Mahendrarajah Shivan - A History of Herat: From Chingiz Khan to Tamerlane

A History of Herat

Edinburgh Studies in Classical Islamic History and Culture Series Editor: Carole Hillenbrand

Titles in the series include:

The Body in Arabic Love Poetry: The Udhri Tradition Jokha Alharthi

Arabian Drugs in Early Medieval Mediterranean Medicine Zohar Amar and Efraim Lev

Towards a History of Libraries in Yemen Hassan Ansari and Sabine Schmidtke

The Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo, 12611517: Out of the Shadows Mustafa Banister

The Medieval Western Maghrib: Cities, Patronage and Power Amira K. Bennison

Christian Monastic Life in Early Islam Bradley Bowman

Keeping the Peace in Premodern Islam: Diplomacy under the Mamluk Sultanate, 12501517 Malika Dekkiche

Queens, Concubines and Eunuchs in Medieval Islam Taef El-Azhari

Islamic Political Thought in the Mamluk Period Mohamad El Merheb

The Kharijites in Early Islamic Historical Tradition: Heroes and Villains Hannah-Lena Hagemann

Classical Islam: Collected Essays Carole Hillenbrand

Islam and the Crusades: Collected Essays Carole Hillenbrand

The Medieval Turks: Collected Essays Carole Hillenbrand

The Books of Burhn al-Dn: Literacy and Book Ownership in Mamluk Jerusalem Said Aljoumani and Konrad Hirschler

Medieval Damascus: Plurality and Diversity in an Arabic Library The Ashrafya Library Catalogue Konrad Hirschler

A Monument to Medieval Syrian Book Culture: The Library of IbnAbd al-Hd Konrad Hirschler

The Popularisation of Sufism in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt: State and Society, 11731325 Nathan Hofer

Defining Anthropomorphism: The Challenge of Islamic Traditionalism Livnat Holtzman

Making Mongol History: Rashid al-Din and the Jamial-Tawarikh Stefan Kamola

Lyrics of Life: Sadi on Love, Cosmopolitanism and Care of the Self Fatemeh Keshavarz

Art, Allegory and The Rise of Shiism In Iran, 14871565 Chad Kia

The Administration of Justice in Medieval Egypt: From the 7th to the 12th Century Yaacov Lev

Zoroastrians in Early Islamic History: Accommodation and Memory Andrew D. Magnusson

A History of Herat: From Chingiz Khan to Tamerlane Shivan Mahendrarajah

The Queen of Shebas Gift: A History of the True Balsam of Matarea Marcus Milwright

Ruling from a Red Canopy: Political Authority in the Medieval Islamic World, From Anatolia to South Asia Colin P. Mitchell

Islam, Christianity and the Realms of the Miraculous: A Comparative Exploration Ian Richard Netton

The Poetics of Spiritual Instruction: Farid al-Din Attar and Persian Sufi Didacticism Austin OMalley

Sacred Place and Sacred Time in the Medieval Islamic Middle East: An Historical Perspective Daniella Talmon-Heller

Conquered Populations in Early Islam: Non-Arabs, Slaves and the Sons of Slave Mothers Elizabeth Urban

edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/escihc

A History of Herat

From Chingiz Khan to Tamerlane

Shivan Mahendrarajah

Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com

Shivan Mahendrarajah, 2022

Cover image: Mongols at war. Staatsbibliothek zu BerlinPreussischer Kulturbesitz, Orientabteilung, Diez A fol. 70, S.7, Nr.1
Cover design: www.paulsmithdesign.com

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A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 4744 9937 8

The right of Shivan Mahendrarajah to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).

Maps

Figures

Tables

The IJMES systems for Arabic and Persian are followed. Macrons (//) and diacritics (// s /////) are used; ayn () and hamza () represent letters of the alphabet. The letter waw is rendered (w); diphthongs are (aw) and (ay); the doubled final form of vowel is (-iyy). Spelling follows options in dictionaries by Hans Wehr and Francis Steingass. Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Mongol words accepted into English and in Websters or OED are not transliterated; hence ulama, darwish, waqf, etc.

The genesis of this book is from my time with Professor Richard W. Bulliet at Columbia University, where the importance of Iranian and Islamic local histories was emphasized. Bulliet implanted in me an interest in Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad of Jam, the subject of my first book, The Sufi Saint of Jam; and in the Kartid dynasty, which is central to A History of Herat. Professor David Morgan was an immense source of inspiration and encouragement for both monographs. I am indebted to both scholars.

I am irredeemably indebted to Geoffrey Khan (Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge); Tony Street (Divinity Faculty, Cambridge); and Jrgen Paul (Der Martin-Luther-Universitt Halle-Wittenberg), for their support and manifold acts of kindness over the years. Heartfelt thanks go to faculty and staff at the University of St Andrews, especially Ali Ansari, Andrew Peacock, and Tim Greenwood.

Jrgen Paul, Thomas Barfield, Robert McChesney, and Michael Hope read drafts and offered valuable comments and corrections. Apart from saving me from howlers, the readers forced me to re-evaluate many aspects, such as presentation, arguments, and conclusions. Stephen Album and Bahram Ala al-Dini shared with me their insuperable expertise on Islamic numismatics. I am grateful to each for his assistance. Errors of fact or interpretation that persist despite their diligent efforts are my sole responsibility.