Almost exactly halfway between Kabul and Bamiyan, about 31 miles from the town of Charikar and 3 miles from the village of Siyahgerd, lies the site of Fundukistan, one of the most important monastic sites in the country. Excavations carried out in 1937 revealed a monastery complex consisting of a square courtyard surrounded by a wall with twelve niches, and with a small stupa in the centre. The architectural decoration, arcades with foliated scrolls and columns with pseudo-Corinthian capitals is perhaps less remarkable than the magnificent frescoes reflecting both Indian and Sasanian elements, and the sculptures reminiscent of the Indian Gupta school.6
Kunjakai, some 25km west of Kabul, on the ancient road to Gbazni, consists of a stupa, a monastery and niches between the two, dominated by a citadel on the hill opposite. It has been looted since the ninth century: sculptures that were in the niches have now mostly disappeared and the stupa decoration has also been destroyed, probably by the Muslims, (first by the invasion of Yakublais Saffar at the end of the ninth century, and then by Mahmud of Ghazni a century later). It was similar to the stupa of Guldara (see p.185), and was just a little smaller than the stupa of Tepe Maranjan (see p.189). Its side measured 16.8m, the height was 6.4m. Either side of Kunjakai were found two cemeteries and three archaeological sites, so far unexplored.7
Khwaja Safa south of Kabul, near the Bala Hisar, mentioned for the first time by Charles Masson in 1830, was also a monastery with a stupa and a wall with niches, the sculptures of which have disappeared. In its lower part were several chapels, some of which contained remnants of statues painted red and ochre and gilded.8
Tepe Naranj, south of the citadel of Kabul, is a site dating from the fifth to sixth century, and was first excavated in 2004. It yielded some pre-Islamic pottery, bricks from the Hephthalite period and fragments of statues of bodhisattvas in Gandharan style. A major discovery was a statue of a sitting Buddha, with a bodhisattva Vajrapani in a style characteristic of the Hephthalite period on his right. A circular meeting room, covered with a layer of ashes, is so far a unique architectural feature. Excavations in 2008 have uncovered traces of a small monastery below the site and another approximately 2km south-east, which seem to confirm an artistic style called by some scholars ‘Hephthalo-Buddhist’.
In 2005, traces of a monastery were found in the Babur Gardens in Kabul, linked with the monasteries of Tepe Maranjan, Khair Khane and Tepe Khazana.9
Mes Aynak is a major site, some 30km south of Kabul, at an altitude of 2,500m, in immediate proximity of a giant copper mine owned by the Chinese, which threatens to destroy it in the near future. There were three monasteries and at least two large stupas. Shards of pottery found here indicate that the site was occupied from the third century BC until the fifteenth. So far, one of the monasteries, near the village of Gul Ahmad, occupied probably until the end of the tenth century, has been explored. Two chapels and some monastic cells were uncovered, next to which were found eight large jars buried in the ground that probably served as water reservoirs. A small square stupa had on one side three lions painted red, of which only the front paws can be discerned. A clay statue of a sitting Buddha was also painted in red ochre. Generally, the style of these sculptures, technically more primitive than the sophisticated ‘Hephthalo-Buddhist’ style at Tepe Naranj, points to the last period of occupation of the site. Most of the paintings and sculptures have disappeared, probably because of a military attack, when the monks tried to protect the site by blocking it with bricks and clay. Ancient copper smelting took place here, as blackened areas of the ground indicate. Some 150 statues have been found.10
Recent excavations 2010–11 have centered on the second monastery, called Tepe Kafiriat. At the time of writing only about half of the building has been uncovered. Its base was a large rectangular platform with round turrets in each corner; there were monastic cells in the north-western part and a group of stupas in the south-east. Access was probably through a monumental entrance in the south-east, which has not been found so far. There was a large stupa surrounded by eight small ones; a huge statue of a sitting Buddha next to it was made of clay and painted and around it were small sculptures, also of clay. An unusual item was a statue of a sitting bodhisattva accompanied by a monk, both in schist, which is a material rarely used in this area. On the north side was a large central courtyard surrounded by small cells roofed with cupolas based on squinches, which is also a rare element. The building was obviously rebuilt several times. Two chapels were added on either side of the entrance. In one of them was found a statue of a lying Buddha some 3m long, as well as traces of other monumental statues of which only the feet can be seen. In the second chapel there were statues dating from at least two different periods. From the first one there is a sitting Buddha covered with gold leaf, from the second, much later and dating probably from the sixth to eighth centuries, there are monumental statues of six bodhisattvas and one Buddha.
