FARAH  , a

town of Afghanistan . It is situated on the river that bears its name on the main road between Herat and Kandahar, 16o m . S. of Herat and 225 M . W. of Kandahar . It is a place of some strategical importance, as it commands the approaches to India and Seistan from Herat . The town (2460 ft. above sea-level) is a square walled enclosure standing in the middle of the plain, surrounded with a walled rampart . Owing to its unhealthiness it is now almost deserted, being only occupied by the Afghan regiment quartered there . It is a place of great antiquity, being probably the Phra mentioned by Isidore of Charax in the 1st century A.D . It was sacked by the armies of ienghiz Khan, and the survivors transported to a position farther north, where there are still great ruins . The population returned to the original site after the destruction of the medieval city by Shah Abbas, and the city prospered again until its bloody siege by Nadir Shah . Subsequently under constant attacks it declined, and in 1837 the population amounting to 6000 was carried off to Kandahar . The sole industry of the town at present is the manufacture of gunpowder .

In the districts

east of Farah are to be found the most fanatical of the Durani Afghan tribes .