Herat Sentence Examples

A few miles below Herat the river begins to turn north-west, and after passing through a rich country to Kuhsan, it turns due north and breaks through the Paropamisan hills.

After a long and severe struggle, he regained Meshed, defeated them in a great battle near Herat in 1597, and drove them out of his dominions.

The numerous stock of Afghana were removed by Nebuchadrezzar, and found their way to the mountains of Ghor and Feroza (east and north of Herat).

Three miles to the south of Herat the Kandahar road crosses the river by a masonry bridge of 26 arches now in ruins.

In the following year he united with Hussain Mirza of Herat against Shaibani.

The death of Hussain put a stop to this expedition, but Baber spent a year at Herat, enjoying the pleasures of that capital.

The forward movement of Russia was thus stopped in the direction of Herat, but it continued with great activity farther east in the region of the Pamirs, until another Anglo-Russian convention was signed in 1895.

In Herat, where he spent the greater part of his life, he gained the favour of that famous patron of letters, Mir `Alishir (1440-1501), who served his old schoolfellow, the reigning sultan Husain (who as the last of the Timurides in Persia ascended the throne of Herat in 1468), first as keeper of the seal, afterwards as governor of Jurjan.

At the request of Mir `Alishirr, himself a distinguished statesman and writer, Mirkhond began about 1474, in the quiet convent of Khilasiyah, which his patron had founded in Herat as a house of retreat for literary men of merit, his great work on universal history, Rauzat-ussafa fi sirat-ulanbia walmuluk walkhulafa or Garden of Purity on the Biography of Prophets, Kings and Caliphs.

That one is afforded by the narrow valley of the Hari Rud to the west of Herat.

In western Asia we have learned the exact value of the mountain barrier which lies between Mery and Herat, and have mapped Indian its connexion with the Elburz of Persia.

We can now Indianrs - fully appreciate the factor in practical politics which Afghan- that definite but somewhat irregular mountain system, represents which connects the water-divide north of istan Herat with the southern abutment of the Hindu Kush, near Bamian.

Every pass of importance is known and recorded; every route of significance has been explored and mapped; Afghanistan has assumed a new political entity by the demarcation of a boundary; the value of Herat and of the Pamirs as bases of aggression has been assessed, and the whole intervening space of mountain and plain thoroughly examined.

It rises in the southern slopes of Siah-Koh, which forms the southern wall of the valley of Herat, and after a south-westerly course of about 200 m.

A younger brother of Toghrul, Daud, took possession of Mer y and Herat.

They showed a zeal for evangelization which resulted in the establishment of their influence throughout Asia, as is seen from the bishoprics founded not only in Syria, Armenia, Arabia and Persia, but at Halavan in Media, Mer y in Khorasan, Herat, Tashkent, Samarkand, Baluk, Kashgar, and even at Kambaluk (Pekin) and Singan fu Hsi`en fu in China, and Kaljana and Kranganore in India.

He then reluctantly turned back by way of Herat, where he took leave of the dervishes, and returned with a caravan to Teheran, and subsequently, in March 1864, through Trebizond and Erzerum to Constantinople.

That which distinguishes Herat from all other Oriental cities, and at the same time constitutes its main defence, is the stupendous character of the earthwork upon which the city wall is built.

When the royal engineers of the Russo-Afghan Boundary Commission entered Herat in 1885 they found its defences in various stages of disrepair.

To the north of the walls the site of old Herat was indicated by a vast mass of debris - mounds of bricks and pottery intersected by a network of shallow trenches, where the only semblance of a protective wall was the irregular line of the Tal-i-Bangi.

Whether or no the strength of this bulwark of North-Western Afghanistan should ever be practically tested, the general result of the most recent in vestigations into the value of Herat as a strategic centre has been largely to modify the once widely-accepted view that the key to India lies within it.

Abdur Rahman and his successor Habibullah steadfastly refused the offer of British engineers to strengthen its defences; and though the Afghans themselves have occasionally undertaken repairs, it is doubtful whether the old walls of Herat are maintained in a state of efficiency.

To the south the road from Herat to India through Kandahar lies across an open plain, which presents no great engineering difficulties, but is of a somewhat waterless and barren character.

The only other public building of any consequence in Herat is the great mosque or Mesjid-i-Juma, which comprises an area of Boo yds.

Now, however, it is falling rapidly into ruin, the ever-changing provincial governors who administer Herat having neither the means nor the inclination to undertake the necessary repairs.