A few miles further away, near the village of Baba Wali, remnants of a fortified settlement, which probably guarded the ancient mines, can be seen. In 2010, fragments of some manuscripts in brahmi were found here, dating from the fifth century, as well as stone sculpture with traces of paint, representing the Buddha Dipankara, dating probably from the second to the third century AD. Other buildings, stupas and monasteries are still waiting to be explored.11
It seems that the site of Mes Aynak was one of a long string of settlements along the road by which Buddhism spread from India to Central Asia and to China.12
Ashokas Inscriptions
Ashoka (c.270–32) had edicts carved in rocks throughout his empire. These were primarily concerned with defining the order of his state and ensuring its unity by promoting Buddhism, wich was seen as the principal instrument in achieving this aim. A number of pillars inscribed with religious exhortations and legal and administrative orders were erected in various parts of the empire. The languages used in them reflect relations with Persia and the Hellenistic West.
A rock edict of Emperor Ashoka was found near Chehel Sina in 1958. It is a stone slab 55 x 50cm, with fourteen lines of text in Greek and eight lines in Aramaic, which until the finds of Surkh Kotal and Ay Khanum was the easternmost Greek inscription, and also the only one attributed to Ashoka. Another fragment of a Greek inscription came to light in the Kandahar bazaar in 1963, which contained twenty-two lines on a limestone block measuring 45 x 70cm, and can also be attributed to Ashoka. It comes, presumably, from Shahr-i Kuhna, the Old City of Kandahar. In the same year, an inscription in Prakrit and Aramaic was also found in the bazaar. It had seven lines of script on a 24 x 19cm block. A further four Ashoka inscriptions were found in the Laghman area in 1969; three of them were in Prakrit, or another Indian language, and one in Aramaic.
The Hoard of Tepe Fullol
This hoard, dating from the Bronze Age, was found in 1966 in the province of Badakhshan. It consisted of five gold and twelve silver vessels from different periods and different localities. The motifs and the techniques used were a mixture of Indian, Iranian, Central Asian and Mesopotamian elements. On this evidence it seems probable that most objects could be dated to c.2500 BC.
* * *
NOTES ON CHAPTER XVI
Full details of abbreviations and publications are in the Bibliography
1 Translated from Julien, S., Hiuan-Tsang, pp.40–42.
2 Toynbee, A., Between Oxus and Jumna, p.128.
3 Auboyer, J., Afghanistan et son art.
4 Barthoux, J., ‘Les fouilles de Hadda’, Mem. DAFA IV; 1933.
5 Godard, A., Godard, J., Hackin, J., ‘Les antiquites bouddhiques de Bamiyan’, Mem. DAFA II, 1928.
6 Duprée, N., Duprée, L., Motamedi, A.A., The National Museum of Afghanistan, p.99.
7 Paiman, Z., ‘Kaboul, les Buddhas colorés des monasteres’, Archéologia 473/10.
8 Paiman, Z., ‘Kaboul, foyer d’art bouddhique’, Archéologia 461/08.
9 Paiman, Z., ‘Region de Kaboul, nouveaux monuments bouddhiques’, Archéologia 430/06.
11 Buddha Dipankara, one of the Buddhas of the Lesser Vehicle (Hinayana) was a protector of travellers and traders.
12 Fournie, E., ‘Mes Aynak, joyau bouddhique de l’Afghanistan’, Religions et Histoire 37/2011.
XVII
THE WEST
The oasis of Herat stretches along the right bank of the Hari Rud, between the river and the foothills of the Safid Kuh range, the ancient Paropamisus, in the north. On the left bank, the green belt is confined to the immediate vicinity of the riverbed. The stony and sandy desert begins, abruptly, only a few hundred yards from the river. From the air, it can clearly be seen that the irrigation network extended much further in the past and that the area of cultivated farmland began much higher upstream than now.
