NISHAPUR (Old Pers. Nev-shdpur-nev, New Pers. niv, nik=

See also:

• GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good; Arab. Naisabur)  , the capital of the province of Nishapur, Persia, situated at an elevation of 3920 ft., in 36° 12' N., and 58° 40' E., about 49 M. west of Meshed . The second element of the name is that of the traditional founder Shapur, or Sapor of the Western historians . Some accounts name the first (241-272), others the second Shapur (309-379) . It was once one of the four great cities of Khorasan, rivalling Rai (Rhages), " the mother of cities," in importance and population, but is now a small and comparatively unimportant place with a population of barely 15,000 . It has post and telegraph offices and a lively trade in wool, cotton and dry fruits (almonds, pistachios) . Eastward of the present city, amongst the mounds and ruins of the old town, in a dilapidated chamber adjoining a blue-domed building over the grave of an imamzadeh, is the tomb of the astronomer-poet Omar Khayyam, an unsightly heap of plaster without inscription, and probably fictitious . Near it is the grave of the celebrated poet and mystic Farid ud din Attar, who was killed by the Mongols when they captured the city c . 1229 . Nishapur was an important place during the 5th century, for Yazdegerd II . (438-457) mostly resided there . During the latter Sassanids it is seldom mentioned, and when the Arabs came to Khorasan (641-642) it was of so little importance that, as Tabari relates, it did not even have a garrison . Under the Tahirids (820-872) it became a flourishing town and rose to great importance during the Samanids (874-999) .

Toghrul, the first ruler of the Seljuk

dynasty, made Nishapur his residence in 1037 . In 1153 the Ghuzz Turkomans overran the countryand partly destroyed town and suburbs . In r208 most of the town was destroyed by an earthquake . The town was hardly rebuilt when it was again destroyed, this time by the Mongols (April 1221) and so effectually that, completely levelled to the ground, it was turned into a vast barley field . The city was again rebuilt, suffered again at the hands of the Mongols (1269) and from another great earthquake (1280), and never again rose to its former greatness . (A .