Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/422

 248 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF NISHAPUR

Nishapur has long enjoyed, although the haze of antiquity is gathered about the origin of the city, so old is believed to have been its existence. Legend, already mentioned, ascribes its foundation to the third earliest king of Persia, Tahmuras, sur- named ' Binder of Demons,' whose name is mentioned in the Avesta as Takhma Urupi, of the Pishdadian dynasty, and the B.c.^ Of like import is a record by the Arabic chronicler Tabari, preserved in Bel'ami's Persian version made a thousand years ago, to the effect that in the reign of Minuschihr (about 1100 B.C.) the Turanians, under Afrasiab, gained possession of Nishapur for a time.^ Even if these claims cannot be enter- tained as genuine history, it nevertheless tends to prove that the city was known in the earliest times ; and this would be in keeping with the tradition that Zoroaster caused a new fire- temple (presumably that of Burzin Mihr, alluded to above, p. 211) to be built in its vicinity. ^ It has been thought, more- over, that Nishapur is possibly mentioned in the Avesta as Nisaya ; but owing to the location given it, that is probably quite a different town.* Among the fairly reliable data point-

1 This monarch, the Takhma Urupi Zardusht, which is in the region of of the Avesta (Yt. 15. 11 ; 19. 28 ; Nishapur, has not been removed [as Afrin-i Zaratusht, 2 ; see Bartholomae, were the other fires], and it is one of Air. Wh. col. 1532, Justi, /ramsc/ies the original fires.' See also Hoffmann, Namenbuch, p. 320), is called Takh- Auszuge aus syrischen Akten per- murup or Tahmurath, Tahmuras in the sischer Mdrtyrer, pp. 290-293, Leipzig, later texts ; for his fabled date, see 1880.

West, SEE. 47. p. xxix, and cf. Jack- * The Avestan reference is Vd. 1.

son, Zoroaster, p. 180. 7, Msdim yim antar* Mourumca Bdx-

2 Tabari, Chronique, sur la version 8imca, ' Nisaya, which is between persane de Bel'ami, tr. Zotenberg, 1. Merv and Balkh' (the attribute of 297, Paris, 1867. location being probably added to dis-

8 Besides the references to the Bur- tinguish this Nisdya from the province

zin Mihr Fire given above, p. 211, see of Nisdya in Media, which is men-

Masudi, Prairies d'or, 4. 72, Shahras- tionedin the Old Persian Inscriptions,

tani (tr.Haarbrucker, 1.291), referred 1. 13 [58]; cf. Geiger, Ostiranische

to in Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 98 ; and KuUur, p. 72 ; Darmesteter, Le Zend

add that Ibn Fakih of Hamadan, 5. Avesta, 2. 9, n. 17). Spiegel, Erdn.

254 (ed. De Goeje) says, 'the fire of Alt. 2. 631-632, hesitatingly identifies

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