At the present day, with the exception of the Chahar-sick, where there is always a certain amount of traffic, and where the great diversity of race and costume imparts much liveliness to the scene, Herat presents a very melancholy and desolate appearance.

Of these structures indeed some have survived to the present day in a sufficiently perfect state to bear witness to the grandeur and beauty of the old architecture of Herat.

The population of Herat and the neighbourhood is of a very mixed character.

Under the government of Herat, however, there are a very large number of tribes, ruled over by separate and semi-independent chiefs, and belonging probably to different nationalities.

There are no glaciers near its sources, although they must have existed there in geologically recent times, but masses of melting snow annually give rise to floods, which rush through the midst of the valley in a turbid red stream, frequently rendering the river impassable and cutting off the crazy brick bridges at Herat and Tirpul.

The intense cold which usually accompanies these sudden northern blizzards of Herat and Turkestan is a further source of danger.

The valley about Herat includes a flat alluvial plain which might, for some miles on any side except the north, be speedily reduced to an impassable swamp by means of flood-water from the surrounding canals.

Through this stretch of dasht the drainage from the main water-divide breaks downwards to the plains of Herat, where it is arrested and utilized for irrigation purposes.

The direct passes across it from Herat (the Baba and the Ardewan) wind amongst masses of disintegrating sandstone for some miles on each side of the dividing watershed, but farther west the rounded knolls of the rain-washed downs may be crossed almost at any point without difficulty.

The origin of Herat is lost in antiquity.

Of the foundation of Herat (or Heri, as it is still often called) nothing is known.

To trace in any detail the fortunes of Herat would be to write the modern history of the East, for there has hardly been a dynastic revolution, or a foreign invasion, or a great civil war in Central Asia since the time of the prophet, in which Herat has not played a conspicuous part and suffered accordingly.

It was indeed under the princes of the house of Timur that most of the noble buildings were erected, of which the remains still excite our admiration at Herat, while all the great historical works relative to Asia, such as the Rozetes-Sefa, the Habib-es-seir, Hafiz Abru's Tarikh, the Mallet' a-esSa'adin, &c., date from the same place and the same age.

Four times was Herat sacked by Turkomans and Usbegs during the centuries which intervened between the Timuride princes and the rise of the Afghan power, and it has never in modern times attained to anything like its old importance.

Afghan tribes, who had originally dwelt far to the east, were first settled at Herat by Nadir Shah, and from that time they have monopolized the government and formed the dominant element in the population.

It will be needless to trace the revolutions and counter-revolutions which have followed each other in quick succession at Herat since Ahmad Shah Durani founded the Afghan monarchy about the middle of the 18th century.

Let it suffice to say that Herat has been throughout the seat of an Afghan government, sometimes in subordination to Kabul and sometimes independent.

Persia indeed for many years showed a strong disposition to reassert the supremacy over Herat which was exercised by the Safawid kings, but great Britain, disapproving of the advance of Persia towards the Indian frontier, steadily resisted the encroachment; and, indeed, after helping the Heratis to beat off the attack of the Persian army in 1838, the British at length compelled the shah in 1857 at the close of his war with them to sign a treaty recognizing the further independence of the place, and pledging Persia against any further interference with the Afghans.

In 1863 Herat, which for fifty years previously had been independent of Kabul, was incorporated by Dost Mahomed Khan in the Afghan monarchy, and the Amir, Habibullah of Afghanistan, like his father Abdur Rahman before him, remained Amir of Herat and Kandahar, as well as Kabul.

A certain number, too, of Arabic Christians, believers living on the west coast of India, the so-called Christians of St Thomas, and finally those belonging to places nearer the middle of Asia (Merv, Herat, Samarkand), remained in communion with the Nestorian church.

The Buddhist religion, then beginning to decay in India, was working its way to a new growth in China, and contemporaneously the Nestorian Christians were establishing bishoprics at Herat, Mer y and Samarkand, whence they subsequently proceeded to Kashgar, and finally to China itself.

Before his death at Herat, 9th June 1863, Dost Mahomed had nominated as his successor Shere Ali, his third son, passing over the two elder brothers, Afzul Khan and Azim Khan; and at first the new amir was quietly recognized.

The evacuation of Afghanistan was settled on the terms proposed, and in 1881 the British troops also made over Kandahar to the new amir; but Ayub Khan, one of Shere Ali's sons, marched upon that city from Herat, defeated Abdur Rahman's troops, and occupied the place in July.

