We Have Arrived in Herat (1974)

The city of Herat sits in an oasis by the river Hari Rud, between
the desert in the southwest and the mountains in the north. 
Photo: Hans Sandberg, 1974.

September 30, 1974

Finally in Afghanistan! We have left SAVAK's reign of terror behind us. The Afghan border guards and customs officials wore tattered clothes but looked prouder than the Shah's well-uniformed soldiers.

Herat. There are no words for this city. It’s probably one the most beautiful cities in the world.

We didn’t see many cars, but plenty of gaddis, i.e. horse-drawn carriages adorned with bright red tassels and bells. They trot along wide dirt roads lined with trees. The city is full of life. We only saw a few advertising billboards which were gathered at one street. 

Street life in Herat. Photo: Hans Sandberg, 1974.

We also saw terribly disfigured beggars. A 15-year-old boy comes crawling with his twisted body and stumps for arms and legs. 

Women are completely veiled from head to toe. Not even the nose sticks out. The eyes and nose are covered by a cloth mesh. We are told that a man can have up to 9-10 wives here.

It is a primitive city. There are no multistory buildings or conspicuous class differences. But we do see some luxury villas at a distance on the way to Gazar Gah, maybe owned by landlords or hashish merchants. 

The Afghans have been hospitable, generous, and independent minded.

The Friday mosque, Jama Masjid. 

Photo: Hans Sandberg, 1974.

We visited the beautiful Friday mosque, Jama Masjid. A bearded old man with a white turban invited us in and showed us a mosaic workshop inside the mosque. At the other end of the workshop, a well-built craftsman was sleeping on the floor. The old man who asked us in knocked on the door, and after a while it opened. We were let in and shown how the mosaics are made. 

We visited a mosaic workshop in the Friday mosque.
Photo: Hans Sandberg, 1974.

On the way back from the mosque we entered a room with two looms. At one of them a man was weaving silk fabrics. 

A man weaves and a boy is keeping an eye on
the foreigners. Photo: Hans Sandberg, 1974.

We saw the Musalla complex from a graveyard where six or seven children were begging. From there we could see a large part of Herat, and some farms just below.

Photo: Hans Sandberg, 1974.

About half-past five we went to a shop so that I could order an Afghan dress consisting of shirt and trousers made to measure. The fabric is woven in cotton and silk. The owner asked us to come back to the shop at half past six so that he could treat us to tea. Before then he was not allowed to eat and drink since it was Ramadan. 

When we returned, he rolled out three red carpets for us. We sat down and he asked if we wanted green or black tea. Before he started eating, he went to the window, poured water from a jug, and washed his hands. He told us that he was married, had two children, and about how he had managed to afford the dowry of 120,000 Afghanis. His said that his father had chosen the woman for him. That was 4 years ago.

Later a student came in who ran the shop next door with his brothers. He and I discussed politics openly with each other. He said that there were many Maoists in Afghanistan. We also talked about Soviet, which seems to be the biggest threat to the country. The Soviets buy natural gas cheaply, refine it and then sell it back at a high price. He said that Soviet prevents Afghanistan from choosing its own trading partners. For example, they hindered Afghanistan from selling natural gas to West Germany. He also said that Soviet was behind the coup d'état in the summer of 1973, when Mohammed Daoud seized power. 

Herat has been a marketplace for thousands of years. 
Photo: Hans Sandberg, 1974.

One of the highlights of our time in Herat was the ruins of the Musalla complex with its five minarets and the Gawhar Shad Mausoleum built under Queen Gawhar Shad in the early 15th century. Her husband Shah Rukh, was son of Tamerlane, founder of the Timurid Dynasty. Shah Rukh moved the Timurid capital from Samarkand to Herat in 1405. The Gawhar Shad Mosque was one of the great masterpieces of Islamic architecture and, according to Robert Byron, even more beautiful than her mosque in Mashhad, now part of the Imam Reza complex. Byron wrote in The Road to Oxiana that the buildings in Herat "were the most beautiful example of the use of color in architecture ever created by man to honor God and himself." That didn't stop the British colonial army from blowing up the entire complex with dynamite in 1885 in order to give them a clear view of an expected Russian attack that never happened. It was part of Russia and Britain's imperialist enterprise known as 'The Great Game'.

The Musalla complex in Herat. Photo: Hans Sandberg, 1974. 

(Translated from my September 30, 2014 post on Sandbergs hörna)