Qualla: First Herat War https://qualla.com/first-herat-war en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:32 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/h/5/first-herat-war-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: First Herat War https://qualla.com/first-herat-war First Herat War: Introduction https://qualla.com/first-herat-war/ Photo credit Momen Badghissy, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. In the late summer of 1837, a young British artillery officer named Eldred Pottinger arrived in Herat disguised as a horse trader. He carried no official orders. He had no army behind him. What he did have was an instinct that this ancient city at the crossroads of Central Asia was about to become the flashpoint of a confrontation between empires -- and he was right. Within weeks, a Persian army of tens of thousands would surround Herat's mud-brick walls, and the fate of this single Afghan city would ricochet through the courts of London, St. Petersburg, and Tehran.

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/h/5/first-herat-war-wp/tqh5-first-herat-war-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full First Herat War: The Prize at the Crossroads https://qualla.com/first-herat-war/ Photo credit Momen Badghissy, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. Herat had always been contested ground. Sitting where the fertile Hari Rud valley meets the road to Kandahar and the passes into India, the city was the gateway that every empire coveted. Before the Safavid Empire collapsed, Herat belonged to the greater Khorasan region of Persia...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/h/5/first-herat-war-wp/tqh5-first-herat-war-the-prize-at-the-crossroads.mp3 0:06 2 full First Herat War: Pawns and Proxy Players https://qualla.com/first-herat-war/ Photo credit Momen Badghissy, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. What made the First Herat War far more than a regional border dispute was the invisible hand of empire. Russia, pushing south toward British India, encouraged Persia's ambitions. Count Simonich, the Russian envoy, rode with the Persian army. Jan Prosper Witkiewicz, a Polish-Lithu...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/h/5/first-herat-war-wp/tqh5-first-herat-war-pawns-and-proxy-players.mp3 0:06 3 full First Herat War: Ten Months Behind Mud Walls https://qualla.com/first-herat-war/ Photo credit Momen Badghissy, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. The Persian army arrived in late November 1837, and the siege ground on for nearly ten months. Mohammad Shah launched a four-pronged attack: three columns converging on Herat itself while a fourth marched into Maimana to neutralize tribal allies. The Afghans defending the city nu...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/h/5/first-herat-war-wp/tqh5-first-herat-war-ten-months-behind-mud-walls.mp3 0:06 4 full First Herat War: The Bluff That Worked https://qualla.com/first-herat-war/ Photo credit Momen Badghissy, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. The siege ended not with a decisive battle but with a diplomatic squeeze. Neither side had gained a clear advantage on the ground. Herat's walls held, but the city was starving. The Persian army was exhausted but unbroken. What tipped the balance was Britain's threat of direct mi...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/h/5/first-herat-war-wp/tqh5-first-herat-war-the-bluff-that-worked.mp3 0:06 5 full First Herat War: Echoes Across the Khyber https://qualla.com/first-herat-war/ Photo credit Momen Badghissy, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. The First Herat War did not end the Great Game -- it intensified it. Britain's alarm over Russian influence in Afghanistan led directly to the disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-1842, one of the worst military defeats in British imperial history. Herat itself would be besi...

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]]> Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/q/h/5/first-herat-war-wp/tqh5-first-herat-war-echoes-across-the-khyber.mp3 0:06 6 full