Early Efforts to Revive Agriculture and Commerce

Chapter 7 addresses early efforts to revitalize hydrological systems (canals, dams, sluices, cisterns) in and around Herat, and to improve agricultural production. Mongol Grand Qaʾan Ögödei (r. 1229–41) took the first steps, c. 634/1236, to rejuvenate Herat. Canals supplying the inner city of Herat with potable water were refurbished and re-opened. Revivification endeavors in Herat were impacted by factional struggles between agents of Chinggisid shareholders in Herat’s economic development. But cooperation was also recorded. The 638/1240–41 census enumerated c. 6,900 persons in Herat, and with the re-opening of canals, people “from Khurasan and Turkistan,” i.e., from Central Asia and other areas of Khurasan, started migrating to Herat, and the city’s population increased as its economic life improved. Critical issues raised in this chapter are treated in the appendices, viz., No. 2: “Land and Water Use”; No. 3: “Urban Development in the Kartid Period”; and No. 4: “Settlements and Population.”