Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution
VOL. XIX. 1875. No. LXXX.
LECTURE.
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tion
of the city of Herat which makes it of a rectangular and
nearly square form; set almost exactly after the cardinal
points of the compass, the faces from north to south
being somewhat longer than those from east to west, but
all from 1,400 to 1,500 yards. The walls, from 24 to 20
feet high, are built on an earthen rampart of about
double their own height. A deep wet ditch which surrounds
the whole is supplied, according to Conolly, by springs
within itself. More recent information, on the other
hand, assumes it to be filled by canals outside the
walls, and in such case the supply might be cut off by an
enterprising invader. But M. Khanikoff mentions a more
palpable obstacle to effectual defense in the existence,
at the north-east angle of the walls, and at about 700
yards distance from the bastion, of a broad-crested hill,
overlooking the town, and covered with solid buildings
easily convertible into batteries. A mamelon of this
description could hardly fail to attract the attention of
an enemy even moderately skilled in the science of
sieges. The “Ark," or citadel, is behind the
main wall of the northern face. The “Ark-i-Nau"
or new citadel, however, intervenes and overlaps the
older building. There are five gates, two on the north
and one at each of the other faces. A high street
traverses the town from the north-west to the south gate,
and is the great center of traffic. The population has
been estimated at various figures. Some of these are
doubtless erroneous. Others, though inapplicable to the
present day, may have been tolerably correct at the time
they were recorded: for the political revolutions of Herat
have been continual, and must have had sensible influence
on the numbers and character of the inhabitants. I do not
think that 50,000 can be a very unfair or inexact
supposition for the population under the Amir Sher AH.
Such a total would certainly be attained if Yakub Khan or
his successor could add the element of stability to
successful government. Conolly, who reckoned the number
of inhabitants at 45,000, added that there were 4,000
dwelling-houses, 1,200 shops, and 17 caravanserais. As
the first reply to his inquiries on the spot had elicited
the statement that there were 12,000 houses within the
walls, it is not impossible that the reduction to less
than half the figure is under the true mark. In either
case, the estimate of occupants would seem to be quite
sufficiently high for the occasion. The mosque, the domed
reservoir, the palace of the Chahar Bagh, and, it may be,
the bazaar, and one or two of the larger caravanserais
may be named among the more notable monuments of Herat;
and if we go beyond the walls, with these may be included
the ruins on the Musalla, or place of prayer, and the
tombs of the Mohammedan saint, Khajah Abdullah Ansari,
and Dost Muhammad Khan.
Modern day Herat
In 1830, Conolly was of opinion that the city was
" one of the " dirtiest in the world. Many of
the small streets," he wrote, “which”
branch from the main ones, are built over and form low,
dark “tunnels, containing every offensive thing. No
drain having been” contrived to carry off the rain
which falls within the walls, it collects “and
stagnates in ponds which are dug in different parts of
the city.”The residents cast out the refuse of their
houses into the streets,” and dead cats and dogs are
commonly seen lying upon heaps of the “vilest
filth."
| JBOC Notes: Conolly's comments are
interesting here. Herat was a center of world
culture when London in the present UK was of
small consequence. But by the 19th century it was
a provincial backwater. The sea trade made the
old Silk Route of little consequence and with
British help Herat was wrested from Persia and
given to the Pashtun rulers of Afghanistan
(Treaty of Paris, 1857). |
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