Description : Nishapur or Nishabur (نیشاپور; also romanized as Nīshāpūr, Nišâpur, Nişapur, Nīshābūr, and Neyshābūr; from Middle Persian New-Shabuhr, meaning "New City of Shapur", "Fair Shapur", or "Perfect built of Shapur") is a city in Razavi Khorasan Province, capital of the Nishapur County and former capital of Khorasan Province, in northeastern Iran, situated in a fertile plain at the foot of the Binalud Mountains. It had an estimated population of 239,185 as of 2011 and its county 433,105. Nearby are the turquoise mines that have supplied the world with turquoise for at least two millennia. The city was founded in the 3rd century by Shapur I as a Sasanian satrapy capital. Nishapur later became the capital of Tahirid dynasty and was reformed by Abdullah Tahir in 830, and was later selected as the capital of Seljuk dynasty by Tughril in 1037. From the Abbasid era to the Mongol invasion of Khwarezmia and Eastern Iran, the city evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center within the Islamic world. Nishapur, along with Merv, Herat and Balkh were one of the four great cities of Greater Khorasan and one of the greatest cities in the middle ages, a seat of governmental power in eastern of caliphate, a dwelling place for diverse ethnic and religious groups, a trading stop on commercial routes from Transoxiana and China, Iraq and Egypt. Nishapur reached the height of its prosperity under the Samanids in the 10th century, but was destroyed and the entire population slaughtered by Mongols in 1221. This massacre, combined with subsequent earthquakes and other invasions are believed to have destroyed the pottery industry the city was known for. Nishapur was founded during the Sasanian dynasty and in the 9th century it became the capital of the Tahirid dynasty and by the 10th century was under Samanid rule. The city became an important and properous administrative center under the Samanids. In 1037, it was conquered by the Seljuks. Despite being sacked by the Oghuz Turks in 1153 and suffering several earthquakes, Nishapur continued as an important urban center until it was destroyed by Genghis Khan and the Mongols in 1221. Little archaeology has been done on this vast and complicated site. George Curzon remarked that Nishapur had been destroyed and rebuilt more times than any other city in history, an evocative statement whether or not it is statistically true. The Metropolitan Museum of Art undertook excavations from 1935 that were interrupted in 1940. Searching largely for museum-worthy trophies that they shared with the government of the Shah, the Metropolitan's publications were limited to its own Nishapur ceramics. The site of Nishapur has been ransacked for half a century since World War II, to feed the international market demand for early Islamic works of art. Shadiyakh ("Palace of Happiness") was one of the main palaces of old Nishapur up to the 9th century AD, which became more important and populated after that. Some notable people like Attar lived there. Attar's tomb is nowadays in that area. This palace was perhaps completely ruined in the 13th century.
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