The most remarkable representative of this family was Abdullah Khan (1556-1598), who greatly extended the limits of his kingdom by the conquest of Badakshan,, Herat and Meshhed, and increased its prosperity by the public works which he authorized.

He showed great ability at an early age, and was made governor of Herat by his father, but broke into open rebellion against him in 1870, and was imprisoned in 1874 in Kabul.

But there is a break in these hills - a gate, as it were, to the great high road between Herat and India; and it is this gate which the fortress of Kandahar so effectually guards, and to which it owes its strategic importance.

Other routes there are, open to trade, between Herat and northern India, either following the banks of the Hari Rud, or, more circuitously, through the valley of the Helmund to Kabul; or the line of hills between the Arghandab and the Tarnak may be crossed close to Kalat-i-Ghilzai; but of the two former it may be said that they are not ways open to the passage of Afghan armies owing to the hereditary hostility existing between the Aeimak and Hazara tribes and the Afghans generally, while the latter is not beyond striking distance from Kandahar.

The one great high road from Herat and the Persian frontier to India is that which passes by Farah and crosses the Helmund at Girishk.

Thus Kandahar becomes a sort of focus of all the direct routes converging from the wide-stretching western frontier of India towards Herat and Persia, and the fortress of Kandahar gives protection on the one hand to trade between Hindustan and Herat, and on the other it lends to Kabul security from invasion by way of Herat.

The walls of the city are pierced by the four principal gates of "Kabul," "Shikarpur," "Herat" and the "Idgah," opposite the four main streets, with two minor gates, called the Top Khana and the Bardurani respectively, in the western half of the city.

The greater part of the English goods sold at Herat are imported by Karachi and Kandahar - a fact which testifies to the great insecurity of trade between Meshed and Herat.

The imports consist chiefly of English goods, indigo, cloth, boots, leather, sugar, salt, iron and copper, from Hindustan, and of shawls, carpets, "Barak" (native woollen cloth), postins (coats made of skins), shoes, silks, opium and carpets from Meshed, Herat and Turkestan.

The plains about Kandahar are chiefly watered by canals drawn from the Arghandab near Baba-wali, and conducted through the same gap in the hills which admits the Herat road.

Khojend, Herat, Kandahar were Alexandrias, Mer y was an Alexandria till it changed that name for Antioch.

This undoubtedly was a section of the great central trade route of Asia, which once connected Ferghana and Herat with Kashgar and China.

Within the limits of this boundary Afghanistan comprises four main provinces, Northern Afghanistan or Kabul, Southern Afghanistan or Kandahar, Herat and Afghan Turkes Ghilzai and Hazara Highlands, Ghazni, Jalalabad and Kafiristan.

The kingdom of Kabul is the historic Afghanistan; the link which unites it to Kandahar, Herat and the other outlying provinces having been frequently broken and again restored by amirs of sufficient strength and capability.

The Herat province is largely Persian, while Afghan Turkestan is chiefly Usbeg; and in neither is the sentiment of loyalty to the central government very strong.

The Kabul river drains Northern Afghanistan, the Hari Rud the province of Herat, and the Oxus that of Afghan Turkestan.

So rapid has been the land elevation of Central Afghanistan that the erosive action of rivers has not been able to keep pace with that of upheaval; and the result all through Afghanistan (but specially marked in the great central highlands between Kabul and Herat) is the formation of those immensely deep gorges and defiles which are locally known as darns.

At Robat-i-Pai near Herat, for example, there is a dark Froductus limestone which seems to be identical with the Productus limestone of the Central Himalayas.

The entire system may be represented in the west, but in the Herat province and in Afghan Turkestan the middle Cretaceous seems to be absent, and it is probable that, as in other regions, the upper Cretaceous covers a much wider area than the lower beds.

The lower part of the Miocene is marine in Herat and Afghan Turkestan; but the upper Miocene is usually of freshwater or estuarine origin.

Between Kabul and Herat there is no " royal " road, the existing route passing over the frequently snowbound wastes that lie below the southern flank of the great Koh-iBaba into the upper valleys of the Hari Rud tributaries.

Between Kandahar and Herat there is the recognized trade route which crosses the Helmund at Girishk and passes through Farah and Sabzawar.

Three years out of four at Herat it does not freeze hard enough for the people to store ice; yet it was not very far from Herat, and could not have been at a greatly higher level (at Kafir Kala, near Kassan) that, in 1750, Ahmad Shah's army, retreating from Persia, is said to have lost 18,000 men from cold in a single night.

