ing to the antiquity of the city, we may place the assumption of Firdausi that Nishapur had been in existence for several centuries before Christ, since he recounts that Sasan, the son of Bahman (referred to above), married a wife from a noble family of Nishapur and thus became the ancestor of the Sasanian line that ruled over Iran from the third to the seventh century of our era.^
For the Sasanian period there is proof enough to show that Nishapur was firmly established as one of the great metropolitan centers of the East. Sasanian coins dug up among the ruins today bear numismatic witness to this fact ; ^ and this evidence is supported by equally credible testimony from Pahlavi liter- ature and Muhammadan sources, even though there may be some question whether the Sasanian king Shapur I (241-292 a.d.) or Shapur II (309-379) was the builder or re-builder of the town. Thus, in the Pahlavi list of ' Cities of Iran ' it is said that ' Shapur (I), son of Artashir, built the city of Nev-shapuhr at the place where he slew Palezhak the Turanian, and he ordered a city to be made on the spot.'^ Some of the Muham-
Nisaya with Nishapur and with the koI t^s ^aKxpiavris (see Hesychius, ed.
NT/cra/a of Strabo, p. 511 ; compare also Schmidt, col. 1088). Furthermore,
Curzon, Persia, 1. 261. In favor of for classical references see the article
such a view we might possibly add the 'Nesaea,' in Smith, Dictionary of Ok.
statement of Yakut (tr. Barbier de and Bom. Geog. 2. 421. A different
Meynard, p. 678), that Ptolemy says place was the town and province of
' Nishapur was situated long. 85°, lat. Nisd, far north of Nishapur and lo-
39°,' though he corrects the figures as cated near Ustuva and Abivard, which
to its position. This reference appears is several times referred to in the Arab
to relate to Ptolemy, Geog. 6. 10. 4 geographers (see Le Strange, Eastern
(ed. Nobbe, 2. 115), Nfcram, although Caliphate, pp. 377, 393, 394, 429, 430,
that is given as located in Margiana. and map viii ; and compare Justi,
It seems certain that the Avestan Grundr. Iran. Philol. 2. 483 ; Mar-
'Nisaya, which is between Merv and quart, Untersvchungen, 2. 66). Balkh,' is the same as Nsai-mianak, ^ See Firdausi, tr. Mohl, Livre des
'Middle Nisa,' mentioned in the Ar- rois, 5. 12-13; and cf. Noldeke,
menian geography of Moses of Cho- Grundr. Iran. Philol. 2. 169. rene, 29 (see Marquart, ErdnMhr, pp. ^ gee Yate, p. 412, and other writers
16, 78-79), and identical with the on the subject.
place mentioned in a gloss of Hesy- ^ Shatroiha-i Airan, § 15 (ed. Ja-
chius as N-njaia • /icrofi) t^s 'Sovffiaviji masp-Asana, p. 19 ; tr. Modi, pp. 67,
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