Herat is, without doubt, one of the oldest cities on Afghan soil. When Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered it in the sixth century BC, it was already an important stronghold mentioned in the Avesta as Hairava. Alexander took it in 330 BC, rebuilt and strengthened the fort, and gave it the name of Alexandria Ariana. It was held in succession by the Seleucids, Parthians, Kushans and Sasanians. For a period in the fifth and sixth centuries it was dominated by the Hephthalites, or White Huns, who ruled their empire from the nearby province of Badghiz. At the end of the sixth century it was sacked by the Turks, and in 645 it fell to the Arabs. From then on, it remained firmly Muslim, but the story of conquest continued. It was taken by Mahmud of Ghazna in the year 1000, fell to the Seljuks after the defeat of the Ghaznavids in 1040, and to the Ghorids in 1175. Although the Ghorid domination lasted less than half a century, it is the earliest period from which some architectural monuments have been preserved in Herat.
Shortly before the Mongol invasion, Yakut considered Herat to be ‘the richest and largest city he had ever seen’.1 His contemporary, Kazwini, notes that ‘here might be seen many mills turned by wind, not by water’, for him an uncommon sight.2 Some of these curious mills, working on the principle of a vertical shaft revolving in a cylindrical tower, still exist.
The second period of prosperity came in the fifteenth century, under the Timurids, Shahrukh (1405–47) and Husayn Baykara (1469–1506). Shahrukh, Timur’s fourth and youngest son became governor of Herat after his father’s conquest of the city. When, after a brief interlude following Timur’s death in 1405, he established himself as his successor, he made Herat the capital of the Timurid empire. Politically, culturally and commercially, it became the metropolis of Central Asia, competing with and, for a time, surpassing Samarkand.
The citadel (Arg, Bala Hissar) is an imposing building constructed in the ninth or tenth century on the site of an earlier fortress, the origins of which would probably go back to antiquity. (See 5.) No excavations have been carried out here, and the hypothesis that this may be the site of Alexander’s fort, Alexandria Ariana, still awaits confirmation. The ramparts and round towers were rebuilt several times, especially by the Kart dynasty after the Mongol onslaught, and by Shahrukh in the wake of Timur’s conquest. It forms a rectangle of approximately 4,300ft by 4,600ft, situated on an artificial mound in the north-western corner of the city. A bastion built by Shahrukh between the northern city wall and the north-eastern side of the fortress made the city and the citadel into a single defensive complex. The ramparts of the fortress were equipped with semicircular towers; on the bottom part of one of these in the north-western part, remains of an inscription frieze with geometrical patterns in glazed bricks could still be seen. This decorative frieze consisted of a wide ornamental band framed in a curious way with dark and pale-blue tiles and filled in with a sophisticated imitation of Arabic calligraphy in pale blue.
