A History of Herat by Mahendrarajah Shivan;

Author:Mahendrarajah, Shivan;
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781474499378
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

PART II

SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND CULTURAL RENEWAL IN HERAT

7

Early Efforts to Revive Agriculture and Commerce

Khurasan and Herat

Geography and Topography

“Iran-zamin, ‘the land of Iran,’ means more than a place of habitation and extends beyond the present political entity.” For the multifarious peoples of Persia, this is the area where they “have maintained their special way of life through centuries of invasion, social change, and political turmoil. [It] is the birthplace and home of an unique Iranian culture—the product of an ancient relationship between diverse peoples and their homeland.”1 An integral geographical, political, cultural, and economic constituent of Iran-zamin is the vast geographical expanse called Khurasan.2

Geographical Khurasan is a long and narrow tract—somewhat like a trapezoid (the northern and southern limits are nearly parallel)—whose ill-defined boundaries stretch from the southeastern littoral of the Caspian Sea to the Hindu Kush. The limits of political-cultural Khurasan are nebulous, but generally admitted to include territories influenced by Persian culture: parcels in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.3 The tract is bounded in the north by the River Oxus (Amū Darya, Jayhūn) and the Black Sands (Qara-Qum) desert; in the southwest/south by two salt deserts: Dasht-i Kawīr and Dasht-i Lūt. Quhistān, Sistān, Bamiyān, and Ghūr are at Khurasan’s southwestern/southern limits; Qandahar and Ghazni, the southeast.4 Khurasan’s forbidding topographical features were eloquently described by Edmund Bosworth:

[t]he mass of brown shading or hatching which a relief map displays to us, the lifeless salt deserts, the land-locked river basins, the indeterminate rivers which peter out in lakes and swamps and permit no navigation or access to the sea: all betray an uncertain water-supply, a harsh climate, an arid terrain and introspective, closed human communities.5

The land is ostensibly inhospitable; however, water originating in mountains, and held in underground water basins, is plentiful.6 Three millennia ago, the ingenious Iranian mind conceived a scientific marvel,7 the kārīz, which transports water from subterranean reservoirs to thirsty farmers and farmlands. It is costly and labor-intensive to excavate a kārīz,8 more so the farther the mother-well (chāh-mādar) is from the outlet.9 A kārīz requires frequent maintenance to prevent silting/collapse.

The aridity of a Khurasanian region, and scarcity of surface waters, has only briefly hindered human settlement—provided the soil was suitable for agriculture. A substantial percentage of Iran’s land capacity is unsuitable for sustainable crop production: c. 10.50% of surveyed lands are rated “very good” to “medium” for crop farming (based on topography, soil, climate); “poor” and “very poor” are 17.70%; excluded (11.9%) and unsuitable lands (59.9%) comprise the bulk.10 Medieval agronomical treatises supplied guidance on soils and irrigation requirements by soil type; suitability of crops and their probable yields.

The precious parcels of the arid Iranian Plateau capable of sustaining agricultural enterprises, therefore, demand transportation of water if water was not nearby. Absent sensible management of Khurasan’s natural resources and food insecurity will prevail. Herat’s fame as a “breadbasket” is testament to the ingenuity and industry of its peoples.11

Hydrological Network of Herat

The region’s irrigation network is complex. It encompasses kārīzs, aqueducts (jūy), rivers, canals, streams (nahr, rūd, -āb), deep-wells (chāh-i

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