Located near Afghanistan's western border with Iran, Herat has been an important political and cultural capital for ruling dynasties for centuries. During the Timurid dynasty (1370-1507), Herat became the cultural center of the Persian World and a hub of Islamic intellectual thought, with the ruined minarets of the city's Musalla complex, an extensive madrasa commissioned by the Timurid queen Gawhar Shad in the early 1400's, still standing today. The city has been an important artistic capital since this time, as well, being the site of a renaissance of Islamic arts and sciences from the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries.

Herati mahali music includes several genres performed in the region, including rural folksongs, wedding songs, and music for sorna and dohl. Abshari is a type of Herati village dance melody that is traditionally performed on the sorna and dhol. It is thought to be a folk melody type based on the Afshari mode, a mode (known as dastgah) used in Persian classical music. Abshari music is performed in a fast six-beat rhythm and can accompany different types of dances including chob bazi, a type of dance performed by men involving the use of sticks, or be played as a solo instrumental piece. Songs are often referred to simply as "Abshari," or "Awshari" which is also the name of the characteristic drum pattern played for this style of music.