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'Mazār-i Sharīf' () is the fourth largest city of Afghanistan, with population of 300,600 people (2006 estimate). It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by roads to Kabul in the south-east, Herat to the west and Uzbekistan to the north. Mazari Sharif means "Noble Shrine," a reference to the large, blue-tiled sanctuary and mosque in the center of the city. Most Afghans (both Shia and Sunni) believe that the site of the tomb of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin is in Mazari Sharif. The dominant language in Mazari Sharif is Dari-Persian with a Tajik Majority population. The city is a major tourist attraction because of its fabulous Muslim and Hellenistic archeological sites. In July 2006, the discovery of new Hellenistic remains was announced.^[1]

Contents

History

Industry

Directory

Trivia

See also

References and footnotes

External links

History

Mazari Sharif owes its existence to a dream. At the beginning of the 1100s, a local mullah had a dream in which Ali bin Talib, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law and one of the four Rightly Guided Caliphs appeared to reveal that he had been secretly buried near the city of Balkh. After investigation, the Seljuk sultan Sanjar ordered a shrine to be built on the spot, where it stood until its destruction by Genghis Khan. Although later rebuilt, Mazar stood in the shadow of its neighbour Balkh, until that city was abandoned in 1866 for health reasons.
There are also several historical references that Zarathustra was buried where Mazar Sharif is located. Turning Zoroastrian shrines into Islamic mosques was a regular practice by the Moslem invaders; however in doing so they failed to defeat the spirit of the people. Popular usage of the word Sharif, meaning "the noble one", was a substitute for Zarathustra, for after conversion of the shrine the people could no longer utter his name in public. There is no Arab historian who claims Ali was buried anywhere but Arabia, for after he was slain it would have taken several months to get him to the far reaches of Afghanistan and his body would have certainly decomposed during the trip; needless to say, there would be no reason for the Arabs to transport Ali's body that far. Furthermore, had it really been the grave of Ali, calling it ''Mazar-i Ali'' would not have borne any punishment, and there would have been no need to call it Sharif, a word with such an esoteric meaning. Therefore Mazar was certainly not a place Ali was or could have been buried, and the reverence of the people for Zarathustra has kept that shrine in its place for the last 1400 years.




Mazar is the capital of Balkh province, and Afghanistan's fourth largest city. Its population is dominated by Tajiks, although there are significant Uzbek, Turkmen, Hazara, and Pashtun minorities, the latter largely as a result of resettlement programmes by Abdur Rahman Khan in the 1800s. Its geography means that the city has traditionally looked as much north to Bukhara as south to Kabul.
During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Mazar was a strategic base for the Soviet Army, as they used its airport to launch airstrikes on Afghan mujahideen. In the early 1990s, after the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, Mazar slowly began falling into the hands of Tajik and Uzbek militias (Jamiat-e Islami of Ahmad Shah Massoud and Rabbani, both of whom are Tajiks, and, Jumbesh-e Melli of Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is Uzbek). As a garrison for the communist Afghan army, the city was under the command of Dostum, who mutinied against Najibullah's Kabul regime in 1992 and established the autonomous administration of North Afghanistan with the aid of Massoud.
Under Dostum's Uzbek Jumbesh-e Melli militia from the early 1990s to early 1997, Mazar was an oasis of peace during the civil war, and as the rest of the country disintegrated and was slowly taken over by the Taliban, Dostum strengthened political ties with the newly independent central Asian states and Turkey, printed his own currency and established his own airline. This peace was shattered in May 1997, when he was betrayed by one of his generals, Abdul Malik, and he fled Mazar as the Taliban were getting ready to take the city.
Between May and July 1997, the Taliban unsuccessfully attempted to take Mazar, leading to approximately 2,500 Taliban soldiers being massacred by Abdul Malik and his Shia followers. In retaliation for this incident, the Taliban on August 8, 1998, reportedly returned and led a six-day killing frenzy of Hazaras and other local people. Soon after, the city was occupied and taken over by the Taliban. It was this capture of Mazar that prompted Pakistan's recognition of the Taliban regime.
Following 9/11, Mazar was the first Afghan city to fall to the Afghan Northern Alliance (former militias). The Taliban's retreat from Mazar quickly turned into rout from the rest of the north and west of Afghanistan. On November 9, 2001 the city was recaptured by the Afghan Northern Alliance after heavy battles with help from the United States. A massacre of Taliban soldiers is alleged to have occurred during the transport of captured enemy east to a prison near Sheberghan. Frontline reported the story in "A Convoy of Death".
Small scale clashes between militias belonging to different commanders persisted throughout 2002, and were the focus of intensive UN peace-brokering and small arms disarmament programme. After some pressure, an office of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission opened an office in Mazar in April 2003.
Mazari Sharif is in full control of the new Afghan central government, which is led by US backed President Hamid Karzai. There are also NATO peacekeeping forces in and around the city providing assistance to the new government. The provincial reconstruction PRT team in Mazari Sharif is led by Sweden.

Industry

The local economy is dominated by agriculture and karakol production; small scale oil and gas exploitation have boosted the city's prospects. The city is a traditional centre for buzkashi, and its shrine the focus of Afghanistan’s Nawroz celebrations.

Directory

The modern city of Mazari Sharif is centered around the Shrine of Hazrat Ali. Much restored, it is one of Afghanistan’s most glorious monuments. Outside Mazar lies the ancient city of Balkh, that still contains much of interest to the visitor.


★ 'Shrines & Mosques'

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★ Shrine of Hazrat Ali

★ 'Hotels'

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★ Serena Hotel (coming soon)

★ 'Universities'

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★ University of Balkh

★ 'Airports'

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★ Mazari Sharif Airport

★ 'Banks'

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★ Kabul Bank

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★ Western Union

Trivia

★ The name "Mazar E Sharif" has also been applied to a potent strain of marijuana sold in North America, apparently because the "strain" of plants originated in Northern Afghanistan.

See also

★ Balkh

References and footnotes

1. BBC News ''Balkh Manument''...link

External links

★ Dupree, Nancy Hatch (1977): ''An Historical Guide to Afghanistan''. 1st Edition: 1970. 2nd Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Afghan Tourist Organization. [1]

★ Mazar-i-Sharif (In German)