Mazari Sharif

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Area
Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan
The historic Blue Mosque in Mazari Sharif
Country	Afghanistan
Province	Balkh
Districts
- City	km²
Population
- City (2002)	183,000
Time zone	GMT+04:30 Kabul (UTC)

Mazari Sharif, also known as Mazar-e-Sharif, Mazar-i Sharif, Mazār-e Sharīf and Mazar-i-Sharif (locally: مزار شریف), is the fourth largest city of Afghanistan, with population of 183,000 people (2002 official estimate). It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highways with Kabul to the south-east, Herat to the west and Uzbekistan to the north. Mazari Sharif means Holy Grave or Sacred Grave. The dominant language in Mazari Sharif is Dari. The city is significant to Shia Muslims, as it is the home of the extraordinary Rawze-e-Sharif or Blue Mosque, postulated to be where the fourth caliph of Islam (Hazrat Ali) is buried. The city continues to be a major tourist spot because of its fabulous Muslim and Ancient Greek architecture. In July 2006, the discovery of Greek remains was announced.^[1]

1 History
2 Industry
3 Places of interest
4 Trivia
5 See also
6 Notes and references
7 External links

[edit] History

Mazari Sharif owes its existence to a dream. At the beginning of the 12th century a local mullah had a dream in which the 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. Mazar became the capital of Afghan Turkestan and has prospered since.

Mazar is the capital of Balkh province, and Afghanistan's fourth largest city. Its population is dominated by Uzbeks and Tajiks, although there are significant Hazara and Pashtun minorities, the latter largely as a result of resettlement programmes by Habib Abdur Rahman in the 19th century. Its geography means that the city has traditionally looked as much north to Bokhara as south to Kabul.

During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Mazar was a strategical base for the red army, as they used its airport to launch airstrikes on Afghan mujahideen. In the early 1990s, after 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 who 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, Mazar was an oasis of peace during the civil war, and as the rest of the country disintegrated he 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 fled Mazar as the Taliban were getting ready to take the city.

From the early 1990s to early 1997, Mazari Sharif remained a stronghold of Dostum and his militia while most of the remaining country was slowly being taken over by the Taliban. 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 to this incident, the Taliban on August 8, 1998, reportedly returned and lead 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. An alleged massacre of Taliban soldiers by US allies is said to have taken place near the city at that time.

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 lead by US backed President Hamid Karzai. There are also NATO peacekeeing forces in and around the city providing assistance to the new government.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Places of interest

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

[edit] 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.