Kulob

Kulob lies in the country once known as Khuttal, between the Panj and Vakhsh rivers and the foothills of the Pamirs. Its valleys and mountain approaches gave the region a measure of independence even when its local rulers acknowledged larger empires. The city is especially associated with the shrine of Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani, the Sufi scholar who died in 1384 and was buried in Khuttal.

During the sixteenth century the centre of the district was relocated to the site of Kulob. By the early seventeenth century the name Kulob had also come into use for the province. Hamadani's tomb continued to attract reverence, drawing visitors to a city that had become the chief seat of the old country of Khuttal.