Fig. 31 Herat
Although after the citadel the Friday mosque was the oldest monumental building in Herat, medieval texts contain surprisingly little information about it. As we have seen in Ibn Hawkal, it stood in the midst of the chief market, and no mosque in all Khorassan or Sistan was its equal in beauty. (See 62 and 67.) Other sources are even more laconic. We would have to wait until the nineteenth century for a more meaningful description, and by then, of course, the original aspect of the building might have been altered beyond recognition. To Byron,
… this morose old mosque inside the walls growls a hoary accompaniment to the Timurid pageant of the suburbs… The Friday mosque was old and ruined before the Timurids were heard of. It is less ruined now they are not heard of. For seven centuries the people of Herat have prayed in it. They still do so, and its history is their history.3
The layout of the building is that of a traditional Iranian four-iwan mosque, which developed from a combination of the original Arab hypostyle mosque and an Iranian fire temple.4 On the west side – or the south-west, according to some sources – of a courtyard measuring approximately 300ft by 195ft is the main iwan with a prayer hall, flanked by two minarets. Opposite is the entrance iwan, and in the middle of the longer sides of the rectangle, two lateral iwans. All the iwans are unusually deep. Inside the arcaded wings enclosing the courtyard are halls of columns concealed behind the façade niches. Each of the courtyard iwans has its counterpart in the outer façade. All outer iwans are flanked by two minarets each, and there is a small turret in each corner. The present state of the building is the result of restoration carried out since the mid–1940s.
The general impression may be Timurid, and there are undoubted similarities with other monuments of the same period, but conspicuous differences point to earlier origins. For example, the pillars in the passages are remarkably strong, the iwan vaults have unusual proportions, and the points of the arches differ from the usual Timurid style. Melikian-Chirvani,5 who has analysed the building, believed these elements to be closer to twelfth- or thirteenth-century models. There are at least three distinct items pointing to this period of origin: right and left of the western iwan, the low vaulting and its brick pattern, in addition to the inscription along the base of the vault in the passage leading south from the iwan; a large portal on the south side of the eastern façade, half hidden under a layer of late Timurid decoration; and the remnants, still visible some forty years ago, of a mausoleum incorporated into the northern façade just behind the northern iwan.
The portal in the eastern façade was ‘discovered’ only in 1964, although Byron noticed ‘a Kufic legend in fancy brick over an arch in the north-east corner’,6 and Wilber described it – with a photograph – in 1937.7 Earlier stucco decoration has been found under Timurid tilework. The portal, which originally had a high arch lined with with an inscription frieze, was framed by a band of script and flanked with two pillars covered with geometrical ornaments. The medallions decorating the spandrels of the arch and the patterns of the columns were executed in incised terracotta. The Kufic in the portal, likewise in incised terracotta, was more conservative in design than that in the passage, but also of a very high quality. The motifs in the frame are essentially the same as those on the minaret in Dawlatabad,8 which again dates from the twelfth century.
Thus three separate sections of the mosque, lying west, east and north of the courtyard, date back to the early thirteenth century, to the reign of the successor to Ghiyat-ud-Din, Abu’l-Fath Muhammad ben Sam, or of his son. It can therefore be assumed that the layout of the Ghorid mosque was substantially the same as it is now and that all the subsequent restorations have little affected the inner structure. Only the eastern and western façades show sixteenth-century additions. The outer façades were, of course, completely reshaped. A beautifully decorated bronze cauldron stood until recently in front of the eastern iwan.
Walking north from the citadel past the recently restored fifteenth-century mausoleum of Abu’l-Kasim on the right, we arrive at a vast site stretching, on the left of the road, along both sides of an irrigation canal and marked by a number of high elegant minarets that look rather like a group of factory chimneys from a distance. There are six of these at present: four in the middle
of an enormous field of rubble on the north side of the canal, the remaining two in the gardens on the south side of it. A beautiful mausoleum with a typical Timurid ribbed dome stands between the two. This is all that remains of what the French traveller, Ferrier, described in 1845 as ‘one of the most accomplished, most imposing and most elegant architectural complexes in Asia’. It is the site of the Musalla, which, in the fifteenth century, was a vast complex of learning, a ‘university district’, founded by Queen Gawhar Shad, the wife of Shahrukh, in 1417 and extended and completed by Husayn Baykara at the end of the century. (See 55.) Musalla means ‘space (or place) for prayer’. In Arabic, the word originally indicated an open space oriented towards Mecca, the same as the Persian word ‘namazgah’. Later, it was used in a wider sense to describe any place destined for religious gatherings.
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