Umm Al-Belaad

Umm All-Belaad is the Arabic name given by the native population of Afghanistan's Balkh province to the city of Balkh or Bactra. Umm Al-Belaad means Mother of All Cities. In the Vedic literature it is known as Bhakri, thus it became Bactria and Bactra as the area where Hellenized due to the conquests of Alexander the Great(356 BC – June 10, 323 BC). It was from then on the capital city of the Greeco-Bactrian Kingdom.

and the birth place of Zoroaster at Balkh and also believed by Zoroastrians that he is buried there. [3] Its foundation is mythically ascribed to Keyumars, the Persian Romulus; and it is at least certain that, at a very early date, it was the rival of Ecbatana, Nineveh and Babylon. There is a long-standing tradition that an ancient shrine of Anahita was to be found here, a temple so rich it invited plunder.

For a long time the city and country was the central seat of the Zoroastrian religion, the founder of which, Zoroaster, died within the walls, according to the Persian poet Firdousi. Armenian sources state that the Parthian Arsac established his capital here. Some scholars believe that a number of mythological rulers of ancient Iran e.g. some kings of Kavi Dynasty (or Kayanian in Persian) were historically local rulers of an area centered around Balkh. From the Memoirs of Xuanzang, we learn that, at the time of his visit in the 7th century, there were in the city, or its vicinity, about a hundred Buddhist convents, with 3,000 devotees, and that there was a large number of stupas, and other religious monuments. The most remarkable was the Nava Vihara, which possessed a very costly statue of Buddha. The temple was led by Kashmiri Brahmins called Pramukh (who, through the arabized form of the name, Barmak, came to be known as the Barmakids). Shortly before the Arabic conquest, the monastery became a Zoroastrian fire-temple. A curious notice of this building is found in the writings of Arabian geographer Ibn Hawqal, an Arabian traveler of the 10th century, who describes Balkh as built of clay, with ramparts and six gates, and extending half a parasang. He also mentions a castle and a mosque.

The renowned philosopher and theologian Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi A.K.A. Rumi is also known to have been born here.