Herat was once known as the 'Pearl of Khorasan', and modern scholars and writers have called it 'the Florence of the Central Asian renaissance'. The poet Rumi said of Herat,

'If any one ask thee which is the pleasantest of cities
Thou mayest answer him aright that it is Herāt.
For the world is like the sea, and the province of Khurāsān like a pearl-oyster therein,
The city of Herāt being as the pearl in the middle of the oyster.'

Established in antiquity, Herat's strategic location made it a trading and cultural hub, a status it still holds today as a waypoint between modern Afghanistan, Iran and Turkmenistan. Between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, Herat's reputation as a city of the arts was known throughout the medieval world.