Balkh is a city in northern Afghanistan, with an estimated population of 148,972 people. It is the second largest city of Balkh Province and is within the jurisdiction of Balkh District. Balkh is located approximately 24 km (15 mi) to the northwest of Mazar-i-Sharif and approximately 74 km (46 mi) to the south of the Amu Darya or the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border.
Historically a hub of Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, the ancient city was also known to the ancient Persians as Zariaspa and to the ancient Greeks as Bactra, giving its name to the wider region of Bactria. Balkh was renowned as the capital of Bactria and later Tokharistan. Prior to the Mongol conquest, Balkh was one of the richest cities in Khorasan. It suffered severely due to the Mongol invasion in the 13th century and never recovered its former status, with nearby Mazar-i-Sharif slowly becoming the more important town in the locality. By the 14th century Balkh had become a part of Timurid Empire, and after the conquest by Shaybani Khan in 1506, continued to be ruled by the Uzbek dynasties for centuries, notably the Khanate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Kunduz, except for the brief Mughal and Afsharid interruptions, until it was captured by Dost Muhammad Khan in 1850 from the Uzbeks and incorporated into the Emirate of Afghanistan.
The Italian explorer and writer Marco Polo described Balkh as "a noble city and a great seat of learning". Most of the town now consists of ruined buildings, situated some 12 km (7.5 mi) from the right bank of the seasonally flowing Balkh River, at an elevation of about 365 m (1,198 ft). The Green Mosque of Balkh is one of the few surviving monuments.
While it is one of Afghanistan's ethnically diverse settlements, Tajiks account for the majority of Balkh's populace and have continuously inhabited the site for millennia. The main language of the town is Dari, which is spoken by a significant majority. Its current mayor is Maulvi Mohammad Qasim Fazal Subhan.
Etymology
The origin of the name Balkh is unknown. Wilhelm Eilers proposed that the region was named after the Balkh River (in Greek transliteration Βάκτρος, Baktros) from underlying Bāxtri-, itself meaning 'she who divides', etymologically from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhag- 'to divide' (whence also Avestan bag- and Old Indic bháj-).
The Bactrian language name of the city was βαχλο, Bakhlo. In Middle Persian texts, it was named Baxl (Bakhl, Middle Persian: 𐭡𐭠𐭧𐭫). The name of the province or country also appears in the Old Persian inscriptions (B.h.i 16; Dar Pers e.16; Nr. a.23) as Bāxtri, (Bakhtri, Old Persian: 𐎲𐎠𐎧𐎫𐎼𐎡𐏁). It is written in the Avesta as Bāxẟi (Avestan: 𐬠𐬁𐬑𐬜𐬌) . From this came the intermediate form Bāxli, Sanskrit Bahlīka (also Balhika) for "Bactrian", and by transposition the modern Persian Balx / Balkh, and Armenian Bahl. This same root entered the Greek language as Baktra (Ancient Greek: Βάκτρα), often written in the form Bactra.
An earlier name for Balkh or a term for part of the city was Zariaspa (Ancient Greek: Ζαρίασπα), which may derive from the important Zoroastrian fire temple Azar-i-Asp or from a Median name *Ζaryāspa- meaning 'having gold-coloured horses'.
The nickname of Balkh is "the mother of all cities".
The Belgian-French explorer and spiritualist Alexandra David-Néel associated Balkh with Shambhala, a mythical kingdom that features prominently in ancient Tibetan Buddhism, and also offered the Persian Sham-i-Bala (lit. 'elevated candle') as an etymology of its name. In a similar vein, the British author John G. Bennett, whose academic focus was on the teachings of the Armenian-Greek mystic George Gurdjieff, speculated in his works that Shambhala may have been a Bactrian Sun temple called Shams-i-Balkh, taking note of the Afghan author and mystic Idries Shah as the source of this suggestion.
History
The first historical reference for Balkh is found in the Mahabharata, where it is called 'Valhika' through which an important trade route passed. The same source mentions that the place is famous for good breed of mules and was founded by merchants who traded in Chinese silk, pashmina, jewels and perfumes.
