Herat City and its Structural Changes During the Mongol and Timurid Periods

Document Type : Scientific

Author

1. Ph. D of Archaeology, Department of history and Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

10.22103/jis.2023.19235.2315

Abstract

Herat is one of the major cities in the eastern part of Greater Iran and northwestern Afghanistan. Like other cities of Khorasan, Herat was destroyed after the Mongol attack. The destruction and stagnation caused by the invasion of the Mongols had a short period and a process of reconstruction has begun after fifteen years. Studying the development process of Herat on that period, helps to clarify the urban transformations that occurred during the 13th to 16th centuries. It should also be said that the results of this research will be effective for understanding urban development models in the Timurid period and after. The main purpose of this article is to study the development process of Herat city during the Kurd and Timurid periods. The fundamental question of this research is what effect has the origin of the above governments had on the development trends in Herat city? This research has been done by the historical-analytical method. The results of this study show that the prevailing nomadic life in the Timurid period and the interest in the development of suburbs that have been considered since Timur have caused the city of Herat to expand regardless of the known boundaries. The expansion of the city in this period is based on the definition of new water sources and the construction of large gardens in the suburbs.

Keywords