenna or Ibn Sina, 10th/11th century philosopher and scientist, one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age and father of early modern medicine, whose father Abdullah was a Balkh native
• Ali ibn Yusuf al-Ilaqi, 11th century Persian physician from Greater Khorasan
  , Avicenna's direct student, worked in Balkh
• Khorasan
  , worked in Balkh
• Ibn Balkhi, a conventional name for a 12th-century Iranian historian
  and author of the Persian book Fārs-Nāma

• Vishtaspa, ancient king of Balkh and early follower of Zoroaster, and his patron
• Barmakid
  family
• Samanids and founder of the Samaind dynasty
  was born in Saman a village near Balkh
• Ghaznavid dynasty
  , died in Balkh
• Timur, Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire, crowned in Balkh

Religious figures

• Zoroaster. some scholars like Rodney Young say that balkh was traditionally the home of Zoroaster^[54]
• Muqatil ibn Sulayman Al-Balkhi, 8th-century story teller of the Quran, wrote one of the earliest, if not first, commentaries (tafsir) of the Qur'an
• Sufi saints
  .
• Biblical critic
• sufi
• Abdullah, father of
  Ismaili scholar^[55][56]
• Muhammad ibn Husayn al Khatibi al Balkhi ^[ru] also known as Baha al-Din Walad, father of Rumi (Balkhi) and respected theologian, jurist and mystic from Balkh

See also

Notes

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Green Mosque, Balkh, Afghanistan". Muslim Mosques. 13 December 2014. Archived from the original on 2017-11-18. Retrieved 2018-05-15.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Estimated Population of Afghanistan 2021-22" (PDF). National Statistic and Information Authority (NSIA). April 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
3. ^ "Estimated Population of Afghanistan 2020-21" (PDF). National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA). www.nsia.gov.af. p. 31. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-07-03. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
4. ^ "Afghanistan Population (2024) - Worldometer". www.worldometers.info. Retrieved 2024-02-10.
5. ^ "Population of Cities in Afghanistan 2024". worldpopulationreview.com. Retrieved 2024-02-10.
6. ^ "Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, Z294.15". Archived from the original on 2019-12-21. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
7. ^ "City of Balkh (antique Bactria)". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 2020-06-23. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
8. ^ David-Néel, A. Les Nouvelles littéraires;1954, p.1
9. ^ Bennett, J. G., Gurdjieff: Making a New World Bennett notes Idries Shah as the source of the suggestion.
10. JSTOR 41926881. Archived
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11. ^ Daniel Coit Gilman; Harry Thurston Peck; Frank Moore Colby (1902), The New International Encyclopædia, vol. 2, Dodd, Mead & Co., p. 341
12. ^ ^{a b} The Greeks in Bactria and India. William Woodthorpe Tarn. 1st Edition, 1938; 2nd Updated Edition, 1951. 3rd Edition, updated with a Preface and a new bibliography by Frank Lee Holt. Ares Publishers, Inc., Chicago. 1984. (1984), pp. 114–115 and n. 1.
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14. ^ "Balkh | Silk Roads Programme". Archived from the original on 2019-04-22. Retrieved 2018-05-15.
15. ^ Nancy Hatch Dupree, An Historical Guide to Afghanistan, 1977, Kabul, Afghanistan
16. ^ ^{a b} Lhuillier, Johanna, Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento, & Philippe Marquis, (2021). "Ancient Bactra: New Data on the Iron Age Occupation of the Bactra Oasis" , in Archaeology of Central Asia during the 1st millennium BC, from the beginning of the Iron Age to the Hellenistic period: Proceedings from the Workshop held at 10th ICAANE.
17. ^ Young, Rodney S., (1955). "The South Wall of Balkh-Bactra", in American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 59, No. 4, (Oct., 1955), The University of Chicago Press, p. 267.
18. ^ "IRAN vi. IRANIAN LANGUAGES AND SCRIPTS (1) E – Encyclopaedia Iranica". Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
19. ^ Lynne O'Donnell (20 October 2013). "Silk Road jewel reveals more of its treasures". BBC News Magazine. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
20. ^ Azad, A. (2013). Sacred Landscape in Medieval Afghanistan: Revisiting the Faḍāʾil-i Balkh. OUP.
21. ^ Buddhism in Central Asia by Baij Nath Puri, Motilal Banarsi Dass Publishers, Page 130
22. ^ van Bladel, Kevin (2011). "The Bactrian Background of the Barmakids". In A. Akasoy, C. Burnett and R. Yoeli-Tlalim (ed.). Islam and Tibet: Interactions along the Musk Routes. London: Ashgate. pp. 43–88.
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26. ^ Fischel (1971). Encyclopedia Judaica (4 ed.). p. 147.
27. ISBN 978-1136873669
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28. ^ Yate, Major Charles Edward (1888). Northern Afghanistan, or, Letters from the Afghan Boundary Commission. Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons. p. 256.
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33. ^ Arezou Azad: "Islam's forgotten scholars", History Today, Vol. 66, No. 10 (October 2016), p. 27.
34. ^ Gibb, H.A.R. (1971). The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, A.D. 1325–1354 (Volume 3). London: Hakluyt Society. p. 571.
35. ^ ^{a b c} Pickett, J. (2023, June 21). Central Asia between Empires: New Research on the 18th and 19th Centuries. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. Retrieved 19 Jul. 2023, from https://oxfordre-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/asianhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-713
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43. ^ "Ancient Afghan City Looted Anew", The Art Newspaper, January 17, 2002, archived from the original on 2005-03-21
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48. ^ "ABU'L-MOʾAYYAD BALḴĪ". iranicaonline.org. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2021-06-30.
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Further reading

Published in the 19th century

• Edward Balfour (1885), "Balkh", Cyclopaedia of India (3rd ed.), London: B. Quaritch

Published in the 21st century

• "Balkh". Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture. Oxford University Press. 2009.
• Azad, Arezou (November 2013). Sacred Landscape in Medieval Afghanistan: Revisiting the Faḍāʾil-i Balkh. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-19-968705-3
  .

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Balkh.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Balkh.

• The Balkh Art and Cultural Heritage Project housed at the
  Oriental Institute at the University of Oxford
• Mazar-i-Sharif (Balkh) (in German)
• Explore Balkh with Google Earth on
  Global Heritage Network
• Indigenous Indian civilization prevailed in Balkh, Afghanistan till the second half of tenth century AD Archived 2010-09-20 at the Wayback Machine
• "Balkh". Islamic Cultural Heritage Database. Istanbul: Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture. Archived from the original on 2013-06-15.
• ArchNet.org. "Balkh". Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA: MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Archived from the original on 2011-09-26.