Balkh was earlier considered to be the first city to which the ancient Iranic peoples moved from north of the Amu Darya (also known as the Oxus in Greek), between 2000 and 1500 BC. However, it was only recently that archaeological remains before 500 BC were found by French archaeologists led by Johanna Lhullier and Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento in the section called Bala Hissar, which is the citadel of the site. They dated this first settlement to the Early Iron Age (Yaz I period, c. 1500-1000 BC) continuing until pre-Achaemenid times (Yaz II period, c. 1000–540 BC). Bala Hissar is located at the north of the site and is oval in shape, having an area of around 1,500 by 1,000 m (c. 120 hectares) and to the south is the lower town. Another mound of the site, known as Tepe Zargaran, and the Northern Fortification Wall of Balkh, were occupied at a large extension in Achaemenid times (Yaz III period, c. 540-330 BC).
Since the Iranic people built one of their first kingdoms in Balkh, some scholars believe that it was from this area that different waves of Iranic tribes spread to north-east Iran and the Seistan region. The changing climate has led to desertification since antiquity, when the region was very fertile. Its foundation is mythically ascribed to Keyumars, the first king of the world in Persian legend; and it is at least certain that, at a very early date, it was the rival of Ecbatana, Nineveh, and Babylon.
The city was traditionally a center of Zoroastrianism. For a long time the city and country was the central seat of the dualistic Zoroastrian religion, the founder of which, Zoroaster, died within the walls according to the Persian poet Firdowsi. Armenian sources state that the Arsacid dynasty of the Parthian Empire established its capital in Balkh. There is a long-standing tradition that an ancient shrine of Anahita was to be found here, a temple so rich it invited plunder.
Alexander the Great married Roxana of Bactria after killing the king of Balkh in the 4th century BC, and introduced Greek culture and religion to the region. The city was one of the capitals of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and was besieged for three years by the Seleucid Empire under king Antiochus III the Great. After the demise of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, it was ruled by Indo-Scythians, Parthians, Indo-Parthians, the Kushan Empire, Indo-Sassanids, Kidarites, the Hephthalite Empire, and Sassanid Persians before the arrival of the Arabs.
Ancient Bactrian religion
Bactrian documents – in the Bactrian language, written from the fourth to eighth centuries – consistently evoke the name of local deities, such as Kamird and Wakhsh, for example, as witnesses to contracts. The documents come from an area between Balkh and Bamiyan, which is part of Bactria.
Zoroastrianism and Buddhism
Balkh is well known to Buddhists as the hometown of Trapusa and Bahalika, two merchants who, according to scripture, became Buddha's first disciples. They were the first to offer Buddha food after he attained enlightenment, and in return Buddha gave them eight of his hairs to remember him by. According to some accounts, Trapusa and Bahalika returned to Balkh, and built two stupas in the way Buddha instructed. Balkh is therefore named after Bahalika, who is credited with introducing Buddhism to the city. This is reflected in literature, where the town has been called Balhika, Bahlika or Valhika. The first Buddhist monastery (vihara) at Balkh was built for Bahalika when he returned home after becoming a Buddhist monk.
The Chinese pilgrim Faxian (337-422 CE) traveled to the region in the early 5th century, and found Hinayana Buddhism prevalent in Shan Shan, Kucha, Kashgar, Osh, Udayana, and Gandhara. Later, the Chinese monk Xuanzang (602–664 CE) visited Balkh in 630 CE, when it was a flourishing centre of Hinayana Buddhism. According to his account at the time of his visit, there were about a hundred Buddhist convents, 3,000 monks, and a large number of stupas and other religious monuments in the city or its vicinity. Xuanzang also remarked that Buddhism was widely practiced by the Hunnish rulers of Balkh, who were descended from Indian royal stock.
During the 8th century, the Korean monk and traveler Hyecho (704–787 CE) recorded that even after the Arab invasion, the residents of Balkh continued to practice Buddhism and followed a Buddhist king. He noted that the king of Balkh at the time had fled to nearby Badakshan.
The most remarkable Buddhist monastery was the Nava Vihara ("New Temple"), which possessed a gigantic statue of Gautama Buddha. Located near the city of Balkh, it served as a pilgrimage centre for political leaders who came from far and wide to pay homage to it. Shortly before the Arab conquest, the monastery became a Zoroastrian fire-temple. A curious reference to this building is found in the writings of the geographer Ibn Hawqal, an Arab traveler of the 10th century, who describes Balkh as built of clay, with ramparts and six gates, and extending for half a parasang. He also mentions a castle and a mosque.
