Sacred Landscape in Medieval Afghanistan

Revisiting the Faḍā"il-i Balkh

Arezou Azad

Oxford Oriental Monographs

Looks at the influence of Buddhism in early Islamic history,
Highlights that the sacredness of a holy Islamic site precedes the arrival of Islam by many centuries
Describes how the history of a place is created through the collation of accounts and their repetition and adaptations over the centuries, providing a case study of Islamic historiography through the historical analysis of one concrete place.
Gives insight into the human values that served as examples of moral excellence in the mediaeval Islamic world.
Broadens understanding of the silk road and Islamic history in Afghanistan beyond a Middle East-focussed and Kabul-centred approach.

Sacred Landscape in Medieval Afghanistan

Revisiting the Faḍā"il-i Balkh

Arezou Azad

Description

This book is about a sacred place called Balkh, known to the ancient Greeks as Bactra. Located in the north of today's Afghanistan, along the silk road, Balkh was holy to many. The Prophet Zoroaster is rumoured to have died here, and during late antiquity, Balkh was the home of the Naw Bahār, a famed Buddhist temple and monastery. By the tenth century, Balkh had become a critical centre of Islamic learning and early poetry in the New Persian language that grew after the Islamic conquests and continues to be spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia today.
In this book, Arezou Azad provides the first in-depth study of the sacred sites and landscape of medieval Balkh, which continues to exemplify age-old sanctity in the Persian-speaking world and the eastern lands of Islam generally. Azad focuses on the five centuries from the Islamic conquests in the eighth century to just before the arrival of the Mongols in the thirteenth century, the crucial period in the emergence of Perso-Islamic historiography and Islamic legal thought. The book traces the development of 'sacred landscape', the notion that a place has a sensory meaning, as distinct from a purely topographical space. This opens up new possibilities for our understanding of Islamisation in the eastern Islamic lands, and specifically the transition from Buddhism to Islam. Azad offers a new look at the medieval local history of Balkh, the Faḍā"il-i Balkh, and analyses its creation of a sacred landscape for Balkh. In doing so, she provides a compelling example of how the sacredness of a place is perpetuated through narratives, irrespective of the dominant religion or religious strand of the time.

Sacred Landscape in Medieval Afghanistan

Revisiting the Faḍā"il-i Balkh

Arezou Azad

Oxford Oriental Monographs

Introduction: The Discourse of Landscape, Balkh and its History
1: Writing about Place: Faḍā"il-i Balkh
Text and transmission
The Question of Sources
How to Read the Message
2: The Sacred Sites and the City
The sacred sites of Balkh
The sacred landscape of Balkh
3: Scholars, the Spirits of Sacred Landscape
Religious distinctions and affiliations
The Character of Sanctity
Conclusion: Looking Back, Moving Forward

Sacred Landscape in Medieval Afghanistan

Revisiting the Faḍā"il-i Balkh

Arezou Azad

Oxford Oriental Monographs

Author Information

Arezou Azad, Lecturer in Medieval History, University of Birmingham and Leverhulme Research Officer, University of Oxford

Arezou Azad is Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Birmingham. She is the founder and co-Director of the Balkh Art and Cultural Heritage project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and based at the University of Oxford. She received her D.Phil. from the University of Oxford in 2010. She has published several articles on medieval Balkh and the Faḍā"il-i Balkh, the city's earliest surviving local history of which she is preparing a revised Persian edition and English translation. Prior to joining academia, she served as a peacekeeper and development worker for the United Nations and non-governmental organisations in a number of countries, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil and Timor-Leste.

Sacred Landscape in Medieval Afghanistan

Revisiting the Faḍā"il-i Balkh

Arezou Azad

Oxford Oriental Monographs

Reviews and Awards

"a thoroughly well-researched study that will bring significant new light to an area of Central Asia, which has been neglected in modern scholarship and will provide further impetus to the study of medieval Perso-Islamic historical writing." - Alex Mallett, American Historical Review

"This is a work of major importance for scholars ... The achievement of the author is in her meticulous analysis." - R. D. McChesney, Speculum

"a richly documented, penetrating study of aspects of religious and cultural life in one of the great cities of the Islamic East." - C Edmund Bosworth, British Institute of Persian Studies

"Sacred Landscape in Medieval Afghanistan integrates an erudite textual analysis with a multilayered history of urban space and the people who endowed it with meaning. In Azad's hands, the city of Balkh comes alive, as do the concerns of its medieval inhabitants ... One finishes [the book] with an appreciation for Balkh as place, a site endowed with layers of meaning that have inspired pride and pilgrimage for centuries." - Zayde Antrim, International Journal of Middle East Studies

"an important contribution to our understanding of the history of medieval Balkh." - Robert J. Haug, Journal of Near Eastern Studies