Herat lies in the fertile plain of the Hari Rud in western Afghanistan and has been a place of strategic, commercial and cultural importance for well over two thousand years. It is thought to have begun as the ancient Persian town of Aria; Alexander the Great captured it in 330 BC, and in the Islamic period Herat became famous for fine metalwork, especially decorated and inlaid bronze.
Devastated by the Mongols in the 13th century, Herat flowered again under the Timurids. Shah Rukh, son of Timur, became governor in 1397 and made Herat the main capital of the Timurid state, rebuilding its citadel and enlarging its bazaar. Queen Gawharshad commissioned the Musalla complex, whose minarets and ribbed, tiled dome still rise above the city.
Under Sultan Husayn Bayqara (r. 1470–1506) the court drew leading poets, scholars and artists, among them the poet Jami and the painter Behzad, and the city became a centre of calligraphy and painting. The old city, with its square plan, Friday Mosque and courtyard houses, still keeps much of its historic layout.