A large number of Sanskrit medical, pharmacological, and toxicological texts were translated into Arabic under the patronage of Khalid al-Barmaki, the vizier of al-Mansur. Khalid was the son of a chief priest of a Buddhist monastery. Some of the family were killed when the Arabs captured Balkh; others including Khalid survived by converting to Islam. They would later come to be known as the Barmakids of Baghdad.
Judaism
Sennacherib, who reigned over the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705 to 681 BCE, is said to have forcibly transferred some Israelites to Balkh after dispossessing them from the Kingdom of Israel during the Assyrian captivity. This account is discussed in the works of the Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi, who wrote that the arrival and establishment of the Jews in Balkh had occurred in light of Sennacherib's campaign in the Levant. Additionally, a number of geographers from the Arab world attested the existence of a monument called Bāb al-Yahūd (lit. 'Gate of the Jews') and a settlement called al-Yahūdiyya at the site of Balkh. Some Muslims believe that the Israelite prophet Jeremiah fled to Balkh during the Babylonian captivity and that the Israelite prophet Ezekiel was buried there, though Jews revere Ezekiel's Tomb in modern-day Iraq as the site of his final resting place.
Balkh's Jewish community was further noted in the Ghaznavid Empire during the 11th century, when Jews were forced to maintain a garden for Mahmud of Ghazni and pay a minority tax of 500 dirhams. According to Jewish oral history, under Timur of the Timurid Empire, the Jews of Balkh were given a gated city quarter of their own to live in.
There was still a substantial Jewish community in Balkh as late as 1885, as attested by the British administrator Charles Yate following the Second Anglo-Afghan War: "a considerable colony of Jews, who have a separate quarter of the village to themselves, and appeared, so far as we could judge, to be fair-looking men with most unmistakably Jewish features."
Hiwi al-Balkhi, a 9th-century exegete and Bible critic, was born in Balkh and is widely believed to have been a Bukharan Jew, at least by ethnicity, as some scholars have asserted that he was a practicing gnostic Christian.
Arab conquests and Islamization
At the time of the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century, Balkh was an outpost of resistance and a safe haven for the Persian emperor Yazdegerd III who fled there from the armies of the Rashidun Caliph, Umar. Later, in the 9th century, during the reign of Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar, Islam became firmly rooted in the local population.
Arabs first occupied Persia in 642 (during the Caliphate of Uthman, 644–656 CE). Attracted by the grandeur and wealth of Balkh, they attacked it in 645 CE but did not maintain control for long. In 653 Arab commander al-Ahnaf raided the town again and compelled it to pay tribute. The Arab hold over the town, however, remained tenuous and the area was reconquered by the Umayyad Caliph Muawiya, in 663 AD. Prof. Upasak describes the effect of this conquest in these words:
"The Arabs plundered the town and killed the people indiscriminately. It is said that they raided the famous Buddhist shrine of Nava-Vihara, which the Arab historians call 'Nava Bahara' and describe it as one of the magnificent places, which comprised a range of 360 cells around the high stupas'. They plundered the gems and jewels that were studded on many images and stupas and took away the wealth accumulated in the Vihara but probably did no considerable harm to other monastic buildings or to the monks residing there".
These early Arab attacks had little effect on the normal ecclesiastical life in the monasteries or Balkh Buddhist population outside. Buddhism continued to flourish with their monasteries as the centres of Buddhist learning and training. Scholars, monks and pilgrims from China, India and Korea continued to visit this place. Several revolts were made against the Arab rule in Balkh.
The Arabs' control over Balkh did not last long as it soon came under the rule of a local prince, a zealous Buddhist called Nezak Tarkhan. He expelled the Arabs from his territories in 670 or 671. He is said to have not only reprimanded the Chief Priest (Barmak) of Nava-Vihara but beheaded him for embracing Islam. Per another account, when Balkh was conquered by the Arabs, the head priest of the Nava-Vihara had gone to the capital and became a Muslim. This displeased the people of the Balkh. He was deposed and his son was placed in his position.