Pushtu, however, is the prevailing language, though it does not seem to be spoken in Herat, or, roughly speaking, west of the Helmund.

There are five chief political divisions in the country - namely, Kabul, Turkestan, Herat, Kandahar and Badakshan, titu- ' 'flon Cons and each of which is ruled by a " naib " or governor, who is directly responsible to the amir.

TheAfghan army probably numbers 50,000 regulars distributed between the military centres of Herat, Kandahar, Kabul, Mazari-Sharif, Jalalabad and Asmar, with detachments at frontier outposts on the side of India.

Abdur Rahman claimed that he could put ioo,000 men into the field within a week for the defence of Herat.

The two chief fastnesses of Northern Afghanistan are Herat and Dehdadi near Balkh.

There are reported to be rich lead mines near Herat scarcely worked.

Sulphur is said to be found at Herat, dug from the soil in small fragments, but the chief supply comes from the Hazara country and from Pirkisri, on the confines of Seistan, where there would seem to be a crater, or fumarole.

One of the most important of these is the gum-resin of Narthex asafetida, which grows abundantly in the high and dry plains of Western Afghanistan, especially between Kandahar and Unculti- Herat.

The komal (Prangos pabularia) is abundant in the hill country of Ghazni, and is said to extend through the Hazara country to Herat.

Herat and Kandahar are famous for their silks, although a large proportion of the manufactured silk found on the Herat market, as well as many of the felts, carpets and embroideries, are brought from the Central Asian khanates.

The district of Herat produces many of the smaller sorts of carpets (" galichas " or prayer-carpets), of excellent design and colour, the little town of Adraskand being especially famous for this industry; but they are not to be compared with the best products of eastern Persia or of the Turkman districts about Panjdeh.

The nomadic Afghan tribes of the west are chiefly pastoral, and the wool of the southern Herat and Kandahar provinces is famous for its quality.

In the time of Darius Hystaspes (zoo B.C.) we find the region now called Afghanistan embraced in the Achaemenian satrapies, and various parts of it occupied by Sarangians (in Seistan), Arians (in Herat), Sattagydians (supposed in highlands of upper Helmund and the plateau of Ghazni), Dadicae (suggested to be Tajiks), Aparytae (mountaineers, perhaps of Safed Koh, where lay the Paryetae of Ptolemy), Gandarii (in Lower Kabul basin) and Paktyes, on or near the Indus.

For a century and more after the Mongol invasion the whole of the Afghan countries were under Mongol rule; but in the middle of the 14th century a native dynasty sprang up in western Afghanistan, that of the Kurts, which extended its rule over Ghor, Herat and Kandahar.

The Saddozais were driven from Kabul, Ghazni and Kandahar, and with difficulty reached Herat (1818).

Herat remained thus till Kamran's death (1842), and after that was held by his able and wicked minister Yar Mahommed.

After 1849, when the annexation of the Punjab had carried the Indian northwestern frontier up to the skirts of the Afghan highlands, the corresponding advance of the Russians south-eastward along the Oxus river became of closer interest to the British, particularly when, in 1856, the Persians again attempted to take possession of Herat.

In July 1880, a few days after the proclamation of Abdur Rahman as amir at Kabul, came news that Ayub Khan, Shere Ali's younger son, who had been holding Herat since his father's death, had marched upon Kandahar, had utterly defeated at Maiwand a British force that went out from Kandahar to oppose him, and was besieging that city.

But when Ayub Khan, who had meanwhile retreated to Herat, heard that the British forces had retired, early in 1881, to India, he mustered a fresh army and again approached Kandahar.

Ayub Khan fled toward Herat, but as the place had meanwhile been occupied by one of the amir's generals he took refuge in Persia.

At this time the Russians were advancing rapidly in Central Asia, and a Persian army, not without Russian support, was besieging Herat, the traditional bulwark of Afghanistan on the east.

The first army sent by Ziyad into Khorasan recaptured Merv, Herat and Balkh, conquered Tokharistan and advanced as far as the Oxus.

It is situated on the river that bears its name on the main road between Herat and Kandahar, 160 m.

It is a place of some strategical importance, as it commands the approaches to India and Seistan from Herat.

This name, which survives in the modern Herat, has of course no connection with that, of the Aryans.

He removed his capital from Samarkand to Herat, of which place he rebuilt the citadel, restoring and improving the town.

After him Abu Said, grandson of Miran Shah, and once governor of Fars, became a candidate for empire, and allied himself with the Uzbeg Tatars, seized Bokhara, entered Khorasan, and waged war upon the Turkoman tribe aforesaid, which, since the invasion of Azerbaijan, had, under Jahan Shah, overrun Irak, Fars and Kermgn, and pillaged Herat.

