Shivan Mahendrarajah's meticulous research into Mongol Herat and the fabled though now faded city's most famous dynasty, the Karts, is a welcome if long overdue study of a once glorious and powerful metropolis. Long a commanding and influential city-state, Herat dominated the rich and flourishing province of medieval Khorasan reflecting the power and prestige of Persian culture throughout the eastern Islamic world. Herat was the undisputed centre of political, financial, and cultural power in the wider Persian-speaking world and a city-state whose elites were decisive and instrumental kingmakers in the Islamic world despite that status being challenged and at times undermined during the Mongol centuries.
The Kart dynasty's founder, Shams al-Din, championed Persian culture and protected the rights of native citizens, while allying himself with the Ilkhanid conqueror, Hulegu, and defending the Toluid branch of the imperial Chinggisid Qa'anate. Lawrence Potter's PhD thesis on the Karts (“The Kart Dynasty of Herat: religion and politics in mediaeval Iran”, Columbia University, 1992), for too long the major source on the Kart dynasty, failed to emphasize Herat's all-important regional role, allowing Mahendrarajah's History of Herat to become the authoritative history of the Kart dynasty and of medieval Herat.
Mahendrarajah has focused attention on Herat in its heyday under the Kart dynasty whose achievements, though recognized, have not received the attention and research they deserve. The first part concentrates on military and political history and the second half is concerned with social and economic developments. The organization and layout of this book prioritize the researcher's concerns: it provides not only maps, charts, tables and diagrams, but also a glossary, genealogical charts and appendices furnished with extra economic and social data. In addition, appropriate prolegomena introduce the three segments of the first half of the book, and summaries and reflections conclude both main parts, which make reviewing and re-assessing the material detailed in this meticulous study all the easier to manage. This is a book written with the researcher in mind.
Mahendrarajah's book has been written from the viewpoint of Herat and the emphasis is on events from the perspective of the city's Kart rulers. This angle results in an unexpected interpretation of events in the wider Mongol world and is immediately evident in the organization of the chapters. Whereas the Ilkhanate is usually split into into three distinct stages, with the reigns of Hulegu and Abaqa generally regarded as a positive period, the years from 1281 until the appearance of Ghazan in 1295 portrayed as essentially chaotic, and finally, the rule of the three Muslim Ilkhans as a golden age, Mahendrarajah's three time-periods, explained over the six chapters of the book's first section, reflect differences in historical and political perspectives between Tabriz and Herat.
Herat's history did not reflect the fortunes of the Ilkhan kings in Azerbaijan. The first period ran from 615/1218 to 676/1278, ending with Shams al-Dīn's death by poisoning at the hands of Abaqa who, probably unfairly, mistrusted the motives of the wily founder of the Kart dynasty. The second period ran from 677/1278 to 729/1329 and covered some tumultuous decades from which Herat emerged with real economic prosperity. Finally, 729/1329 to 783/1381 saw the collapse of the Ilkhanid state and the rise of Timur. The opening two chapters deal with the initial Mongol onslaught and the political machinations of Shams al-Din Kart to assume some kind of control over Herat and its dependencies. As the Ilkhanate, based in Azerbaijan in the west of the region, became a reality, the nature of Mongol rule transformed from what Mahendrarajah calls Roving Bandits to Stationary Bandits, a thesis which is expanded in chapters 3 and 4. The final two chapters of this first section of the book deal with the transition of the Kartid state of Herat from an Ilkhanid client to an independent Persian Kingdom before the state's expiry in 783/1381 with the advent of Timurlane.
Both sections of Mahendrarajah's book conclude with final analyses of his own assessments and material. He reflects at length on the implications of his suppositions and devotes additional consideration not only to the major actors that are instrumental in the narrative but to the wider geographical and economic factors that impact the region. However, while he recognizes the essential differences that marked the rule of Mongke compared to the earlier Great Khans, Mahendrarajah could have emphasized more forcefully the cultural chasm that opened up between the Toluids and their cousins and neighbours to the north-west and north-east after the brothers donned their Chinggisid mantle.
The focus of the second section are the social and economic repercussions of the Chinggisid invasion with chapters 7 and 8 exploring the attempts by Ogodai Qa'an to rejuvenate Herat. The region's unique water distribution system, an important component of which was the qanat (kārīz) network of underground canals, was refurbished and re-opened and agricultural production was galvanized with the result that migration to Herat from Khurasan and Turkestan was encouraged and soon became evident in the city's growing prosperity. Details are provided for the extensive revitalization of the hydrological systems and agricultural administration. The Kartid rulers delegated responsibility for the management and administration of the hydrological and agricultural holdings to Herat's Islamic institutions with the result that these agro- and hydro-managers became notably richer and more powerful. As a consequence, Sufi and ʿAlid institutions in Jam, Balkh, Herat and Mashhad were major landowners with control over the province's water and agricultural production by the time that Timurid rule was in decline, a subject about which Mahendrarajah has already written and for which he is justly well known and his expertise acknowledged.
Chapters 9 and 10 concentrate on the re-building of Herat despite the Mongol overlords’ proscription on building. During the Kartid period Islamic activity thrived and Sufi hospices and seminaries proliferated. Mahendrarajah claims that it was this socio-economic recovery that enabled the splendour of Timurid Heart to develop, and that the Kartids should be credited with its success.
Mahendrarajah's study of Herat under Kartid rule views the Ilkhanate from a fresh and unexpected angle. The Kart dynasty's founder, Shams al-Dīn, had to juggle several threats to his position. While his relations with Hulegu had been generally firm, the new Ilkhan, Abaqa, had reservations about this canny leader in the east and his machinations with his Chinggisid cousins, both Jochid and Ogodaid, could be viewed from Tabriz with suspicion.
This refreshing study views the unfolding of events and the unravelling political shenanigans in Mongol Greater Iran from the viewpoint of Herat and its Persian Kartid rulers: the result is a new perspective on the Ilkhanate and the emergence of the Timurids. This History of Herat will undoubtedly become the standard textbook and we are indebted to Shivan Mahendrarajah for this impressive work of research and analysis.
