NEISHABUR

Neishabur, the earliest recorded capital of Khorassan, is located 112 km west of Mashhad, and was at one time a thriving literary, artistic, and academic center. This, the home of Omar Khayyam, has had an even more checkered history than most ancient Iranian cities. Founded in Sassanian times and named after Shapur, it became the capital of Khorassan after the Arab conquest, and rose to great importance during the tenth century. Like Ray and Gorgan, it is one of the main sources of the pottery of this period. Toghrol Beg, the first of the Seljuks, made it his capital in 1037.
Neishabur was damaged by an earthquake in 1145 and by the invasion of Ghuzz Turkamans in 1153, yet rebuilt by the time Yaqut visited it in 1216. But its revival was short lived, and it was the first city in what is now Iran to feel the full force of the Mongol invasion in 1221.

Despite a further Mongol invasion in 1269, and another earthquake in 1281, Clavijo found it a substantial city at the beginning of the fourteenth century. But it was soon overtaken and surpassed by Mash had, and after its further destruction at the hands of the Afghans in 1722, Nader Shah made Mash had his capital and Neishabur ceased to have even symbolic importance. Curzon was probably right when he said that it "had certainly been destroyed and rebuilt more than any other city in the world".
Omar Khayyam (died in 1125), being best known outside Iran due to his Quatrains (Rubayyat) which were brought to the attention of the West through their English translation by Fitzgerald in the 19th century, is buried here. Khayyam wrote the quatrains as part of his academic qualifications much as Muslim hakims prepared dissertations for a Ph.D. Most experts as well as the Iranians themselves agree that Khayyam was a great mathematician and astronomer, and that is sufficient cause for honor in his own country. Omar lies buried in the garden of the shrine of Imamzadeh Mohammad Mahrugh, built about 1570; this is a dome on a high drum with light blue tiles, in a charming setting, and with a dazzling white interior. The very simple tombstone sits in uneasy contrast with the questionable modern structure towering above it, formed of several very tall and narrow tiled concrete lozenges linked at the edges and redeemed only by inscriptions from the works of the great man.

Neishabur is actually redolent with associations of many other famous men: Farid od-Oin Attar, the great 12th to 13th- century mystic poet, and the most famous and widely-traveled 20th-century Iranian Printer of versatile abilities, Kamal 01- Molk Ghaffari, to whom there are monuments in the same beautiful and historic Mahrugh Garden. The monument with its beautifully tile-decorated dome, as well as on account of its favorable position, is particularly attractive and imposing. The founder of the mausoleum is Amir Kamal od.Oin Shahmir Hossein. Meanwhile, a verse inscription from the time of Shah Sultan Hossein, carved on a stone tablet on the right hand side of the ivan, denotes that toward the end of the Safavid period, a certain Mohammad Khan has embarked upon the construction of a mosque and a Musalla in Neishabur. Both monuments are modern but on a more human scale than Khayyam's. Attar'mausoleum was restored like Khayyam's in 1934. Those who have looked at the history of the Sufi mystics, will be familiar with the name of Attar, of whom the great mystic lalal od-Din Rumi declared, "Attar is the soul itself'. Attar was killed in Neishabur during the Mongol invasion.
Because of being a long drive from Mash had, visiting Neishabur for many foreigners will become a tiring though not a disappointing trip.