More to the purpose is it that Sultan IJosain Mirza, great-grandson of Omar Sheikh, son of Timur, reigned 10 in Herat from 1487 to 1506.

The second could not well be included in the first, because the Turkomans were in possession of the greater part of the Persian plateau, while the sultan was in Herat, to which Khorasan belonged.

They had besieged and taken Herat, killed the governor, plundered the town, and laid waste the surrounding country.

In 1597 Abbas renewed operations against the Uzbegs, and succeeded in recovering from them Herat and Khorasan.

Thence he seems to have returned to Kandahar, and in May 1740just one year after his departure from Delhihe was in Herat displaying the imperial throne and other costly trophies to the gaze of the admiring inhabitants.

From Herat he moved upon Balkh and Bokhara, and received the submission of Abul-Faiz Khan, the Uzbeg ruler, whom he restored to his throne on condition that the Oxus Northern should be the acknowledged boundary between the Con quests.

At this juncture Abmad Shah Abdali reappeared in Persian Khorasan from Herat; he attacked and took possession of Meshed, slew Mir Alam, and, pledging the local chiefs to support the blinded prince in retaining the kingdom of his grandfather, returned to Afghanistan.

It was otherwise with Herat.

Persia claimed the principality of Herat as part of the empire of Nadir, but her pretensions had been satisfied by payments of tribute or evasive replies.

In 1824, on a solicitation from Mustafa Khan, who had got temporary hold of Herat, more troops were despatched thither, but, by the use of money or bribes, their departure was purchased.

Some eight or nine years afterwards Abbas Mirza, when at the head of his army in Meshed, invited Var Mahommed Khan of Herat to discuss a settlement of differences between the two governments.

Again the Persian troops advanced to Herat itself under the command of Mahomnied Mirza, son of Abbas; but the news of his fathers death caused the commander to break up his camp and return to Meshed.

As might have been anticipated, the hajji fell into the hands of Russia, represented by Count Simonich, who urged him to a fresh expedition into Khorasan and the siege of Herat.

The expedition was to commence with a campaign against the Turcomans Herat being its later destination.

Such counter-proposals as Ellis had suggested for consideration had been politely put aside, and the case was now more than ever complicated by the action of the Barakzai chiefs of Kandahar, who had sent a mission to Teheran to offer assistance against their Saduzai rival at Herat.

He again set out in the summer, and, invading the Herat territory in November 1837, began the siege on the 23rd of that month.

The Russian envoy, who had appeared among tne tents of the besieging army almost simultaneously with his English colleague, no sooner found himself alone in his diplomacy than he resumed his aggressive counsels, and little more than a fortnight had elapsed since MNeills departure when a vigorous assault, planned, it is asserted, by Simonich himself, was made upon Herat.

The siege of Herat, which lasted for nearly ten months, was the great event in the reign of Mahommed Shah.

Since that event he had himself reigned supreme in Herat, and, dying in 1851, was succeeded by his son Said Mahommed.

This chief soon entered upon a series of intrigues in the Persian interests, and, among other acts offensive to Great Britain, suffered one Abbas Kuli, who had, under guise of friendship, betrayed the cause of the salar at Meshed, to occupy the citadel of Herat, and again place a detachment of the shahs troops in Ghurian.

Colonel Sheil remonstrated, and obtained a new engagement of noninterference with Herat from the Persian government, as well as the recall of Abbas Kuli.

In September 1855 Mahommed Yusuf Saduzai seized upon Herat, putting Said Mahommed to death with some of his followers who were supposed accomplices in the murder of his uncle Kamran.

Some relations of the deceased chief made their escape to Teheran, and the shah, listening to their complaint, directed the prince-governor of Meshed to march across to the eastern frontier and occupy Herat, declaring that an invasion of Persia was imminent.

The stipulations regarding Herat were much as before; but there were to be apologies made to the mission for past insolence and rudeness, and the slave trade was to be suppressed in the Persian Gulf.

The other ancient tongues and dialects of s family are known only by name; we read of peculiar idioms Sogdiana, Zabulistan, Herat, &c. It is doubtful whether the guages of the Scythians, the Lycians and the Lydians, of which dly anything remains, were Iranian or not.

After a bloody conflict Mahmud was deprived of all his possessions but Herat, the rest of his dominions being divided among Fatteh Khan's brothers.

