Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-7nlkj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-01T10:09:24.368Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The monuments at the Kuhandiž of Herat, Afghanistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

The site of the Kuhandiž in Herat is known to scholars because of the two shrines located there. It was first reported by Ferrier, who gave the traditional name of “Thaleh-bengy”, and suggested that it was an artificially raised mound and that it was the site of ancient Herat. He does not give the name as Kuhandiž, nor does he speak of the shrines there, but the location he gives for the site, between the Musalla and the city, corresponds with the location of the Kuhandiž. Furthermore, we will see that “Thaleh-bengy” or Tal-i Bangiyān was another name of the site used in the 19th century. Ferrier speaks of a mosque there and records a tradition of his time that this building was built on the site of a fire-temple. He suggests that it must be the same as the well known fire-temple of Herat, converted to a mosque by the Muslims, and recorded in the Rawḍat al-ṣafā and the Tarīkh-i Ḥabīb al-siyar.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Ferrier, J. P., Caravan journeys and wanderings in Persia, Afghanistan, Turkistan and Beloochestan, London, 1857, 181.Google Scholar

2 Shāh, Muḥammad b. Khāwand (Mīr Khwānd), Rawḍat al-ṣafā, Lucknow, 1874, 707–8.Google Scholar

3 Khwānd-Amīr, , Tārīkh-i ḥabīb al-siyar, Bombay, 1857, III, 5 [khatima], 20Google Scholar. See also d'Herbelot, M., Bibliothèque Orientate, III, Paris, 1783, 192.Google Scholar

4 Yate, C. E., “Notes on the city of Herat”, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, LVI, 2, 1887, 94.Google Scholar

5 Yate, C. E., Northern Afghanistan, Edinburgh and London, 1888, 32–3.Google Scholar

6 Niedermayer, O., Afganistan, Leipzig, 1924, plan 3 (last page).Google Scholar

7 Risāla-yi mazārāt-i Harāt, a collection of three books on the shrines of Herat in Persian with notes and photographs of the existing monuments by the editor, Kabul, , 1967, notes, 31.Google Scholar

8 Hudūd al-'ālam, Persian text, Tehran, 1962, 91.Google Scholar

9 Khwāfī, Faṣīḥ Aḥmad b. Muḥammad, Mujmal-i Faṣīḥī (c. 845 H.), Mashhad, 1961, I, 207.Google Scholar

10 Tabarī, , Tārīkh al-rusul wal-mulūk, Leiden, 1881, III, 2, 989–95.Google Scholar

11 Ibnal-Athīr, , al-Kāmil fī 'l-tārīkh, Leiden, 1871, VI, 220.Google Scholar

12 Qumī, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad Hāshim, Khulāṣat al-buldān (1079/1668–9), Qum, 1976, 96.Google Scholar

13 'Abdallāh, Hindū Shāh b. Sanjar b., Nakhjawānī, Ṣāḥibī, Tajārib al-salaf, Tehran, 1934, 160.Google Scholar

14 Harawī, Amīr Sayyid Aṣil al-dīn 'Abdallāh Wā'iẓ, Maqṣad al-iqbāl-i sulṭānīya, in Saljūqī, Fikrī, Risāla-yi mazārāt-i Harāt, Kābul, 1962, part oneGoogle Scholar; Storey, C. A., Persian Literature, I, 1, reprinted, London, 1970, 356, no. 469; and I, 2, London, 1953, 1296.Google Scholar

15 Tehran, , 1972, 13.Google Scholar

16 Saljūqī, , Risāla-yi mazārāt-i Harāt, part one, 1011.Google Scholar

17 ibid., 11.

18 ibid., notes, 38.

19 ibid., notes, 39.

20 Yāqūt, Mu'jam al-buldān, s.v. Tustar: wa-hādhā 'l-shādurwān min 'ajā'ib al-abniya … mabnī bi-'l-hijārat al-muḥkama, wa-'l-ṣkhar wa-a'midat al-ḥadīd wa-balāṭuhu – read milāṭuhu (?) – bi-'l-raṣāṣ. “And this weir is amongst the wonders of construction … it is built of strong stones and rocks, and pillars of iron, and its cement is of lead”.

21 Hansman, J., “Three topographical problems in the southern Zagros”, BSOAS, 1973, XXXVI, 47.Google Scholar

22 Yate, C. E., Northern Afghanistan, Edinburgh and London, 1888, 33.Google Scholar

23 Saljuqī, , Risāla-yi mazārāt-i Harāt, notes, 32–5.Google Scholar

24 Pugachenkova, G. A., “A létude des monuments timourides d'Afghanistan”, Afghanistan, 1970, XXIII, 3, 31–3.Google Scholar

25 Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition, I, Leiden, 1960, 48Google Scholar; s.v. Mu'āwiya, 'Abd Allāh b.; De Slane, Mac Guckin, Ebn Khallikan's biographical dictionary, London, 1852, I, 74Google Scholar; Khwānd, Mīr, Rawḍat al-ṣafā, Tehran, 1270/18531854, III, no page number, but under the heading Aghāz-i da'wat-i banī 'Abbās dar KhurāsānGoogle Scholar; Miles, G. C., Numismatic history of Rayy, New York, 1938, 1617.Google Scholar

26 Ṭabarī, , Tarīkh al-rusul wal-mulūk, II, 3, Leiden, 18851889, 1978.Google Scholar

27 Ibnal-Āthīr, , al-Kāmil fī 'l-tārīkh, Leiden, 1871, VI, 285Google Scholar; Tarīkh-i Sīstān, edited by Bahār, Malik al-Shu'arā, reprinted Tehran, 1314/1935, 129 and 133Google Scholar; with detailed summary by Bosworth, C. E., Sīstān under the Arabs, Rome, 1968, 76–7.Google Scholar

28 Khwāfī, Faṣīḥ Aḥmad, Mujmal-i Faṣīḥī, Mashhad, 1961, I, 207.Google Scholar

29 Risāla-yi mazārāt-i Harāt, part 1, 10Google Scholar; Habibi, Abdul Hayy, Tārīkh-i Afghānistān ba'd az Islām, Kabul, 1966, 190–1Google Scholar. For dates of the Kart Kings, see de Zambaur, E., Manuel de genéalogie et de chronologie, Hanovre, 1927, 256.Google Scholar

30 Mujmal-i Faṣīḥī, Mashhad, 1960, III, 51.Google Scholar

31 Shāh, Muḥammad b. Khāwand (Mīr Khwānd), Rawḍat al-ṣafā, Lucknow, 1874, VII, 1389; Tehran edition, 1270 H. does not record this event, v. VII, no page number but under the heading of Dhīkr-i ba'ḍī wāqi'āt-i ān dawrān.Google Scholar

32 Hoag, J., “The tomb of Ulugh Beg and Abdu Rassaq at Ghazni, a prototype for the Taj Mahal”, The Memorial Volume of the Vth International Congress of Iranian Art and Archaeology, Tehran–Isfahan–Shiraz, llth–18th April 1968, II, Tehran, 1972, 102.Google Scholar

33 Niedermayer, , Afganistan, 174.Google Scholar

34 Historical monuments of Islam in the USSR, Tashkent, 63.Google Scholar

35 Hanaway, W., Khorasan I. (Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, Part IV. Persian inscriptions down to the early Safavid period. Vol. II. Khorasan Provine, Portfolio I.) Plates VI, XIV, and XVIII.Google Scholar