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Balkh[a] is a town in the Balkh Province of Afghanistan, about 20 km (12 mi) northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some 74 km (46 mi) south of the Amu Darya river and the Uzbekistan border. Its population was estimated to be 138,594 in 2021-22 by the Afghan National Statistic and Information Authority.[1] Listed as the current 8th most populous city in the country, 2024 estimates set the population of Balkh at 114,883.[2][3]

Balkh, an ancient city known for its importance to Zoroastrian and Buddhist traditions, was one of the wealthiest and largest cities of Greater Khorasan, since the latter's earliest history. The city was known to Persians as Zariaspa, to the Ancient Greeks as Bactra, and to the Arabs as "Mother of all Cities."[4] It was mostly known as the center and capital of Bactria or Tokharistan. Marco Polo described Balkh as a "noble and great city".[5] Balkh is now for the most part a mass of ruins, 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).


French Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel associated Shambhala with Balkh, also offering the Persian Sham-i-Bala ("elevated candle") as an etymology of its name.[6] In a similar vein, the Gurdjieffian J. G. Bennett published speculation that Shambalha was Shams-i-Balkh, a Bactrian sun temple.[7]

Etymology

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The old name of Balkh was Bami which was named after the Indo-Scythian Naga queen, Bami.[8] The Bactrian language name of the city was βαχλο. The city was known to Persians and Greeks as Zariaspa, but to the Ancient Greeks it was more so recognizable as Bactra, giving its name to Bactria.[9] In Middle Persian texts, it was named Baxl (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, i.e. Bakhtri (Old Persian: 𐎲𐎠𐎧𐎫𐎼𐎡𐏁). It is written in the Avesta as Bāxδi (Avestan: 𐬠𐬁𐬑𐬜𐬌‎) . From this came the intermediate form Bāxli, Sanskrit Bahlīka (also Balhika) for "Bactrian", and by transposition the modern Persian Balx, i.e. Balkh, and Armenian Bahl.[10] In the seventh century, Bahl is referred to as "Bahli-Bamikk" by the Persians, roughly translating to "Morning Bahl" for its association with the east and the sun rise.[11]

An earlier name for Balkh or a term for part of the city was Ζαρίασπα, which may derive from the important Zoroastrian fire temple Azar-i-Asp[12] or from a Median name *Ζaryāspa- meaning "having gold-coloured horses".[13]

The nickname of Balkh is "the Mother of All Cities".[4]

History

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Map showing Balkh (here indicated as Bactres), the capital of Bactria during the Hellenistic Age
Bahlika Kingdom alongside other locations of kingdoms and republics mentioned in the Indian epics or Bharata Khanda.

Balkh was earlier considered to be the first city to which the Iranian tribes moved from north of the Amu Darya, between 2000 and 1500 BC.[14] 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).[15] 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 m2 (c. 150 hectares) and to the south is the lower town.[16] 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).[15]

Since the Iranians built their first kingdom in Balkh[17] (Bactria, Daxia, Bukhdi) some scholars[who?] believe that it was from this area that different waves of Iranians spread to north-east Iran and Seistan region, where they, in part, became today's Persians, Tajiks, Pashtuns and Baluch people of the region.[citation needed] The changing climate has led to desertification since antiquity, when the region was very fertile.[citation needed] 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 Arabs called it Umm Al-Bilad or Mother of Cities, on account of its antiquity. The city was traditionally a center of Zoroastrianism.[12]

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.[18] The city was the capital of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and was besieged for three years by the Seleucid Empire (208–206 BC). After the demise of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, it was ruled by Indo-Scythians, Parthians, Indo-Parthians, Kushan Empire, Indo-Sassanids, Kidarites, Hephthalite Empire and Sassanid Persians before the arrival of the Arabs.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ "Estimated Population of Afghanistan 2021-22" (PDF). National Statistic and Information Authority (NSIA). April 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
  2. ^ "Afghanistan Population (2024) - Worldometer". www.worldometers.info. Retrieved 2024-02-10.
  3. ^ "Population of Cities in Afghanistan 2024". worldpopulationreview.com. Retrieved 2024-02-10.
  4. ^ a b "Balkh | Silk Roads Programme". Archived from the original on 2019-04-22. Retrieved 2018-05-15.
  5. ^ "City of Balkh (antique Bactria)". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 2020-06-23. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
  6. ^ David-Néel, A. Les Nouvelles littéraires;1954, p.1
  7. ^ Bennett, J. G., Gurdjieff: Making a New World Bennett notes Idries Shah as the source of the suggestion.
  8. ^ TOGAN, Z. V. (1970). "The Topography of Balkh Down to the Middle of the Seventeenth Century". Central Asiatic Journal. 14 (4): 279. ISSN 0008-9192. JSTOR 41926881. Archived from the original on 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2021-05-01.
  9. ^ "Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, Z294.15". Archived from the original on 2019-12-21. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
  10. ^ Daniel Coit Gilman; Harry Thurston Peck; Frank Moore Colby (1902), The New International Encyclopædia, vol. 2, Dodd, Mead & Co., p. 341
  11. ^ Vacca, Alison (2021-02). "Bahl Šahastan in the land of the K'ušans: Medieval Armenian memories of Balkh as an Arsacid capital". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 84 (1): 19–45. doi:10.1017/S0041977X21000033. ISSN 0041-977X. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ a b The Greeks in Bactria and India. William Woodthorpe Tarn. 1st Edition, 1938; 2nd Updated Edition, 1951. 3rd Edition, updated with a Preface and a new bibliography by Frank Lee Holt. Ares Publishers, Inc., Chicago. 1984. (1984), pp. 114–115 and n. 1.
  13. ^ Tavernier, Jan (2007), Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550–330 B.C.): Linguistic Study of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts, Peeters, p. 370, ISBN 978-90-429-1833-7.
  14. ^ Nancy Hatch Dupree, An Historical Guide to Afghanistan, 1977, Kabul, Afghanistan
  15. ^ a b Lhuillier, Johanna, Julio Bendezu-Sarmiento, & Philippe Marquis, (2021). "Ancient Bactra: New Data on the Iron Age Occupation of the Bactra Oasis" , in Archaeology of Central Asia during the 1st millennium BC, from the beginning of the Iron Age to the Hellenistic period: Proceedings from the Workshop held at 10th ICAANE.
  16. ^ Young, Rodney S., (1955). "The South Wall of Balkh-Bactra", in American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 59, No. 4, (Oct., 1955), The University of Chicago Press, p. 267.
  17. ^ "IRAN vi. IRANIAN LANGUAGES AND SCRIPTS (1) E – Encyclopaedia Iranica". Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  18. ^ Lynne O'Donnell (20 October 2013). "Silk Road jewel reveals more of its treasures". BBC News Magazine. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
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