In 1857 he declared war on Persia in conjunction with the British, and in July a treaty was concluded by which the province of Herat was placed under a Barakzai prince.

His later years were disturbed by troubles at Herat and in Bokhara.

On the 26th of May 1863 he captured Herat, but on the 9th of June he died suddenly in the midst of victory, after playing a great role in the history of Central Asia for forty years.

It is about two-thirds the size of Herat, square built and surrounded by a ruined wall and moat.

It is collected near Kandahar and Herat, and imported into India from Cabul and Kandahar.

Of the last, occurring mainly in the north, the chief are the longitudinal valley stretching from near the Herat frontier through Meshed, Kuchan and Shirvan to Bujnurd, the Derrehgez district, which lies on the northern skirt of the outer range projecting into the Akhal Tekkeh domain, now Russian territory, and the districts of Nishapur and Sabzevar which lie south of the Binalud and Jagatai ranges.

At Girishk it is crossed by the principal route from Herat to Kandahar.

The whole territory, from the junction of the Kokcha river with the Oxus on the north-east to the province of Herat on the south-west, is some Soo m.

Russian diplomacy was exerting an increasing influence in Persia, and the latter had always coveted the city of Herat, which was popularly regarded as the gate of India.

In 1856 the Persian government, believing that England had her hands fully occupied in the Crimea, seized Herat, and, in consequence, a fresh war in which a British army under Sir James Outram rapidly secured a victorybroke out.

Vegetables are scarce, and rice is chiefly obtained from Herat.

On the death of Ahmad Shah in 1773 the country became a recognized bone of contention, not so much between Persians and Afghans as between Herat and Kandahar; but eventually the internal dissensions of Afghanistan gave Persia the desired opportunity; and by a steady course of intrigue and encroachment she managed to get within her grasp the better lands on the left bank of the lower Helmund and something on the right bank besides.

It is now applied in a restricted sense to the waterparting between Herat and the Russian frontier on the Kushk river, which possesses no local name of its own.

From Herat city to the crest of the Paropamisus, which is crossed by several easy passes, is a distance of about 36 m., involving a rise of 1000 ft.

The control of Zamindawar may be regarded as the key to the position for safeguarding the route between Herat and Kandahar.

It is the contrast between the cultivated aspect of the valley of Herat and the surrounding desert that has given Herat its great reputation for fertility.

The original inhabitants of Ariana were no doubt of the Aryan family, and immediately cognate with the Persian race, but they were probably intermixed at a very early period with the Sacae and Massagetae, who seem to have held the mountains from Kabul to Herat from the first dawn of history, and to whom must be ascribed - rather than to an infusion of Turco-Tartaric blood introduced by the armies of Jenghiz and Timur - the peculiar broad features and flattish countenance which distinguish the inhabitants of Herat, Seistan and the eastern provinces of Persia from their countrymen farther to the west.

But the great stretch of highly irrigated and valuable fruit-growing land, which appears to spread from the walls of Herat east and west as far as the eye can reach, and to sweep to the foot of the hills north and south with an endless array of vineyards and melon-beds, orchards and villages, varied with a brilliant patchwork of poppy growth brightening the width of green wheat-fields with splashes of scarlet and purple - all this is really comprised within a narrow area which does not extend beyond a ten-miles' radius from the city.

The main water-divide between Herat and the Turkestan Chol (the loess district) has been called Paropamisus for want of any well-recognized general name.

Herat gradually recovered under the enlightened Ghorid kings, who were indeed natives of the province, though they preferred to hold their court amid their ancestral fortresses in the mountains of Ghor, so that at the time of Jenghiz Khan's invasion it equalled or even exceeded in populousness and wealth its sister capitals of Balkh, Mery and Nishapur, the united strength of the four cities being estimated at three millions of inhabitants.

But this Mogul visitation was most calamitous; forty persons, indeed, are stated to have alone survived the general massacre of 1232, and as a similar catastrophe overtook the city at the hands of Timur in 1398, when the local dynasty of Kurt, which had succeeded the Ghorides in eastern Khorasan, was put an end to, it is astonishing to find that early in the 15th century Herat was again flourishing and populous, and the favoured seat of the art and literature of the East.

Shir Khist, a manna known to writers on materia medica in the 16th century, is imported into India from Afghanistan and Turkestan to a limited extent; it is the produce of Cotoneaster nummularia (Rosaceae), and to a less extent of Atraphaxis spinosa (Polygonaceae); it is brought chiefly from Herat.