Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/420

 CHAPTER XIX

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NISHAPUR

' And still I seem to tread on classic ground.'

— Addison, Letter from Italy.

In the Orient the city of Nishapur owes its renown in no wise to Omar Khayyam, but to the fact that it is one of the most ancient and famous cities of Iran. A brief sketch of its history, prefaced by a comment on the origin of its name, may therefore form an appropriate supplement to the two preceding chapters.

The name Ni-shdpur^ which the Arab conquerors pronounced as N^ai-sdbur^ is believed to contain the name of the Sasanian king Shapur, or Sapor, though the real meaning of the first member of the compound is not quite certain. The older pro- nunciation in Persian appears to have been Ne-shdpur, derived from a still earlier presumable form Nev-shdpur^ to be inferred from the Pahlavi designation Nev-shdpuhr and the Armenian Niu-shapuh,^ The meaning of the word nev in the earlier Per- sian (cf . Old Pers. naiba) is ' good, fair,' and the signification of the appellation would consequently be * the Good Shapur ' or Oriental writers are not wanting. Mustaufi (1340 A.D.), for example, affirms that after the destruction of the ancient city which the legendary king Tahmuras had founded in pre- historic times, the first Sasanian monarch, Ardashir Babagan
 * the Fair (City of) Shapur.' ^ Popular etymologies by medieval

1 References to the occurrence of und Araber aus der Chronik des the name in Pahlavi and in Armenian Tabari, p. 59, n. 3, Leiden, 1879 ; will be found in connection with the and compare Le Strange, Eastern passages cited in the notes below, pp. Caliphate, p. 383 ; Hubschmann, Ar- 249, n. 3 ; 250, n. 4. menische Grammatik, 1. 20-21, Leip-

2 So Noldeke, Geschichte der Perser zig, 1895.

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