This episode explores Shivan Mahendrarajah’s A History of Herat: From Chingiz Khan to Tamerlane (Edinburgh University Press, 2022), tracing the city’s transformation from its destruction under Chingiz Khan in 1222 to its capitulation to Tamerlane in 1381. Despite this violent history, Herat rose to become a major political, cultural, and economic center of the eastern Islamic world. Note: Herat is located in present-day Afghanistan, a country whose borders were drawn by British imperial powers in the 19th century.