Mazar-i-Sharif

Mazar-i-Sharif, also spelled Mazar-e-Sharif, is the capital and largest city of Balkh Province in northern Afghanistan. It is divided into 12 city districts, or nahias, and has an estimated population of 568,013. The current mayor is Hafiz Abdul Rahman Himat, who succeeded Mohammad Kazim Tariq.

The city is best known for the Mausoleum of Imam Ali, a large blue-tiled sanctuary and mosque often called the Shrine of Ali or the Blue Mosque. This shrine, along with Islamic and Hellenistic archaeological sites, has made Mazar-i-Sharif a long-standing tourist destination. The name itself means "tomb of the saint," referring to the purported burial place of Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. The city also hosts the Mawlana Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi International Airport and Balkh University.

Geographically, Mazar-i-Sharif is the lowest-lying major city in Afghanistan, sitting about 357 meters (1,171 feet) above sea level. It is roughly 55 kilometers (34 miles) south of the Afghanistan–Uzbekistan border. The ancient city of Balkh lies about 25 kilometers (16 miles) slightly to the northwest. A road network connects Mazar-i-Sharif to Hairatan in the north, Kunduz to the east, Aybak to the southeast, Bamyan to the south, and Sheberghan to the west. It serves as the regional hub for northern Afghanistan, close to Termez in Uzbekistan and the Khatlon Region of Tajikistan. Of all Afghan provincial capitals, it has the highest percentage of built-up land at 91%, with additional urban development extending beyond the municipal boundary.

Historically, the region around Mazar-i-Sharif was part of Greater Khorasan. It was controlled by a succession of powers: the Tahirids, Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Ilkhanids, Timurids, and the Khanate of Bukhara, until it became part of the Durrani Empire in 1751. The Achaemenids ruled the area from the sixth century BCE. Alexander the Great conquered it, and after his death it fell to the Seleucid Empire, which gave way to the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Around 130 BCE, the Sakas occupied the region, ending the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. The Yuezhi then took control, leading to the Kushan Empire, which was later succeeded by the Sasanians. The Islamic conquests reached the area in 651 CE.

The poet Jalal al-Din Rumi was born somewhere in this area; his father Baha' Walad was a descendant of the first caliph, Abu Bakr. The Seljuk sultan Ahmed Sanjar ordered a city and shrine built on the site, but it was destroyed by Genghis Khan and his Mongol army in the 13th century and later rebuilt. In the 19th century, a lack of drainage and a weak economy caused flooding that led to a malaria epidemic. As a result, the ruler of North Central Afghanistan moved the capital to Mazar-i-Sharif. After the region became part of the Durrani Empire around 1751, it was largely controlled by autonomous Uzbek rulers. Following the Bukharan-Durrani war of 1788–1790, Qilich Ali Beg of Khulm formed a mini-empire stretching from Balkh to Aybak, Saighan, Kahmard, Darra-i Suf, and Qunduz. When he died in 1817, the Balkh and Mazar-i-Sharif region became an independent city-state with Aqcha as its dependency. The Bukharans conquered the city in November 1837, but Balkh retained autonomy. In 1849, the city was conquered and annexed into Afghanistan.

During the Soviet–Afghan War of the 1980s, Mazar-i-Sharif served as a strategic base for the Soviet Army, which used its airport to launch air strikes against mujahideen rebels. It was the main city linking to Soviet territory, especially roads to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. The city was a garrison for the Soviet-backed Afghan Army under General Abdul Rashid Dostum. Mujahideen groups Hezbe Wahdat and Jamiat-e Islami attempted to take the city but were repelled. On March 19, 1992, Dostum mutinied against President Mohammad Najibullah's government and formed his own party and militia, Junbish-e Milli, taking over the city the next day. Mazar-i-Sharif then became the de facto capital of a relatively stable, secular proto-state in northern Afghanistan under Dostum's rule. While the rest of the country fell to fundamentalist Taliban forces, the city remained peaceful and prosperous, described at the time as a "glittering jewel in Afghanistan's battered crown." Foreign donors including Russia, Turkey, and newly independent Uzbekistan provided money, and Dostum printed his own currency and established his own airline. The city remained relatively liberal, with activities like coeducational schools and betting allowed.

Although Mazar-i-Sharif was mostly spared the devastation that hit other major Afghan cities during the Soviet–Afghan War and subsequent civil war, by 2020 it was considered one of the country's dangerous cities. On 14 August 2021, Taliban fighters seized Mazar-i-Sharif, making it the 25th provincial capital captured as part of the wider 2021 Taliban offensive.