Bijan Omrani
From Timur to the Taliban
The Pearl of Khorasan: A History of Herat
By C P W Gammell
Hurst & Co 464pp £30
One of the wretched effects of over thirty-five years of war in Afghanistan, quite aside from the human suffering it has caused, is that the world has forgotten the country’s historical place as a heartland of Persian and Islamic high culture.
The foremost of Afghanistan’s cultural centres was, without question, Herat. C P W Gammell’s history of the city, from its conquest by Genghis Khan in 1222 to the present day, amply justifies the Persian proverb, quoted in the book’s title, that the city was the ‘Pearl of Khorasan’ (Khorasan comprising roughly the lands of eastern Iran and northern Afghanistan). Especially in its heyday during the 15th century as part of the Timurid empire, it was host to so many poets, princes, musicians, mystics, artists and craftsmen that it easily rivalled other, better-known Islamic cultural centres, such as Samarkand and Baghdad.
Gammell’s use of little-known and untranslated Persian-language sources brings to light a wealth of detail about the cultural past of Herat. Even after being laid waste by the Mongols in the 13th century, the city soon recovered sufficiently to support a grand ecosystem of poets. Foremost among them
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
How to ruin a film - a short guide by @TWHodgkinson:
Thomas W Hodgkinson - There Was No Sorcerer
Thomas W Hodgkinson: There Was No Sorcerer - Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey
literaryreview.co.uk
How to ruin a film - a short guide by @TWHodgkinson:
Thomas W Hodgkinson - There Was No Sorcerer
Thomas W Hodgkinson: There Was No Sorcerer - Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey
literaryreview.co.uk
Give the gift that lasts all year with a subscription to Literary Review. Save up to 35% on the cover price when you visit us at https://literaryreview.co.uk/subscribe and enter the code 'XMAS24'