Travel Guide Nishapur

It is the long and tumultuous history of the region that explains, for a large part, the richness of the Khorassan culture. Some of the greatest Persian poets in the nineteenth century were born and lived there: Ferdowsi (Tenth Century), author of the Book of Kings, epic and jewel of the Persian language; Omar Khayyâm (seventeenth century) whose world renowned Rubayat denotes a free and skeptical spirit; Farid od-Din Attar, a great mystic and author of the Bird Dialog, which will mark generations of soufis… Nishapur (or Ney-Shahpur) is founded in the third century by the Sassanid King Shahpur. Located at the foot of the Binalud Mountains, whose tops peak at 3,400 m, on the caravan track connecting at the time Central Asia to the Iranian plateau, it is rapidly becoming a flourishing shopping center. Nishapur, with Samarkand, Balkh and Merv, will also be one of the major Islamic culture centers. The city of the Arab governors at the beginning of the Islamic era, the city will even be promoted, for a short period of time (xie century), capital of the Seljukides. Particularly famous for the teaching of his soufis masters and for his madrasa founded by Vizir al-Molk, where the illustrious theologian al-Ghazali (1058-1111) is distinguished, the city remained famous for its attempt to integrate sufism into Orthodox Islam orthodoxe. Unfortunately, Mongolian invasions and the great earthquake of 1267 will destroy much of the splendor of old quarters. The modern bill mausoleum dedicated to Khayyâm and Kemal al-Molk, located outside the city, deserve to stop there. Nishapur, the birthplace of Omar Khayyâm, is located between Machhad and Sabzevar.