Fwd: Balkh, the Mother of Cities

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gandhara , " yashwant0k " <yashwant0k wrote:

 

 

Balkh is now a small town in the Province of Balkh, Afghanistan,

about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital. Mazar-i-

Sharif, and some 46 miles (74 km) south of the Amu Darya, the Oxus

River of antiquity, which formerly flowed past Balkh. The ancient

city, the oldest in Afghanistan, is associated with the Vedic name

Bhakri, which as Bactra gave its name to Bactria, and was known as

Zainaspa. Balkh is now for the most part a mass of ruins, situated

some 12 km from the right bank of the Balkh River, at an elevation

of about 1,200 ft (366 m).

 

The changing climate has led to desertification since antiquity,

when the region was very fertile. The antiquity and greatness of the

place are recognized by the native populations, who speak of it as

the Mother of Cities and claim that Zoroaster preached at Balkh and

is buried there. Its foundation is mythically ascribed to Kaiomurs,

the Persian Romulus; and it is at least certain that, at a very

early date, it was the rival of Ecbatana, Nineveh and Babylon.

Bactra was conquered by Alexander the Great in 328 BCE. Its early

history is at the entry Bactria.

 

There is a long-standing tradition that an ancient shrine of Anahita

was to be found here, a temple so rich it invited plunder.

 

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

Zoroastrian religion, the founder of which, Zoroaster, died within

the walls, according to the Persian poet Firdousi. In a fire-temple

of Balkh, later converted to a Buddhist temple and given the name of

Nava Vihara (Navbahar) in Persian chronicles, the Kashmiri Brahmins

called Pramukh kept the lamps burning.

 

From the Memoirs of Hsuan Tsang, we learn that, at the time of his

visit in the 7th century, there were in the city, or its vicinity,

about a hundred Buddhist convents, with 3,000 devotees, and that

there was a large number of stupas, and other religious monuments.

The most remarkable was the Nau Behar, (avci Bihara or New Convent),

which possessed a very costly statue of Buddha. A curious notice of

this building is found in the Arabian geographer Yaqtit Ibn-Haukal,

an Arabian traveler of the 10th century, who describes Balkh as

built of clay, with ramparts and six gates, and extending half a

parasang. He also mentions a castle and a mosque.

 

At the time of the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century,

however, Balkh had provided an outpost of resistance and a safe

haven for the Persian emperor Yedzgird who fled there from the

armies of Umar.

 

Ibn Sina ( " Avicenna " ), a Tajik born in Balkh in 980 CE, was the most

celebrated philosopher-scientist of his time. He is particularly

known for his contributions in the field of Aristotelian philosophy

and medicine. His works found their way to Toledo, Spain, where they

were copied and translated and influenced the rise of Aristotelian

philosophy in 12th-century Europe.

 

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.

 

In 1220 Jenghiz Khan sacked Balkh, butchered its inhabitants and

levelled all the buildings capable of defense — treatment to which

it was again subjected in the 14th century by Timur. Notwithstanding

this, however, Marco Polo could still, in the following century,

describe it as " a noble city and a great. "

 

In the 16th century the Uzbek entered Balkh. The Moghul Shah Jahan

fruitlessly fought them there for several years in the 1640s. Balkh

formed the government seat of Aurangzeb in his youth. In 1736 it was

conquered by Nadir Shah. Under the Durani monarchy it fell into the

hands of the Afghans; it was conquered by Shah Murad of Kunduz in

1820, and for some time was subject to the khan of Bokhara. In 1850

Mahommed Akram Khan, Barakzai, captured Balkh, and from that time it

remained under Afghan rule.

 

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