Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/402

 234 NISHAPURy THE HOME OF OMAR KHAYYAM

have undoubtedly remained much the same as they were in the poet's time, so that the main features here described would be equally applicable to the Nishapur of his own day.

The town is built in the form of a quadrilateral; and its walls, strengthened by fifty-eight bastions, enclose a circuit of over two miles and are entered by four gates, one on each side. The quarters into which the city is divided are four in number, and are provided with moderate caravansarai accommodations and several public baths. ^ The bazars of the city are limited in extent, yet are said to contain some four hundred and fifty shops, doing a fairly good business; but the only building of note is the main mosque, Jami' Masjid, of uncertain date, but certainly fully three hundred years old, as it contains a tablet with an inscription stating that in the year 1612 A.D. (1021 a.h.) Shah Abbas had granted a bequest of a certain piece of land.^

On alighting from our vehicle after the long journey to Omar's home, it was almost instinctive for us to turn our foot- steps first to * the potter's shop,' described in the section of the Ruhaiyat^ called jfiT^zaA Ndmah^ *the Potter's Book.' Pot- making seemed to be more of a trade at Nishapur than in any city I have seen in my three journeys through Persia, although the ceramic art is one of the oldest in Iran, being mentioned in the Avesta.* Almost adjoining our halting-place was a row of potters' workshops, each leading in turn to another, and still again to others, and in each could be seen ' a potter thumping his wet clay. ' ^ Back of most of the shops was a muddy court-

1 Cf. Nasir ad-Din Shah, Diary, 103, dar kdrgah-i kuzahgari raftam p. 156. dushy 'into the workshop of the potter

2 Some of the details in this para- I came at eve' ; cf. also FG. 36 (37). graph regarding the modern city have * Avesta, Vd. 2. 32 ; 8. 84.

been taken from Yate, Khurasan, p. * fG. 36 (37), Th. 36, H-A. 89, P.

109. Khanikoff, Memoire, p. 94, notes 434, W^h. 252, dl kuzahgari ba-didam

the existence of a shrine of a local andar bazar / bar tdzah gill lakd hanii

saint, called Nauruz, in v^hich is a zad bisidr, 'yesterday I saw in the

memorial tablet bearing the date 1094 bazar a potter, who kept striking many

A.H. = 1683 AD. a blow upon the fresh clay."

3 FG. 59 (82), P. 509, Th. 59, H-A.

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