NÍSHÁPÚR, or Néshápúr (Arabic, Naisábúr), the most important city of Khorâsân in the Middle Ages, but now much decayed. The second element of the name is that of the traditional founder Shahpuhr or Sapor. Some accounts name the first, others the second Sapor. The older name of the town or district was Abrashahr. The importance of the place under the Sasanians was in part religious; one of the three holiest fire-temples was in its neighbourhood. Nishâpùr under the Moslems contained a large Arab element; it became the capital of Khorâsân, and greatly increased in prosperity, under the almost independent princes of the house of Tahir (820-873 a.d.). Istakhri describes it as a well-fortified town, a league square, with a great export of cotton goods and raw silk. In the decline of the empire the city had much to suffer from the Turkomans, whose raids have in modern times destroyed the prosperity of this whole region. In 1153 it was utterly ruined by the Ghuzz Turkomans, but soon rose again, because, as Yâkùt remarks, its position gave it command of the entire caravan trade with the East. It was again taken and razed to the ground by the Mongols in 1221, but a century later Ibn Batιita found the city again flourishing, with four colleges, numerous students, and an export of silk-stuffs to India. Nishâpùr was famous for its fruits and gardens, which gave it the epithet of “little Damascus.”...