Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/382

 220 ON THE ROAD TO NISHAPUR

monument by the rough but pretty garden which surrounds it, and which is enclosed by a low mud wall. The mosque to which the minaret once belonged has long since disappeared, — a loss caused, it is believed, by the ravages of war, which also leveled the dwellings around it, if we may judge from the ves- tiges found here and there in the vicinity. The absence of these structures is partly replaced today by fields of waving barley, so that the city has not vanished without leaving a smile behind.

The consensus of opinion on the part of those best qualified to judge is that the Minar of Khusrugird (1111 a.d.) and the vestiges of the past that remain near its vicinity, together with the neighboring fortified village of Khusrugird, once formed part of an old settlement that belonged to Sabzavar, which had supplanted it.^ The general devastation was brought about by the inroads of the Ghuzz Turks, followed by the despoliation wrought by the Khvarazm Shahs, or invading kings of Khiva, and by later wars and disturbances. Thus we know that in 1160 the fortress of Khusrugird was stormed by the pillaging army of Mu'ayyad, who had taken Nishapur, and especially that Muhammad Shah, of Khvarazm, a half century later, laid waste the entire country. ^ In spite of that, Yakut still mentions Khusrugird about 1216 A.D., though as occupying a position inferior to Sabzavar, so that its decadence must already have

With regard to its earlier history, we may say that for three centuries prior to its downfall we find regular mentions of Khusrugird, as a place of note, in the itineraries of the Arab-

1 So Fraser, p. 380; followed by 1160 a.d., see Defr^mery, JRecherches Curzon, 1. 269. Schefer, Chresto- sur trois princes de Mchabour, in mathie persane, 2. 190, Paris, 1885, Journal asiatique, 4«ne s6t. 8 (1846), also states that Khusrugird was the p. 460. For the invasion of Khurasan chief place prior to the succession of by Muhammad Shah, of Khvarazm, Sabzavar. see Fraser, pp. 380-381; Skrine and

2 On the siege of the fortress of Ross, ITeari o/^sia, pp. 142, 145, 147. Khusrugird by Mu'ayyad, beginning s Yakut, tr. Barbier de Meynard, 14th of I Rabi', 556 a.h. = March 24, Diet. geog. p. 208.

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